Eye to Eye is a new multi-city road safety campaign created to foster a culture of awareness and respect on our roadways and shared paths and to make the streets of our communities safer for motorists, cyclists and pedestrians. The City of Eugene is partnering with the Greater Eugene Area Riders (GEARs), the Bicycle Transportation Alliance (BTA) and other groups to launch this campaign.
Along with encouraging respect on the roadway, the Eye to Eye message will be used in conjunction with specific information to educate all road users in what they can do to be safe, including making eye contact with and communicating with other road users, looking for bicyclists and stopping for pedestrians, using lights at night, and following traffic laws.
The Eye to Eye campaign will kick off August 13 with news conferences in Eugene and Portland. Several community events are scheduled to follow, including bell and light giveaways, a family bike ride, crosswalk awareness education, a bike light parade at the Eugene Celebration, Breakfast on the Bridges, professional truck driver/cyclist awareness events and more (contact Lindsay Selser for a detailed event schedule). In October the campaign will unveil the first Eye to Eye public service announcement — a piece targeted at young drivers. The City of Eugene and partners will show the PSA in movie theaters during the holidays and continue to develop the campaign into 2009.
The Eugene-Springfield area news conference will be held Wednesday, August 13, at 10 a.m. at the intersection of 24th Avenue and the Amazon Path (just east of Amazon Parkway). Participants include Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy, Springfield Mayor Sid Leiken, State Senator Floyd Prozanski, AAA, GEARs, the Jane Higdon Foundation, and Eugene’s Fire & EMS, Police and Public Works departments.
Interviews and visual opportunities will be available at the news conference. The Eye to Eye web page will be live by August 13th at SeeingEyetoEye.org. For more information, contact Transportation Planning Technician Lindsay Selser at 682-5094 or lindsay.r.selser@ci.eugene.or.us