Press Release: 2019-06-18

MassDOT Announces Annual Safe Streets Smart Trips High School Video Contest

MassDOT is announcing the sixth annual statewide high school video contest, Safe Streets Smart Trips. The contest serves as an initiative within the Massachusetts Strategic Highway Safety Plan to promote and educate the public about safe walking, bicycling, and driving behaviors. The contest began five years ago to encourage high school students to showcase their understanding of roadway safety across all travel modes to try to decrease pedestrian and bicyclist injuries and fatalities.

“We are pleased to once again be able to give students the opportunity to create educational videos which underscore messages in the ‘Scan the Streets for Wheels and Feet’ initiative,” said MassDOT Secretary and CEO Stephanie Pollack. “The video contest has resulted in very creative ideas during the last few years and we look forward to seeing what teenagers will produce during this year’s contest to make the public more aware of safe behaviors while traveling.”

In summer 2017, MassDOT launched a new statewide campaign to raise awareness about motorists, pedestrians and cyclists safely sharing the Commonwealth’s streets. This initiative reminds travelers to “Scan the Street for Wheels and Feet.” The campaign slogan emphasizes the notion that everyone who is traveling on a roadway is responsible for doing their part to ensure safety.

The video contest, open to all Massachusetts high school students, features a freshman/sophomore category and junior/senior category. Per contest guidelines, students are asked to write and produce a one-minute commercial video that focuses on one or several of the crash statistics from the campaign and uses the slogan, “Scan the Street for Wheels and Feet.”

Complete contest guidelines are being sent to high schools and are also found at the Roadway Safety Video website. Grand prize and runner-up videos in each category will be chosen by a MassDOT panel during October 2019. Winning videos will be screened at MassDOT’s annual active transportation conference, Moving Together, where the creators will receive prizes. Top videos may also be used in future safety campaigns on MBTA digital boards.

Learn more about the Safe Streets Smart Trips high school video contest or call 857-383-3807.

Learn more information about the annual Moving Together healthy transportation conference.

Learn more about the “Scan the Street for Wheels and Feet” campaign.