Students create campaign to increase crosswalk button use

Students in a Public Relations SCOM 461 class will find out if their campaign to promote using push buttons at crosswalks was successful later this week.

Speech Communications professor John Stone assigned groups in the class to find an organizations in the JMU community for which to create a campaign.

Seniors Zach Graber, Megan Sullivan, Brannon Goins, Kelly Himmerlsbach and Ashley Williams chose to design a campaign for the JMU Police Department.

Working with JMU police officers, the students utilized the officers as resources to construct a promotion for public safety called “Just Push It” to increase the use of push buttons at crosswalks.

Graber said the group’s mission statement was to get more people to use the “push buttons” created for pedestrians at the intersection in front of the Mr. Chips convenience store and the traffic light closest to Godwin Hall in the direction of the Integrated Science and Technology building.

Graber said a common preconceived notion people have about crosswalks is that they have sensors that can detect when someone is waiting to cross.

“This, in fact, is not the case, and if the button isn’t pressed, the [‘no crossing’ signal] will continue to be displayed, even though someone is standing there waiting to cross,” Graber said.

According to Williams, the initial research was conducted in March.

The group gathered research by counting the number of students who pushed the button and when students crossed with or against the crosswalk signal.

After the research was gathered, the group found that the greatest number of people who crossed the street legally was on March 17, about one in every three pedestrians. Williams also said on the third day only 16 of 351 people crossed legally that night.

As a part of its campaign, the group created and distributed 1,200 flyers that provided people with a brief list of statistics such as how 4,800 pedestrians are killed yearly by crossing streets carelessly.

“The [statistics] and the flyers just allowed us to let people understand what we were trying to accomplish,” Graber said.

In addition to fliers, the group posted signs around campus to catch individuals’ attention in hopes they would read the signs and use the button to safely and legally cross the street.

According to Williams, the group spent $30 on the campaign, even though there was no set budget in the criteria for the assignment.

“We used every resource we could to print cheaply in terms of using our own paper and whatever other resources we already had,” Williams said.

Although it was difficult to show a direct correlation between the “Just Push It” campaign and students’ crosswalk habits, the group felt that it was able to at least get the message of safety across campus.

Williams said she believes students have become more aware of pedestrian safety. “It’s a hard campaign to represent because it’s not of high priority, but we did what we could with the resources that were provided,” Williams said. “If nothing else, people were presented the information to make a more informed decision.”

Freshman Andrew Butterfield, who regularly crosses South Main Street to get to the studio art center, said, “I just cut across the street because it’s faster. The crosswalk lights take too long to make [using them] worth waiting for the signal.”

Graber said, ”Although we had a very limited budget and time constraints, we feel, overall, the campaign was a success.”