No Texts, No Calls, Just Drive

We have a message and a design!

Texting takes your eyes off the road an average of 5 seconds at a time. At 55 mph, that is like driving the length of a football field without looking at the road!
Source: Virginia Tech Transportation Institute

Degrees of Driving

In 2011, Iowa had 679 traffic crashes resulting from a driver distracted by a phone or other device. Source: Iowa DOT (pdf)

The experience and ability we acquire and the choices we make while driving can have an impact on many people. The impact can be immediate, the person we crashed into, or it can have a ripple effect.

It's what we do together...

When people work on a project together, friendships form, skills are developed, and a new career path may be found. A campus or community project can put you in touch with people you may not otherwise meet or opportunities you may not otherwise have.

Think about your campus and community, what issues need to be addressed? What would you like to do? What would benefit the most people?

Outdoor Activities

Traffic safety T-shirts given to all participants!

The awareness event consisted of three activities including a spinning wheel with questions about alcohol-impaired and distracted driving, vision goggles bean bag toss, and impaired velcro catch.

Performing

As team members become more comfortable with each other, and better understand the project and what is expected of them, they become a more effective unit with everyone working together.

The table event was a success! Drowsy driving message T-shirts, distracted driving wrist lanyards, and  safety message pens were distributed.

Messages

Are the messages clear?
Are you using consistent design that is simple and memorable?
Are credible sources of information cited to support the messages?
Are the messages relevant to your audience?
What are you suggesting as a next step?

Norming

During this stage, members reconcile competing loyalties and responsibilities. They accept the team, team ground rules (norms), their roles in the team, and individuality of fellow members.

10-80-10

There are usually 10% of students on your campus that are the positive, the inspired, the students with beliefs that align with yours and never falter.

Then there are the 80% that ride the fence. They're not sure what they think. They watch things happen and jump on board after they know it's safe.

And there is the last 10%. These are the students that may not like your ideas no matter how much energy you put into your activity, event, or cause.

Where should the group focus their efforts?

Storming

Storming is probably the most difficult stage for the team. They begin to realize the task is different and often more difficult than they imagined, becoming easily irritated, blameful, or overzealous.

Impatient about the lack of progress, and perhaps new to group consensus, members may argue about just what actions the team should take. They may try to rely solely on their personal experience, resisting any need for collaborating with other team members.

Forming

When a team is forming, members cautiously explore the boundaries of acceptable group behavior. This is a stage of transition from individual to member status, and of testing the leader's guidance both formally and informally.

a leader will emerge...

Team Building

Working well together in groups is a process. Whether it's a club, a sports team, or an employee work group, the typical evolution of a team includes: Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing

Project Focus

less helpful roles

Beware of other, less helpful roles, including:

Roadblocking - raising objections, repeating him/herself, getting the discussion off-track

Attacking - challenging the competence of others, name-calling

Joking - continually joking

Lobbying - advocating your own special interests, being one-sided

Bossing - dominating, giving orders, interrupting

helping the group get along

Members also perform activities which help the group to get along. These include:

• Encouraging: building confidence in other members through positive statements or praise

• Harmonizing: speaking up to lend support to another member

• Compromising: accepting ideas or methods that include elements of your ideas with those of another group member

• Gatekeeping: keeping the lines of communication open by listening, speaking, and asking for feedback

• Consensus seeking: testing whether or not the group is in agreement, while being sensitive to the views of individual group members

• Facilitating: helping communication by testing understanding, requesting restatements, and clarifying meanings

getting things done

To play a part in getting things done within a group, a member should be able to do some of the following things:

• Information seeking: asking for clarification or suggestions
• Information giving: offering facts
• Opinion sharing: stating beliefs and attitudes
• Orienting: defining the position of the group in relation to goals
• Initiating: suggesting new ideas and/or raising questions
• Summarizing: briefly stating the group's decisions or beliefs
• Integrating: examining ideas or opinions and showing their relationship to each other

Roles in Groups

Our fall 2012 team project is off to a great start!

Today we discussed team-centered roles. In a team situation each member is interdependent. Every member needs the other members' expertise, experience, and energy to achieve mutual goals.

Team roles function in two ways which keep a group moving forward toward its goals:

• they are involved in getting things done
• they are concerned with getting along

The Value of Information

Today's discussion, "How does your generation want to see information presented?"

• real life stories
• unbiased content
• proven facts

Design - purposeful communication

A successful design communicates a message, an emotion, and a response before the viewer reads any words.

During summer 2012, we will focus on communication and why design is so important to our efforts to improve transportation safety.

Group vs. Individual Process

At the beginning of our spring 2012 portfolio exchange we asked the following, "Will we work best as a group or will our individual processes and products rise above group productivity?"

• We began the project with enthusiasm and lots of ideas.
• A few weeks into the process we fell back on established patterns of individual work submitted as pieces of a project. 
• Our schedules filled up. With class assignments, spring break, and spring celebration we had less time to spend on "other" projects and activities. We focused on product rather than process.
• Posts became about safety information rather than thoughtful exchanges of ideas and strategies to adjust driving behavior.

Construction Zones

Construction zone safety

From March-November, Iowa may have up to 500 road construction work zones.

adjust speed

obey all signs and flaggers

do not follow other vehicles too closely (two second rule)

expect the unexpected!

Iowa DOT work zone safety awareness and tips for driving safely (pdf)

More Cyclists on the Road

motorcyclists:

Make yourself visible

- stay out of blind areas - use lane positioning

- use modulating headlamp

Allow space

- do not tailgate cars

- adjust for various road conditions

Ride smart

- watch weather forecast

- wear a helmet

- wear gear that increases your visibility

- flash brake light before stopping

- use turn signal

Be courteous and non-aggressive

- abide by the normal traffic rules

- do not weave

motorists:

• check for modulating headlamps
• always signal before changing lanes - check blind spots
• allow plenty of space - leave more following distance - adjust for rain, wind, terrain and speed
• watch intersections and when making left turns

motorists may be:

looking for larger vehicles

misjudging speeds

missing a motorcycle at stop signs and left turns

source: www.iowadot.gov/mre

Tunnel Vision

Tunnel vision may be defined as a loss of peripheral vision or only having the ability to see what is straight in front of an individual.

The banner above illustrates an instance of "tunnel vision." The driver is unaware how full their gas tank is and can only guess their current speed. Awareness begins by scanning the road, the cars around us, and the condition of our own car so we arrive at our destination safely.

Speak up!

If you are in the car and your friends aren't buckled up, speak up!

Iowa's safety belt usage rate is 93 percent.
Most Iowa Drivers Buckling Up - KCCI.com Des Moines
Know the Facts - Iowa DOT