Press release from the City of Asheville and the Asheville Police Department:
Asheville, NC (January 11, 2016): On November 30, 2015 the City of Asheville concluded the Watch for Me NC campaign. The campaign, which ran from September to November, demonstrated a citywide reduction of 27% in pedestrian and bicycle related crashes in comparison to the same time period average for 2010 through 2014.
Asheville Police Chief, Tammy Hooper, states “Our department’s primary focus is to ensure that all citizens and visitors to the City of Asheville are safe. There are a number of areas throughout Asheville that experience very high pedestrian foot traffic. From 2010 to 2014 we had an average of 37 pedestrian-involved wrecks per year, in calendar year 2015 we experienced 27. Obviously, the goal is zero, but this is a substantial and very positive reduction. We hope to continue the downward trend through various efforts which include participating in campaigns such as Watch for Me.”
This is the first year the City of Asheville has participated in the Watch for Me NC campaign. Watch for Me NC is a statewide campaign run through the North Carolina Department of Transportation. The program aims to reduce pedestrian and bicycle injuries and deaths through a comprehensive and targeted approach of public education and police enforcement. The campaign, which kicked off in Asheville on August 4th, focused on educating motorists and pedestrians on laws through the month of August and began motorist focused enforcement on September 1st.
We would like to thank our partners who assisted in the program:
· UNC Asheville Police Department
· AB Tech Community College
· Asheville City Schools
· Active Routes to School
· Buncombe County District Attorney’s Office
· Mountain Area Health Education Center
· Blue Ridge Bicycle Club
· Asheville on Bikes
· WNC Bicycle Dealer’s Association
· Asheville Bicycle and Pedestrian Task Force
· City of Asheville Multimodal Commission
· City of Asheville Neighborhood Advisory Committee
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