The Pedestrian Safety Review Board (PSRB) will hold its second of six sessions on pedestrian safety as part of the On the Move campaign at the Historic Douglass Theatre (355 Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard) from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 26. Future sessions will be held on August 9, August 30, September 13, and September 27. All sessions will be at the Historic Douglass Theatre from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m.
For this event, the PSRB is inviting the public and representatives form Senior Living Communities and Neighborhood Associations. These representatives will be able to collect good safety information, share it at their place of employment, and serve as Pedestrian Safety Ambassadors by promoting pedestrian safety as a “way of life” throughout the Macon-Bibb County community and beyond.
The sessions will focus on the activities of the PEDESTRIAN “On The Move” grant project, components of the Vision Zero concept, and the works and efforts of the Macon-Bibb County Pedestrian Safety Review Board to decrease the number of pedestrian injuries and fatalities throughout Macon-Bibb County. Session presenters will include Nigel Floyd, Robert Ryals, Lt. Scott Davis, Coroner Leon Jones, Violet Poe, and Chris Tsavatewa. Other program participants will include Bessie Brown, David Gowan, Rev. Clifford Little, Harold Young, and Macon-Bibb County employees.
During each session, a mini-fashion show, Dress to Be Seen, will be held as a way to encourage pedestrians to dress in clothing which can be easily visible by drivers and passengers. Also featured during the sessions will be a video, “The Human Cost of Pedestrian Accidents.”
A continental breakfast beginning at 7:30 a.m. is sponsored by the Macon-Bibb County Pedestrian Safety Review Board, and the clothing for the mannequin display is sponsored by Lynne Weeks, Account Executive of Match-up. Representatives and residents of local senior living communities (Dempsey Apartments, St. Paul Apartments, McAfee Towers, Pinegate, and Vineville Towers) and Neighborhood Watch and Neighborhood Associations are expected to attend, including twenty-five members from the Eastside Neighborhood Associations Collaboration.
About the On the Move Campaign
The Pedestrian Safety Review Board’s On the Move campaign is an educational outreach effort designed to help people understand the importance of pedestrian and vehicle safety, and how they can make our roads safer for everyone.
During previous outreach efforts, 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. The Bibb County Sheriff’s Office also attends to reinforce the message. The Safety Board intends to distribute the cards and bands around the county at a variety of events through September 2018.
Previous outreach efforts have taken place in:
- February 2018 in the parking lot of the Fastee Foods at the corner of Pio Nono and Montpelier Avenues;
- in April 2018 in the parking lot of the of the Walthall/Exxon (currently closed) at the corner of Riverside Drive and Spring Street;
- in May 2018 in the parking lot of Sheridan Solomon LLC Realtors on Riverside Drive and in the parking lot of the Sunoco on the corner of Pio Nono Avenue and Eisenhower Parkway; and
- June 2018 in in the parking lot of the Valerogas station on Gray Highway.
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.
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.
About the Pedestrian Fatality Review Board
The Macon-Bibb Pedestrian Fatality Review Board (PFRB) is working on ways to reduce the pedestrian fatality 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.
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 Vision Zero principles; announcements and media coverage of efforts; information from the first Pedestrian Safety Summit; accomplishments; and PFRB members.
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.
