LOOK out for new public service announcements.
On Wednesday, June 17, the New York City Department of Transportation (DOT) announced a new ad campaign aimed at trying to reduce accidents involving cyclists on city streets.
The LOOK campaign was created by the New York City Bicycle Safety Coalition (NYCBSC) and is meant to reach cyclists as well as motorists, in order to improve safety for both groups.
The stark ads compare injuries to a cyclist with auto damage in an accident. An estimated 3,000 cyclists were injured in car accidents citywide in 2008, and DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan attributed many of the incidents to a lack of attention on the part of cyclists and drivers.
The closing line of the broadcast and print ads, which will run until the end of June, is “A cyclist’s best protection is our attention.”
NYCBSC says, “We believe that there are no accidents, and that all collisions are preventable if we just look out for each other” on its website, www.looknyc.org,
The campaign aims to remind bicyclists to obey traffic laws and ride with traffic, and to remind motorists to check for bicyclists before making a turn or opening the car door, to prevent cyclists from “getting doored,” according to the NYCBSC.
The NYCBSC consists of the DOT, the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene; the New York Police Department; the Taxi and Limousine Commission; the Public Advocate’s Office; Transportation Alternatives; the Five Borough Bike Club, the New York City Bicycle Messenger’s Association and New York State AAA.
The coalition was formed in 2006, after the previous year showed a 40 percent increase in cyclist fatalities in the five boroughs. On its website, NYCBSC states that its goal is to change the behavior of both cyclists and motorists in order to reduce collisions.
The campaign consists of posters near subways and on DOT bike shelters, Internet and television PSAs and other forms of social media such as videos posted on YouTube, and can be viewed at www.nyc.gov/html/look/html/pr/press_room_text.shtml.
The DOT, in collaboration with the city’s Department of Finance and the State Department of Motor Vehicles, is focusing on reaching motorists by placing safety information in more than 800,000 pieces of direct mail to be sent to homeowners and in New York City driver’s license renewals.
