Brockton buses kick-off pedestrian awareness campaign with powerful ads

BROCKTON – The image is striking. A young Asian woman stares, her face half-covered by the black mark of a tire tread.

“Pedestrians don’t come with airbags,” the advertisement reads. “Yield to pedestrians when turning.”

The posters – spread throughout the city on Brockton Area Transit Authority buses – are one piece of a multi-pronged pedestrian awareness campaign launched last month following a surge in fatal accidents. They were put in place Tuesday and will soon be joined by a variety of BAT educational efforts.

“The number of these pedestrian fatalities are troubling to the community and we need to heighten awareness for our workforce and all of those around us,” BAT Administrator Ray Ledoux said.

In recent days, an electronic sign broadcasting pedestrian safety messages was installed on Crescent Street near the fire station, State Police have begun extra traffic patrols throughout the city, pedestrian cross walk signs were put up at key intersections and state and regional traffic studies are underway.

Mayor Bill Carpenter announced the comprehensive plan, which also includes Brockton police foot and traffic patrols and school awareness campaigns, after more than 80 pedestrians had been struck throughout the city by November, including seven fatalities.

Since then, two more pedestrians have been killed – regular BAT bus rider Thomas Ryan, 61, of Brockton, who was killed crossing North Pearl Street, and 19-year-old Trequel Bradsher, killed in an alleged drunken driving accident on West Chestnut Street.

The posters installed on buses this week are aimed at getting drivers to pay closer attention to pedestrians.

“A motorist might only have a brief glimpse of this, so we want to leave a visual impression,” Ledoux said. “We’ll run them for as along as necessary. If they deteriorate we will replace them.”

The posters were adopted from Street Smart, a publicly funded education campaign based in the Washington, D.C., area. Ledoux said BAT will spend $75,000 of its own money on several efforts, including the posters.

BAT also plans to add advertisements inside its buses within the next two weeks that will be directed at pedestrians. They will come in four languages – English, Spanish, Portuguese and French. Voice announcements inside the bus will also educate riders, along with brochures from the Massachusetts Department of Transportation.

Most of the $75,000 will be spent to purchase and install bike racks on all of BAT’s transit coaches. Only its coach operating out of Bridgewater State University currently has a bike rack, Ledoux said.

Joseph Markman may be reached at jmarkman@enterprisenews.com.