Peddy and Pedora the Pedestrians, the mascots of Macon-Bibb County’s Pedestrian Safety Review Board, will walk to school and have breakfast with Ingram-Pye Elementary School students on Wednesday, August 1, 2018. Peddy and Pedora will begin their morning with the Crossing Guards at the school (855 Anthony Road) at 7:00 a.m. and will meet the students as they walk in from Anthony Road and Felton Avenue.
This effort is part of the 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.
About the Pedestrian Safety Review Board
Macon-Bibb currently has one of the highest per capita pedestrian fatality rates in Georgia, and the Macon-Bibb Pedestrian Safety Review Board (PSRB) is working on ways to reduce that rate through infrastructure improvements and educational outreach.
Meeting each month, the Board establishes a forum for the Sheriff’s Office, Health Department, School District, county departments, Planning and Zoning, elected officials, AARP, and concerned citizens to develop strategies for creating a safer environment for pedestrians. To learn more about the Board, click here.
“As a community, we must make pedestrian safety a priority of our consolidated government. We have the ability to convene partners and the public in order to find the best ways to improve road safety for everyone,” says Macon-Bibb Commissioner Elaine Lucas.
Issue-Specific Website
It has launched an issue-specific website to help educate the public, make announcements, and seek feedback. Included on the website are: efforts and initiatives of the Board and its partners, including the adopted Vison Zero principles; announcements and media coverage of efforts; information from the first Pedestrian Safety Summit; accomplishments; and PSRB members.
On the Move Campaign
They have also launch a second campaign called On the Move,and members of the Board hand out (to people walking and any drivers and passengers that stop by) education safety cards and safety reflective armbands, explain the information on the card, and demonstrate how the bands work.
Locations 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.
Pedestrian Safety Summits
Two Pedestrian Safety Summits have been held, and both were free and open to the public, and nearly 100 people – from elected officials to law enforcement to community members to department heads to partner organizations – attended them. To see pictures from the Summit, click here. The second Summit can be watched in its entirety by clicking here.
During the Summits, people learned about the creation and goals of the Board, heard about current issues with pedestrian safety based on real data, got a roads assessment by the Georgia Department of Transportation, and learned about some of the solutions being discussed and implemented.