This week I got to work with a couple of local motorcycle deputies from the Whatcom County Sheriff’s Office to put together a PSA on motorcycle safety. They have some great advice for all the riders out there.
Local Motorcycle Safety PSA
Myths About Driving High
The holidays are traditionally a time to get together and celebrate. And if you’re celebrating with alcohol or cannabis, it’s important to have a plan to avoid driving impaired. Vivian McPeak, the director of HempFest, and Darrin Grondel, the Director of the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, sat down together to talk about some cannabis myths and the risks of driving high.
Along with their reminder, extra DUI patrols are scheduled for the holidays; drivers that choose to ignore the advice from Vivian and Darrin could be faced with arrest for impaired driving as part of their holiday memories.
Hyundai’s Irresponsible Ad
This isn’t actually a PSA; it’s a criticism of a car advertisement. I didn’t want to give any attention to a car company that tacitly endorses high-risk driving behavior in their advertising, but I can’t help it; this needs to be called out. The purpose of features like lane departure notification aren’t so that you can take more dumb risks while you’re driving; they’re there to protect us from our own inevitable human failures even when we are trying to pay attention.
Back-To-School Speed Patrols
This coming week, our local law enforcement agencies will be conducting speed patrols focusing on the routes that kids and families take to get to and from school. Here’s a PSA for the event made locally with some kids in my neighborhood:
Scary (Not Really) Seatbelt PSA
Starting next week, extra patrols will be happening all over Washington, focusing on drivers who don’t wear their seatbelts. If that’s you, you’re in a dwindling minority. About 95 percent of Washington drivers wear a seatbelt. This PSA takes a scary/humorous approach to the importance of wearing a seatbelt.
New Distracted Driving PSA – This One Is For The Moms
Here’s a distracted driving PSA with a happy mom, a cute kid, and no car crashes. How is that possible? Good decisions.
At any given moment, less than one in ten people are using their phones while driving. If you’re still on the phone behind the wheel, you’re including yourself in a dying breed. (Bad pun, sorry.) Join us in making driving the priority. If not for yourself, then for your most valuable cargo.
Continue reading “New Distracted Driving PSA – This One Is For The Moms”
Travel With Care – Emily
As part of our Travel With Care traffic safety project, lots of people in our community have made commitments to being safer road users. Here’s one from Emily:
Traffic is Poetry – Turn Signals
Okay. This isn’t exactly a PSA. But I think the message will resonate with a lot of people, given how many emails I get about people failing to use their turn signals. Also, how often do you get to hear a traffic safety message in the form of a poem? Maybe you can share this with someone who could use a reminder.
This Is Your Fault
I was talking with a friend and traffic safety colleague recently, and we got into the topic of fault and responsibility in crashes. It seems like we’re often willing to blame a problem with the car’s manufacturer, the road conditions, or the weather, but we have a hard time admitting that we’re the problem. It shouldn’t be so hard for us to admit – 94% of crashes are caused by human error – we should be used to identifying ourselves as the cause of crashes. I suspect that it’s because once we recognize that our mistakes are the common denominator in nearly every crash we’ll actually have to change our driving behavior. Continue reading “This Is Your Fault”
Drunk You – PSA
This PSA cleverly states the obvious, but in a way we don’t always think about; recognizing that Drunk You, while possibly quite fun, isn’t the best at decision-making. Like the narrator in the PSA says, you shouldn’t trust the version of you that created the macaroni taco to make a plan to get you home safe. Plus, I like a simple visual message and this PSA has that going on, with one basic continuous shot. Take a look: Continue reading “Drunk You – PSA”