County Executive Announces Additional Phase in Pedestrian Safety Campaign (VIDEO & PHOTOS)

You may notice people handing out pedestrian safety shopping bags and tip sheets today in shopping center parking lots in Wheaton, Bethesda, and Silver Spring. This is part of the the County’s efforts to reduce pedestrian safety collisions.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett held a news conference at the Wheaton Market Place parking lot today to announce the latest phase in the County’s ongoing Campaign to Reduce Pedestrian Collisions in Parking Lots. Montgomery County Councilmembers Hans Riemer and Sidney Katz along with Police Lieutenant Nicholas Augustine also attended the event.

You can watch the news conference in its entirety here:

According to a news release, in 2014 there were 420 pedestrian collision in Montgomery County. 102 happened in parking lots and garages. In 2015 there were 473 reported pedestrian collisions and 119 happened in parking lots.

“The number of pedestrian collisions in parking lots increased by 17% last year,”  Leggett said. “The two most common causes are distracted drivers and distracted pedestrians. We want to emphasize that we all need to pay better attention and put down our cell phones to decrease these preventable collisions,” he said.

The latest pedestrian safety campaign phase includes the following:

1. Educating shoppers in Wheaton, Bethesda, and Silver Spring about pedestrian safety in parking lots by handing out pedestrian safety shopping bags and tip sheets.
2. The Montgomery County Department of Transportation is installing “Heads Up” decals in all County parking garages and lots, to help pedestrians remember to pay attention.
3. Postcards have been mailed out to 150,000 County residents with a quiz about the best ways to achieve pedestrian safety.
4. Posters will be offered for display at County facilities to help raise awareness among shoppers and store employees. The posters will be available in both English and Spanish.

About Maureen Chowdhury

Maureen Chowdhury is a multimedia journalist with Montgomery Community Media. She can be reached at mchowdhury@mymcmedia.org and on Twitter at @MediaMaureen. Maureen authors the blog Sound Check on MyMCMedia.

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