motorcyclist rounding corner on a country road at night
Traffic Safety Digest
WASHINGTON
City of Redmond's Junior High Pedestrian Safety Program

PROJECT CHARACTERISTICS
Aimed at Youth
Educational Community
PROGRAM AREA(S)
Youth Programs
Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety
TYPE OF JURISDICTION
City
 
TARGETED POPULATION
Junior High School Students
JURISDICTION SIZE
45,256 (2000 Census)


PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Education Hill is an area within the city of Redmond, Washington, where three of the city’s schools are located. This includes an elementary school, the junior high, and the high school. These schools are located near an intersection that experiences a heavy volume of pedestrian and vehicular traffic since many students walk or are driven by parents to school. The city began monitoring the Education Hill area following frequent reports of drivers not yielding to pedestrians at the intersection. Because of the intersection’s proximity to the junior high school, many of the pedestrians are students who were often careless in their movements at and around the intersection.

Junior high school-aged students are extremely mobile and in many cases travel unsupervised on foot, bicycles, or scooters. Unlike for younger children, there is relatively little pedestrian safety material designed for the junior high school student. Because of the lack of existing material and the fact that junior high school students are within five years of becoming licensed drivers themselves, the City of Redmond realized an opportunity to educate these young teenagers about pedestrian safety principles.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The junior high pedestrian safety program was initiated to:

  • Raise awareness about pedestrian safety at the junior high school level

  • Identify risky pedestrian behavior of junior high students

  • Emphasize the importance of personal responsibility in pedestrian safety

  • Effectively communicate pedestrian and other traffic safety education messages to junior high students

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

The City’s Traffic Safety Program joined with the Redmond Junior High School Safety Committee to implement a pedestrian safety campaign at the junior high level. The group was interested in addressing pedestrian safety issues at Redmond Junior High School, and decided to dedicate a week to pedestrian safety activities. Although there appeared to be a lack of appropriate materials already available, the possibilities were many. Since both the Traffic Safety Program and the school’s safety committee were interested in communicating pedestrian safety information, it was decided that the best way to reach the junior high would be through messages from their peers.

The junior high students planned a week of activities, based on a theme they personally conceived: "Be Alert, Don't Get Hurt." Each activity during the week reflected that message. The students created a logo and had it printed along with the pedestrian safety message on t-shirts. Leadership students and faculty members produced two short videos that aired throughout the week. Banners and bulletin boards went up around the school. Even the reader board outside the building announced to drivers in the area that attention was on pedestrian safety that week. The City’s Traffic Safety Program provided customized educational materials geared towards junior high students and sponsored a pedestrian safety poster contest. Additionally, over 400 students received pedestrian safety flashers in exchange for completing a pedestrian safety quiz during their lunch periods.

RESULTS

While the Redmond Junior High School Safety Committee expressed interest in making Pedestrian Safety Week an annual event, it has remained a focus throughout the academic year. In the days following the first event, a teacher observed a student dashing across the street to get into the building. Seeing the opportunity to remind the students about personal responsibility for safety as pedestrians, the teacher got on the public address system and gave an account of what he had witnessed. “Don’t do that again. We love you and don’t want anything to happen to you,” he told the student as the rest of the school listened. For the remainder of the day, everyone else in school repeated the same message to that student, and it continues to be a constant message echoed throughout the school and between students.

 

FUNDING
Local: $1,200
CONTACT
Susan Sbyszeski
Traffic Safety Specialist
City of Redmond
PO Box 97010
Redmond, WA 98073
(425) 556-2882
sbyszeski@ci.redmond.wa.us



National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

   FALL 2001      

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