Our friends at WAMU report on a safety success story from Ocean City Maryland. The beach town has embraced a new mascot: a traffic safety-obsessed crab dressed as a lifeguard. He's very effective.
The mix of cute and quirky and omnipresent has apparently worked at changing safety habits as WAMU's Rebecca Blatt reports, the crab has appeared on billboards and PSAs this summer.
Police in Ocean City credit the crab with contributing to a 56 percent reduction in pedestrian crashes so far this year. Now Maryland's State Highway Administration plans to use the crab in school programs across the state.
Spokesperson Lora Rakowski says the mascot has been very popular. "People identify with the crab," she says. "They're posting photos of themselves with the crab on social media, so it's been an effective way to reach people on a friendly level."
The crab encourages safe cycling by wearing a helmet, and safe walking by graduating from school, we're not sure of that particular connection, but hey, it's working.
Here's one PSA that show the plucky critter waddling cheerily, and safely, across a street. "Always use a crosswalk" is the main message.