The hardest thing about conveying a public service message is to get people to pay any attention at all. An anti-jaywalking campaign from the Société de l’assurance automobile du Québec in Montreal solved this problem by presenting pedestrians on the streets of the city with something fun. They rigged a bus stop shelter with one of those interactive x-ray simulation devices, where people can see themselves as skeletons waving or dancing or whatever they want to do. Then suddenly, they are reminded of all the traffic in those streets. It's a sobering way to confront the danger.
Before this campaign was unleashed in 2018, pedestrian deaths had been climbing in Quebec, and 40% of them happened in Montreal. While the skeletons are certainly attention-grabbing, the campaign didn't reduce the number of pedestrian fatalities- 2019 saw the province with a ten-year high in fatalities. They are now focusing their efforts on drivers, which is as it should be. A much lower number of pedestrian deaths in 2020 were the result of fewer people on the road due to the pandemic. Only time will tell if Montreal will be safer for pedestrians when traffic returns to normal. -via Everlasting Blort