We have added one more successful year serving the community at large. Thanks to the regular readers and occasional visitors, who kept me blogging, despite the occasional lull resulting from an overwhelming workload at my day job. Now that we are all getting ready take some much needed time off to celebrate the holidays, it is time for me to wish you all a wonderful time with your friends and families.
Take the Buzzed Driving Pledge – Image Courtesy: AdCouncil
Did you know that 137 people died in 2011 during the New Year’s holiday period in drunk driving crashes? So, before you get to open the Christmas gifts that others bought for you, you can give the best gift to yourself. Right now. Take the pledge not to drive while buzzed because you don’t want to ring in the new year with a jail sentence and a $10,000 in legal fees and fines (and not to ignore the guilt of hurting yourself and someone else on the road). Join the 14507 people who have already taken the pledge. Travel safe and celebrate responsibly.
Costs of Driving Driving – Image Courtesy: AdCouncil
Oh, don’t forget to share this with that friend of yours who likes have that one extra beer before leaving for dinner. Or that crazy uncle who like to go hard on the spiked Egg nog. Help spread the word and help us build a safer community!
Tech startup NeXt built a product called HeadsUP!, a visual display that projects often-used cellphone features, such as texting, voice calls, and email, onto the windshield of a car. This allows users to engage with their smartphones without needing to look down, or fumbling with them while driving.
HeadsUP! enables voice dictation and touch-free swiping to let users interact with the screen.
NeXt is seeking a patent for the technology, and is asking donors on Indiegogo to pay $299 for the earliest version of its HeadsUP! device.
Of course, the biggest question is how much of this new tech will add to driver distraction, a hot topic that often pits tech/gadget makers against the regulators and policy-makers who fret about road safety.
The image below was posted on the Colorado Dept. of Transportation’s Facebook Page with the following note: “Did you know that Colorado experienced a 66% increase in pedestrian fatalities and a 63% increase in bicyclist fatalities from 2011 to 2012? Share the Road folks!” After seeing the Facebook post, I got curious and paid a visit to the CDOT website and found out they have an awesome campaign “Share the Road, Friend” underway to create an awareness about the shared responsibility for road safety among all road users. They got all kinds of promotional materials made available on the CDOT website and while you are there don’t forget to check out the campaign videos as well. Nicely done, CDOT.
Share the Road, Friend – via Colorado Dept. of Transportation
Not sure what happened to this motorcyclist to create such a ruckus on the street. But one thing is damn clear – he/she is not fit to operate a motor vehicle, EVER. Ridiculous!
How do you teach a disrespectful driver about road safety? Rotary Club from the city of Blumenau, Brazil, started a campaign aimed at drivers who don’t respect crosswalks. And here is the outcome:
The National Conference of State Legislatures has released a chart that highlights those states that have statutes regarding motorists passing bicyclists and provides a brief summary of each state’s statute on motorists passing bicyclists. Click image below to learn more.
Brilliant stuff.. FIAT is getting super creative lately with their messaging.. (Correction: The title wrongly noted the origin as Portugal but actually it is from Brazil, where they speak Portuguese).
This stunning video from Victoria, Australia arrives just in time as the weather around the US starts to warm up and the motorcyclists are polishing up the iron ponies for some good times on the road. The Transport Accident Commission (TAC)’s public education campaign targets two of Victoria’s biggest issues in road safety — motorcycle safety and speed. The description of the video as shown on YouTube: The campaign, titled “Reconstruction”, features a slow motion replay of a crash involving a motorcyclist and a car. The ad graphically depicts the rider suffering a broken neck as a result of his speeding prior to the collision.
The video get’s the message across in an very effective way. If you haven’t yet, you may want to check out the other campaign videos made by the TAC on their awesome YouTube Channel (~19 million views and 4600 subscribers. Whew!!!). Brilliant use of public $$ to educate the public! Hope the US Department of Transportation puts out a similar campaign to educate the American motorcyclists. and prevent thousands of fatal accidents involving motorcyclists (statistics: 3615 people died in 2010 from motorcycle accidents on U.S. roads) .
A local news agency’s investigation shows countless red light violations by Metrobuses plying the streets of Washington, DC. Some of the incidents caught on camera show how crazy these bus drivers are to do what they do on the roads. This video below should become an integral part of WMATA’s training for bus drivers, esp. for repeat offenders.
Too bad WMATA’s communications team now looks like a deer caught in the headlights. They really do not have a strategy in place to handle this PR nightmare and could not come up with even a single example of how it reprimands such careless drivers when asked what disciplinary measures they undertook to stem this problem.
