Florida has the highest pedestrian death rate in the United States. Roughly nine pedestrians are killed each week. Things are even worse on our home turf of Tampa-St. Pete, one of the two most dangerous metro areas for walking. And bicyclists aren't immune either. The bicyclist fatality rate in our county is nearly triple the national average. In 2011, we won an assignment to create awareness of this manmade epidemic. Can we save Florida's motorists, pedestrians and cyclists from themselves?
We dug in deep to the research and discovered the root cause of the problem was a dangerous mix of ignorance and indifference. All of us–motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists–have been infected by a false sense of security that stems from traveling thousands of miles each year without consequence. This collective disregard leaves us blind to the rules, the facts, and each other. Most Floridians don't know the basic laws of transportation safety and don't seem to care. They need to see the roads differently and begin looking out for each other. They need to see the blindspots.
We created a movement called See The Blindspots and launched it via attention-getting print, TV, web and non-traditional media tactics. The campaign earned local (then global) news coverage within a day of the launch thanks to a video we created for the site. The video created a firestorm and finally got people talking about pedestrian safety. The video was viewed more than a quarter of a million times before eventually being pulled due to political pressure. New statistics are not yet in, but the goal is to reduce pedestrian fatalities in the Tampa Bay area by 20% before the year 2015.
