Who Writes MnDOT's Electronic Highway Signs?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you're driving Minnesota highways on a Monday, you've likely seen the quirky sayings on the Minnesota Department of Transportation's electronic signs.
Everything from "Duck, Duck, Buckle Up," to "Flying Mattress, Secure Your Load," to "Santa Sees You When You're Speeding" -- they're short and snappy and hope to grab drivers attention.
They also had Bruce from Bayport emailing WCCO wanting to know: Who writes those messages? Good Question.
"We have this secret committee, if you will," says Kristine Hernandez, the Statewide Toward Zero Deaths Program Coordinator for MnDOT. She heads up the Message Monday program.
It started back in November 2016. MNDOT, as the Minnesota Department of Public Safety was looking for ways to reach young men – a group that's most likely to die on Minnesota highways.
"We're looking to hit that target demographic," Hernandez says. "Usually they're not reading the newspaper or watching the news, so we decided we're going to hit them right where they are and that's on the roadway."
In 2017, 358 people died on Minnesota roads – a number that's plateaued over the past five years. The idea behind Message Monday was to push that number even lower.
"We need to keep doing the good things we all are doing, but we need to look for innovative, new approaches to find other ways to keep pushing that number even lower toward zero," says Hernandez.
Hernandez says the "secret" committee started with "quirky" people at MNDOT and has since expanded to include people from the Department of Public Safety. They know work with social media coordinators and communications officials. The committee meets just a few times a years and has already planned out its messages through October.
"They have to be understood by people, but clever enough to get their attention," she says. "The shorter, the better."
Bad words and innuendo are not allowed by MNDOT. For example, the Iowa DOT sign, "Shift Happens. Especially in Work Zones," did not make the cut in Minnesota.
For the most part, the response to the signs has been positive, with people writing on the MNDOT Facebook page they "LOVE" the messages and whoever writes them "should get a raise!!"
But, some people have called the signs distracting. For that reason, MNDOT only runs them on Monday outside of rush hour and if traffic engineers find they're causing backups, MNDOT will turn them off.
"Some people tell me you brighten up my Monday morning," says Hernandez. "It's just a way to get people to think about traffic safety."
MNDOT says it plans to do surveys in the near future to determine if the signs are resonating with drivers.