CDOT Asking Public for Input on New Marijuana-Impaired Driving Ads
STATEWIDE — The Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) has launched an online survey to gather input from the public on a series of creative concepts and messages for a new marijuana-impaired driving campaign. The survey is part of CDOT’s ongoing Cannabis Conversation — a statewide traffic safety initiative that aims to engage Coloradans in a meaningful discussion about marijuana and driving.
CDOT debuted The Cannabis Conversation in 2018, gathering feedback from more than 15,000 Coloradans to gain a deeper understanding of the public’s attitudes, assumptions, and behaviors surrounding marijuana-impaired driving. The agency used what it learned from that process to develop several creative concepts for a future ad campaign to address the issue. Now, CDOT is again collaborating with the public and its partners to refine these concepts through workshops, focus groups and an online survey, with the goal of producing an awareness campaign that better resonates with cannabis consumers in Colorado.
“We want as many people as possible to weigh in on these concepts,” said Sam Cole, safety communications manager at CDOT. “Our goal is to capture feedback that spans a wide range of views, lifestyles and demographics to get a well-rounded perspective of how these messages are connecting with different audiences.”
The public can take the survey at http://bit.ly/CDOTCannabisConvoSurvey. To view the creative concept animatics, visit http://bit.ly/CDOTCreativeConcepts. The animatics show a preliminary version of what a public service announcement video may look like.
As part of its outreach, CDOT will be at the Fly Hi 420 Festival at Civic Center Park on April 20 with “The Conversation Station” — an interactive exhibit that invites festival-goers to record video testimonials about marijuana and driving and offers another opportunity for people to weigh in on CDOT’s creative concepts. Based on feedback gathered last year, Coloradans want to see more credible, independent, empirical research on drugged driving – so CDOT is also working to support the Colorado School of Public Health at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus’ study on marijuana and driving performance, which will have a presence at the festival alongside CDOT.
“This is a really complicated issue and we realize there isn’t a straightforward solution,” said Cole. “That’s why it’s so important for the public to engage in this process and be a part of these conversations to help guide the future of cannabis in Colorado.”
To heighten safety awareness, CDOT recently announced its Whole System Whole Safety initiative. This project takes a systematic statewide approach to safety combining the benefits of CDOT’s programs that address human factors, physical assets and organizational culture to better support real time operations. The goal is to improve the safety of Colorado’s transportation network by reducing the rate and severity of crashes and improving safety conditions for those traveling by all transportation modes. The program has one simple mission - to get everyone home safely.
Marijuana-impaired driving continues to be a problem on Colorado roads. From 2017 to 2018, the Colorado State Patrol (CPS) noted a 25 percent increase in marijuana DUI citations, and in 2018, more than 20 percent of all DUI citations by CPS involved marijuana
For more information about The Cannabis Conversation and upcoming opportunities to participate, visit ColoradoCannabisConvo.com.
About CDOT
CDOT has approximately 3,000 employees located throughout Colorado, and manages more than 23,000 lane miles of highway and 3,429 bridges. CDOT also manages grant partnerships with a range of other agencies, including metropolitan planning organizations, local governments and airports. It also administers Bustang, the state-owned and operated interregional express service. Gov. Jared Polis has charged CDOT to further build on the state’s intermodal mobility options.
