The Pedestrian Safety Review Board’s On the Move campaign will begin with an education outreach effort on Wednesday, February 21, from 3:00 – 5:00 p.m. in the parking lot of the Fastee Foods (Chevron) at 1389 Pio Nono Avenue (corner of Pio Nono and Montpelier Avenues).
 
During this time, members of the Board will hand out (to people walking and any drivers and passengers that stop by) 2,400 education safety cards and safety reflective armbands, explain the information on the card, and demonstrate how the bands work. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office will also be on hand to reinforce the message. The Safety Board intends to distribute the cards and bands once or twice per month around the county through September 2018.
 
“The goal of this type of community outreach activity is to bring awareness to the importance of pedestrian safety, and to provide people with educational tools which will help them become more responsible for their actions as they “move” from one location to another,” says Violet Poe with the Safety Board. “We also want to put an emphasis on driver and passenger behaviors that will help make us all safer.”
                                                            
Locations selected for this education campaign were selected because they are heavily traveled by pedestrians and are on or near State Roads, or are near the locations of pedestrian fatalities between 2012 and 2016. On the Move is paid for with a $20,785 grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety that was awarded in October 2017. Click here to watch a video of that announcement, and click here for a MaconBibbTV feature on the campaign.
 
“If we’re going to help people learn why it’s so important to be safe while walking along our roads, and for drivers to watch out for people walking, we have to go where they are,” says Dr. Tom Ellington of the Safety Board. “We want to help make sure people get where they’re going safely, no matter how they choose to get there.”
 
The On the Move campaign is in addition to the Safety Board’s Cross the Walk campaign which began in 2016. This campaign focused on different pedestrian safety aspects and used billboards, presentations, outreach to student groups, bus wraps, mascots, PSAs, and more. Click here for a MaconBibbTV feature video on this campaign.