MoCo Rolls Out ‘YOLO’ Campaign To Discourage Distracted Walking

YOLO campaign Facebook image, via MCDOT

Montgomery County on Wednesday rolled out a new campaign to discourage teens from looking at their smart phones or listening to music while crossing busy roads and intersections.

The effort, called YOLO (You Only Live Once), is being organized and promoted by the county’s Department of Transportation. On Wednesday, County Executive Isiah Leggett, MCPS Superintendent Joshua Starr and other officials held a press conference to announce the initiative at Seneca Valley High School in Germantown.

In October 2012, 15-year-old Seneca Valley student Christina Morris-Ward was struck and killed by a driver as she crossed the street a few blocks from the school. Officials said she was looking down at her phone.

The incident was one of a few in the fall of 2012 and winter of 2013 that spurred a number of Bethesda parents to start a petition pushing for traffic and road changes in school zones. In February 2013, a three-month old child in a stroller was hit and dragged from a crosswalk on Arlington Road near Bethesda Elementary School.

This week, Bethesda parent Wendy Leibowitz wrote Leggett, Starr and Council President Craig Rice calling the YOLO campaign “misguided because it does not focus on the real causes of pedestrian deaths.”

According to Leibowitz, the “fundamental cause” of pedestrian injuries and deaths is “the unsafe design of our roads.”

“The good news is that we know how to design roads to be safe for pedestrians and drivers alike. We ask you to use the considerable powers of your respective positions to encourage Montgomery County and the State of Maryland to redesign the roads around schools in the county so that children can safely use them to walk to and from school,” Leiobowitz wrote. “An additional cause of pedestrian injury and death is the unsafe and often illegal driver behavior encouraged by the unsafe road design. We believe that the best target for a public education campaign is drivers, not pedestrians.”

Seneca Valley students at the event on Wednesday signed a pledge to stay distraction-free while walking to school. County officials also highlighted a series of projects done over the past year by students, including at Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School, where students made and handed out wrist bands reminding people to make eye contact with drivers.

According to Leibowitz, pushing teen pedestrians to pay more attention is only part of the equation.

“Please refocus your energies into programs that will do the most to keep students safe: lowering speed limits in school zones; redesigning roads to be safer for pedestrians, cyclists and motorists; and driver education,” she wrote.

On Saturday, the Action Committee for Transit is hosting a “Bethesda Vision Zero Walk” starting at the Bethesda Library on Arlington Road. The group will point out “what works for pedestrians and what does not.”

Photo via MCDOT

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