Be Safe Be Seen
TxDOT's public information campaign kept pedestrians and cyclists informed and safe during a major construction project in the Waco, Texas I-35 corridor.
In 2019 the Texas Department of Transportation began an ambitious set of improvements to I-35 through Waco. Our team worked with the state agency to create a public information campaign to keep the public aware, informed and safe for the duration of the major construction project. Our wide-ranging 4-year messaging campaign used the simple tagline "BE SAFE, BE SEEN".
Our message needed to reach pedestrians and cyclists, emergency and commuter traffic, visitors to the area, Baylor University students, area public school students, and the unhoused population, which can be particularly vulnerable to road construction dangers. Our messaging often needed to be in both English and Spanish.
We targeted these groups with project awareness materials in the form of direct mail, online advertising, bus ads, email campaigns, social media, flyers and contact cards distributed to nearby businesses and hotels, video project updates, and information events at community centers and schools, complete with Be Safe Be Seen backpacks and other merch give-aways—always in safety-orange.
The second part of our work was to keep the public informed of day to day, often hour to hour changes to the roadway. I designed the visual information assets for project email updates, such as lane closure/change diagrams, construction and detour maps, parking and route diagrams for Baylor Football weekends, project timelines, safety messaging graphics, and more. Our team also partnered on the BE SAFE, BE SEEN project's flagship resource: an online and mobile-friendly traveler information map relaying real-time conditions, current and future planned lane closures, incidents, and delay across the corridor, and an innovative pedestrian crossings diagram I designed, showing active, inactive, and shifting I-35 crossings. The pedestrian crossings diagram changed dynamically when the underlying database was updated, and was fully compliant for accessibility (e.g., machine readable for the visually impaired).
Our many audiences among the traveling public and surrounding Waco community benefitted from the project materials' broad reach, and its current and accurate information. Travelers were able to use our resources to pre-plan their trips, while simultaneously understanding the likely impact of construction activity along their route, and staying safe and aware for the duration of their journey.
Role
Art Director
Client
TxDOT My35 Waco
Agency
CD&P
Tags