A crosswalk safety campaign is being criticized for its cost, as well as for putting the blame on pedestrians.
A pair of advertisements was released this week by the Halifax Regional Municipality promoting the city's Crosswalk Safety Action Day.
"When you're a pedestrian, you've got to be smart,” a woman in the ad says. “Watch where you're going. You can't be, like, texting your friends or swiping dates when you're walking through a crosswalk. Come on, it's life or death."
HRM spokesperson Nick Ritcey says the videos were released to encourage people to take action and reduce distractions.
The advertisements were created by M5 Marketing. They also released a video focusing on distracted drivers.
"I believe it was $38,000 for their agency services, and video production and other marketing costs are added on top of that," says Ritcey.
But they’ve received harsh criticism on social media, with many believing the city missed the point. Urban planner Ben Wedge tweeted that pedestrian cellphone use causes less than 0.1 per cent of collisions, and that the campaign is a waste of taxpayer dollars.
Crosswalk safety advocate Norm Collins says that number comes from data released in 2015 America's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, but he thinks there may be some issues with it.
"A lot of those sort of input reports that police have, haven't been enhanced to reflect cellphones, portable electronic devices as a cause for the reason for the collision," he says.
Collins believes the ad serves an important purpose.
"If you look at the age group of those pedestrians most often struck here in Halifax, it's primarily by a considerable margin the 21 to 30 year olds," he says.
Ritcey says the ads weren’t meant to put blame on one demographic.
“It's about letting everyone know that we have a shared responsibility when it comes to crosswalk safety and just preventing one accident makes it worth it," he says.
The city will be holding their Crosswalk Safety Action Day on Nov. 29.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Allan April.
