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Kingston launches traffic safety campaign called “Be a Road Hero”

Kingston is launching a new traffic safety campaign for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.
engagekingston.com
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City of Kingston
Kingston is launching a new traffic safety campaign for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

The city of Kingston is launching a new traffic safety campaign for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians.

Kingston's “Be a Road Hero” initiative is a public awareness campaign to educate residents about the city’s recently implemented transportation projects and resulting changes, and emphasize safety for all modes of travel.

Democratic Mayor Steve Noble says the campaign includes videos, social media posts, lawn signs, and a direct mailer to every mailbox in town. You'll see it everywhere.

“This campaign is going to go through this summer, and into the fall with a variety of different techniques," said Noble. "We're doing a mailer to everyone's house, here in Kingston and apartment, in English and Spanish, we are working to put out yard signs to be able to just remind people about this initiative. And we're launching a multimedia campaign with both video and social media to just really just hammer home some of our key messages, which is be safe out there when you're using our roadways. And our ultimate goal is to be able to reduce crashes here in Kingston, and improve safety for all of our users of our roadways and really just get people out there using our new transportation systems here in the city.”

City Director of Health and Wellness Emily Flynn says new infrastructure includes traffic signs, reconfigured street lanes with cycle tracks, dedicated traffic signals for cyclists, high-visibility crosswalks, ADA compliant sidewalks and curbs, and pedestrian rapid flashing beacons. And something engineers call a two stage green turning box.

“What happens is cyclists will come along the bike lane, and there is a white line just like for cars and you have to stop at the white line and wait for a bicycle signal," Flynn said. "And you know it's a bicycle signal because it has the shape of a bicycle in it. And when that turns green, cyclists can pull into the green box. And then if they look across the street, there's another bicycle signal. And when that turns green, they are able to cross traffic.”

Noble says “Be a Road Hero” reflects growth and changes in Kingston's streetscape.

“We really, over the last few years saw an increase in crashes, both with our motorists with our pedestrians, with our cyclists," Noble said. "And so we wanted to launch this public safety campaign to be able to make sure that all of our user groups of our roads, one knew the rules, to knew how to use all of these new safety features that we've installed. And many of our corridors here in Kingston, and three to just be more attentive, whether you're driving a car, walking on our sidewalks, or cycling either on the street, or in one of our new bicycle lanes or cycle tracks, we really want everyone to just keep their head up, and really be able to just be alert, and be safe out there on the road.”

As part of the educational campaign, Bike Friendly Kingston will host an informative bicycle ride and tour on Thursday at 6. There's more here.

Dave Lucas is WAMC’s Capital Region Bureau Chief. Born and raised in Albany, he’s been involved in nearly every aspect of local radio since 1981. Before joining WAMC, Dave was a reporter and anchor at WGY in Schenectady. Prior to that he hosted talk shows on WYJB and WROW, including the 1999 series of overnight radio broadcasts tracking the JonBenet Ramsey murder case with a cast of callers and characters from all over the world via the internet. In 2012, Dave received a Communicator Award of Distinction for his WAMC news story "Fail: The NYS Flood Panel," which explores whether the damage from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee could have been prevented or at least curbed. Dave began his radio career as a “morning personality” at WABY in Albany.
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