Skip to Content
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Streetsblog Los Angeles home
Log In
Streetsblog Denver

It’s Time to Own Colorado DOT’s #SafetyStartsWithAllOfUs Hashtag

The Colorado Department of Transportation loves what it calls "safety campaigns." Here's how they work: The department spends a few hundred thousand of your dollars broadcasting a message to "educate" the public, as CDOT puts it, on how not to die. It's basically a big expensive marketing campaign to deflect public attention from CDOT's own responsibility to make streets safer.

There's zero evidence that these education campaigns work. Traffic deaths have risen every year, statewide, since 2011.

They're completely tone deaf and consistently sends the message that people struck by motorists have no one to blame but themselves. Your teacher, as it were, may be an actor hired to make people on foot look like bumbling idiots with a death wish. Or a sign scolding people for having the gall to look at their phones while out in public. Or a mascot handing out balloons.

This month CDOT is schooling the public real good by telling us what to wear via its #SafetyStartsWithAllOfUs social media campaign.

Here's what CDOT tweeted under a photo of two women walking at dusk -- one wearing a neon jacket with reflective slap bracelets, and one sporting a dark gray fleece:

In other words, if you don't wear Day-Glo colors, it's your fault if a driver peels around a corner while you have a walk sign and sends you to the ICU. Motorists, carry on.

It's an old, discredited message that lays responsibility at the feet of the most vulnerable people on the street. For a window into CDOT's thinking, look back to 2015, when agency communications staffer Sam Cole told Streetsblog, “We don’t have a direct campaign that says, ‘Drivers, be careful of pedestrians,’ because I think all drivers know they need to be careful about pedestrians."

CDOT's come a long way since then! So far the #SafetyStartsWithAllOfUS campaign mostly tells pedestrians to "be seen" and bicyclists to wear helmets, but -- but! -- the heroes at CDOT have also tweeted that motorists should yield to pedestrians. Twice!

If CDOT actually believes these campaigns move the needle, it should be doing a lot more to educate motorists. Drivers are the ones operating machines that killed 630 people last year. They're the ones surfing the internet while speeding down public streets in two-ton metal boxes.

Safety does not start with everyone. Safety starts with motorists. So let's take over CDOT's #SafetyStartsWithEveryone hashtag and get a real safety message across instead of another counterproductive, canned PR campaign.

Satirical car enthusiast Bob Gunderson has given this alternative education campaign a kick start:

. @ColoradoDOT pedEsTriaNS HavE tHe RighT to bE ON roADs Just AS MUCH As dRiveRS DO. AnYtime yoU ARe A pEdeStrIaN on cOLoRado ROAdS, MAke sURE yoU are vIsIbLe tO DrIvERs. PedEStRIaNS SHOUlD STRIVE TO bE SafE ANd Seen. #saFETySTaRTswIthaLLOfuS pic.twitter.com/tYYRkTkfQc

— Bob Gunderson (@Bob_Gunderson) June 11, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Here's how Piep van Heuven, Bicycle Colorado's Denver director, flipped the script:

Drivers have the right to be on roads just as much as pedestrians do. Anytime you are a driver on Colorado roads, make sure you are visible to pedestrians. Drivers should strive to be safe and seen. #SafetyStartsWithAllOfUS #driversafety #beseen #besafe pic.twitter.com/sjf6ShDvnf

— Piep van Heuven (@00Piep) June 12, 2018

https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js

Go ahead. Get on Twitter and Facebook and own this absurd hashtag -- attach it to images and messages that show why safety actually starts with motorists speeding down streets, not people walking and biking.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog Los Angeles

Santa Monica Reducing Speed Limits Throughout City

Thirty city streets will see lower speed limits

December 3, 2024

This Week In Livable Streets

CicLAvia in the West Valley, Metro board meeting, Forest Lawn Drive, Vermont Transit Corridor, and more

December 2, 2024

Eyes on the Street: OC Streetcar Construction Progress

Orange County streetcar construction is progressing, especially with recent installation of overhead wires. OCTA's 4-mile light rail line is expected to open in 2025.

December 2, 2024
See all posts