- Massachusetts Department of Transportation
Boston — The Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT) is pleased to announce entries are now being accepted for the ninth annual statewide high school video contest: Safe Streets Smart Trips. The contest, which began in 2014, encourages high school students to showcase their understanding of roadway safety across all travel modes to try to decrease pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities. The contest serves as an initiative of the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan to promote safe walking, bicycling, and driving behaviors within the Commonwealth.
“We look forward to seeing the videos created by high school students that will help raise awareness about how to stay safe when walking, bicycling, and driving,” said Transportation Secretary and CEO Jamey Tesler. “Each year, students from across the state have used humor, facts, and real-life incidents to underscore how all of us have to put safety first and do our part to reduce injuries and deaths on the roadways.”
The video contest, which is open to all Massachusetts public high school students, features a Freshman/Sophomore category and Junior/Senior category. Per contest guidelines, this year students are being asked to write and produce a 30-60 second video that focuses on interpreting the various signs and pavement markings that are on roadways and in school zones and explaining their meaning.
There are countless roadway signs and pavement markings that drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists encounter every day. Some signs are meant for school zones, while others are bike and pedestrian related. It is important to remind everyone of the importance of these signs and pavement markings and what they mean.
Complete contest guidelines can be found at Mass.gov/roadway-safety-video. All applications are due by 11:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 9.
MassDOT will host a virtual informational session for educators on Tuesday, September 6, to help answer any contest questions. Educators and students can register for the informational session at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvfu-prj0oE9GDv4-DREBir6n0GN15IaD8.
Grand prize, runner-up, and honorable mention videos in each category (Freshman/Sophomore and Junior/Senior) will be chosen by a MassDOT panel. Winning videos will be shown November 1, 2022, at MassDOT’s annual active transportation conference, Moving Together, where the creators will receive their prizes including $600 Amazon gift cards for the grand prize videos and $300 Amazon gift cards for the runner-up videos. Top videos may also be used in future safety campaigns.
To learn more about the Safe Streets Smart Trips high school video contest visit: Mass.gov/roadway-safety-video or call 857-383-3807.
To register for the Safe Streets Smart Trips Information Session: visit:https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZwud-mtqzIpHNINJusPQxIK953YmvdGz0yn
For transportation news and updates, visit the MassDOT website: www.mass.gov/massdot, or follow MassDOT on Twitter at www.twitter.com/massdot.
