College of Business Administration

GROUP MEMBERS:

Jason Davis
Joyce Guzman
Jennifer McGoyne
Sydney Webb

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Our group wanted to do something creative. Something that no other group has likely done. When we heard the proposal for the “Feet First” project it not only sounded unique but intriguing and challenging. Who would have thought there were so many organizations centered around advocating pedestrian safety. The very fact that none of us had a clue as to the involvement in bringing this issue to hand was enough for us to want to help bring attention to others, like us, the dangers of being a pedestrian and the cautions drivers should take.

Feet First is a collaboration of Uptown Partnership, a community development organization and WalkSanDiego, a pedestrian advocacy group. The Feet First program was established to improve upon the pedestrian environment, promote pedestrian activity while advocating for pedestrian safety and walkable communities.

The Mission

Our mission was to research past pedestrian campaigns, various media effectiveness, statistics on pedestrian safety or lack there of, and recommend a communication campaign to promote pedestrian safety and to have our campaigns presented to the Uptown Partnership board of directors for implementation.We were also to work from 8:00am to 3:00pm on the day of the Walking, Health, and Fitness Fair on Saturday, March 22, 2003 in rotating shifts of various assigned tasks.

To start off with our group had a hard time getting information on past pedestrian safety campaigns. We mostly found organizations that put out campaigns to get a project accepted that would make their city a safer place to walk not really any kind of advertisement to get the public‘s attention. You do not see many billboards advocating pedestrian safety. We each e-mailed about ten different pedestrian safety advocacy groups and the ones that responded only gave information on projects they were working on. One man responded back with a campaign he had worked on to get the crosswalks painted. Unfortunately this was not the kind of information we were looking for.

We decided to just research advertising mediums and decide for ourselves which medium would work best and in what format. This information came much easier. We were able to research why one would use radio over newspaper and if using newspaper, what format to use for your ad. Along with this information, we were able to research statistics on pedestrian related issues.

We decided to use what is referred to as "Outdoor Advertising". Outdoor Advertising consists of mediums such as billboards, buses, benches, taxicabs, and many more. This type of medium would benefit us because it is in our domain. Since we are targeting pedestrians and drivers it is more effective to expose them to the information in the element. We are also assured that they will be exposed to our ad since they cannot turn it off or throw it away.

Now our main task was to come up with a slogan that would fit the message and stick in people's head's. After a lot of brainstorming we came up with the idea of painting feet going back and forth in the crosswalks in Hill Crest. This led to the slogan of, “Cross the street, follow the feet." This ad is to be up on billboards, buses, and benches with the slogan in big bolds letters. We also came up with another ad to grab the attention of the drivers. The ad includes a life size cardboard cutout of a woman with a stroller standing in between two parked cars on the side of the street waiting to cross the street. A block after the cardboard cutout there will be a billboard that will say, "Did you see the woman with the stroller?" Then one block later, another cardboard cutout of the same woman and another block later a billboard that reads, “Did you see the woman now? Please drive safely and be aware of our pedestrians.” This ad will hopefully bring more attention to the driver of the fact that they need to be aware of everything around them, not just in front of them.
We believe our ideas are effective and feasible. The paint is not expensive and we can rally up volunteers to help paint the crosswalks. The advertisement will be the most expensive, but is still affordable. We presented our ideas to Giovanna and she liked them. She said they were catchy and appropriate. Given Giovanna’s pleasure in our ideas and research, our project was a success. Due to the time constraint of the semester, we will not know if our ideas actually get used before class is out. Giovanna said our ideas could be taken to the board for further consideration.

Ethical Frameworks

Ethic of Care: Asks us to recognize and take seriously the moral worth of relationships, particularly those characterized by caring. There are no rules or regulations that require organizations to promote pedestrian safety. This project demonstrates the ethic of care in the way that our group recognizes the importance of pedestrian safety. Our group’s motives have a moral worth which is characterized by acting in the regard for others.

Land Ethic: States that a thing is right if it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise. Although it was not part of our immediate project, the premise of our goal encourages a person to walk more which not only reduces traffic but it reduces the pollution and use of our earth’s natural resources. Under the Ethical Framework of Land Ethic, we are doing a morally right thing by educating the public about walkable areas and encouraging them to walk. Our ideas help to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community.

Social Contract Theory: States that morality consists in the set of rules, governing how people are to treat one another that rational people will agree to accept, for their mutual benefit, on the condition that others follow those rules as well. It is generally accepted that to cross the street, you must use a crosswalk and if you are a motorist, you need to be aware of your surroundings, especially pedestrians. Our group is trying to reiterate this Social Contract that we have with one another in order to restore safer walking environments and to encourage pedestrian activity.