Mass. DOT Focuses On Keeping Drivers Safe With A New Highway Safety Campaign

Stop screaming and waving your arms uncontrollably at other drivers, it's not a good look for you. Stop changing the song on the radio, texting your mom back, or posting your feelings to Facebook while you're driving. These are all bad habits that have become common practice, and until we all have self driving cars to get us from place to place, we need to fix that. It's time to start taking more responsibility for our actions on the road. Remember, the road does not belong to YOU. The road is meant to be shared, and sharing often times means being flexible. Being flexible requires you to chill out.

In an attempt to help drivers chill out this summer, the Massachusetts Department of Transportation is expanding on their successful  "CHANGING LANES? USE YAH BLINKAH" highway message board campaign. The new #DOTSPEAK campaign, will be hosted in the form of a contest, and will be open to the public. The goal for the campaign is to urge drivers to control their road rage, avoid distractions while driving, and to always wear a seat belt. Even though there are rules in place to try to promote safe driving practices, we all know that not everyone follows them.

Entries for this contest will be accepted up until August 1st on Twitter (@MassDOT), Facebook (Facebook.com/massDOTinfo), and Instagram (@massDOT with #DOTSPEAK). The contest will honor three different winners by displaying their message on hundreds of highway message boards across the Commonwealth during some of the busiest travel periods of the year.

The rules of the contest are simple; create a two panel message , occupying three lines per panel, and using no more than eight characters per line. To see the complete set of rules, prizes, and message display dates, visit the MassDOT website.