Hi, thank you for being interested in setting up and facilitating one of our trucks. I view exercises at a local Touch of Truck. We're excited for you to raise awareness on large vehicle safety and how to move more safely around them. In this video, we will show you how to set up one of these intersections and give you a couple tools to facilitate such an event. Our main focus is the truck and its surroundings.
Here we capture the truck stopped at an intersection with a bike lane on its right and a crosswalk in front of it. For this exercise, we want to mockup both of these and add road users as well. To set up the intersection, here's what you'll need. A broom, measuring tape, jumbo sidewalk chalk in white and green. 60 yards of white duct tape. Scissors. 32 yards of green duct tape. And for the finishing touches, the four posters and two small rugs. Paired with these, you'll need 2 energized people ready to tackle the exercise.
Park your truck in the lot in which you will run the experience. You'll need 20 feet clear in front of the vehicle and at least 7 feet clear on the passenger side. Clean the surrounding area, remove any debris, then quickly sweep the pavement in front of the truck. Make sure that the inside of the cab is clean too. Now let's lay out some lines. We'll start with the stop line. Starting right in front of the vehicle bumper, mark up an 11 foot by 1-foot-high box.
Line up the box edge with the driver's side mirror. This will let the bar overhang on the passenger side a bit. After you mark your box with the chalk, use the white duct tape to cover the outlines of the demarcated stop line. The trick here is to stretch the tape low to the ground and keep it taut until the adhesive touches the pavement. This will allow for a straighter line.
Now that our stop line is done, we will tackle the biggest project, the crosswalk. This will be a ladder type crosswalk. We'll make our longitudinal bars first. Starting in line with the left side of your new stop line. Measure 4 feet out from the top of the stop bar and mark the start of the first crosswalk bar. It should be 1 foot wide and run 16 feet long and parallel to your stop line. This is your first longitudinal bar. From that same left side, measure a distance of eight feet away from this line you just made and mark an identical line in parallel. This is your second longitudinal bar and the two will frame the crosswalk.
Connect the top and bottom of your crosswalk with perpendicular lines. These lines should also be 1 foot wide and three feet apart. Now that your measurements are done, you can tape the outlines of your crosswalk with the remaining white duct tape.
The last step in our taping process is marking the bike lane. Measure 5-feet from the right end of your stop line, which should align with the end of your crosswalk. Apply green duct tape on that line. This marks the stop line of the bike lane at the intersection. Then measure and tape two 14-foot lines perpendicular to both ends of the line you just drew. These illustrate your bike lane at their extremity.
Tape a line to connect them together. You should have a long green rectangle that is your bike lane. That's all the taping done. Now for the finishing touches. Fill in the crosswalk and stop line using jumbo sidewalk chalk for the bike lane. No need to fill it in. You can draw an arrow and a bike icon. After doing this, hang the educational posters along the truck on the driver's side. This should be readable for people waiting for their turn. The last step is to set up the secret spots rug. Place one on the lower part of the crosswalk in line with the truck's driver's seat. Place the second one on the bike lane in line with the cab door. If you don't have a small rug, you can create a secret spot with chalk or a taped X. And that's it. You finish the setup, congrats!
During the event, the facilitation is quite simple. Your goal is to get both kids and their guardians into the truck to experience what a driver can see and most importantly what they cannot see. We want people to realize that trucks driving close to us in our everyday lives are built in such a way that they cannot see much and that this is a both stressful experience for the driver and may be a dangerous one for the road users around. In your volunteer packet you will find a more in-depth facilitation document with key research elements and discussion questions to engage in with the participants.
We hope you're setting up and facilitation experience go smoothly. Our team at The Lab is always available to answer questions you might have. A big thank you for taking the time to help raise awareness on truck blind zones. We're convinced that these events are part of the solution for safer roads for all.