New DOT Billboards Tell Drivers: “Your Choices Matter”

Late last year, DOT launched an education campaign to combat reckless driving. One of the most visible parts of the campaign so far has been ads on bus shelters featuring the families of traffic violence victims. Now, modified versions of those ads are appearing on large billboards across the city, with a clear message telling drivers that reckless driving kills.

The ads feature David Shephard, whose fiancée Sonya Powell was killed in a Baychester Avenue crosswalk in 2009 by a speeding driver, and Audrey Anderson, whose son Andre, 14, was killed in 2005 while riding his bike on Shore Front Parkway in the Rockaways.

According to a landmark pedestrian safety study by DOT in 2010, driver actions are the main cause in 78.5 percent of serious pedestrian crashes. Unlike some other DOT safety campaigns, this one does not venture into victim-blaming territory.

DOT says the billboards will appear at nine locations across the city. The campaign also includes messages using radio, online video, in-cinema previews and TaxiTV.