Seasons of Safety

Posted on 01/15/2026 by Traffic Safety Team

The Seasons of Safety collection was created in 2018 to reinforce safe driving behaviors and our “Bringing You Home Safely” motto through traffic safety reminders throughout the year.

Just as the seasons change, so do our safety messages!

The Seasons of Safety includes messaging about occupant protection and distracted, aggressive, and impaired driving for various holidays and celebrations. Each graphic contains a traffic safety reminder to share on social media. We have created fun graphics for New Year’s, Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Earth Day, Cinco do Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Father’s Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, Super Bowl, MLK Day, Presidents’ Day, Spring Break and Summer Travel. Our goal is ZERO fatalities on our roadways because even one death is too many!

Holiday Greeting and Awareness Graphics for Seasons of Safety

We’ve included our collection of traffic safety messages for you to download and share. Team partners are welcome to add their agency logo. Please use these graphics to encourage safe driving habits by posting them on your social media pages (be sure to tag us @TrafficSafetyTeam on Facebook and Instagram), including them in emails and newsletters, or printing them to hand out or display in your office.

Portrait 1080×1350 Images:

New Year's Goals Seasons of Safety — New Year’s Goals

Florida School Crossing Guard Appreciation Day — New Year’s Goals

The Life of a Safe Driver — Spring Break: Life of a Safe Driver

St. Patrick's Day Traffic Safety — Spring Break: Life of a Safe Driver

Square 1080×1080 Images:

Happy New Year - Celebrate Safely — Happy New Year

Valentine's Day Traffic Safety Message — Happy New Year

Archive of Past Seasons of Safety Graphics

New Year’s

Valentine’s Day

St. Patrick’s Day

Mother’s Day

Memorial Day

Father’s Day

4th of July

Labor Day

Halloween

Halloween Costume Traffic Safety Message

Thanksgiving

Smart Turkey Buckles Up Traffic Safety Message

Happy Holidays

Spring and Summer Break

summer road trip travel safely buckle up

Other Seasons of Safety Days

Additional Safety Resources to Share All Year Long

If you like these great Seasons of Safety tips to share on social media, you may also want to check out some of our other traffic safety messages:

Traffic Safety Wise Words

Traffic Safety School Days

Mocktails • Recipes • Safety Tips

Target Zero and Safe System Approach

Posted on 06/13/2024 by Traffic Safety Team

The Community Traffic Safety Program is ground ZERO for Target Zero! The Northeast Florida Community Traffic Safety Teams work to connect, interact, plan, design, educate, and solve traffic safety concerns as part of Target Zero.

Ground ZERO for Target Zero

The Florida Department of Transportation is focused on Target Zero and employing the Safe System Approach in plans and projects. Everyone needs to share in the responsibility; everyone has a role!

FDOT District Two’s Community Traffic Safety Program has targeted traffic safety issues in Northeast Florida since 1994. We collaborate and solve local traffic safety concerns through education, enforcement, engineering, and emergency services. Click here to learn more about the CTSP and District Two Community Traffic Safety Teams.

TOGETHER TOWARD ZERO

Join Florida’s Target Zero Team. We are asking our network of Community Traffic Safety members and partners to continue their life-saving work and support this initiative. Please click her e to download, print, and display this 11×17 poster at your agency to help promote the vision of ZERO.

No Fatality or Serious Injury is Acceptable

Eight people are killed on average, and 49 are seriously injured on Florida’s roads daily. Driver behavior is a contributing factor in most severe and fatal crashes. This initiative focuses on connecting, interacting, and designing our transportation system to specifically relate to motorists most involved in serious injury and fatality crashes.

In Florida, Target Zero builds upon the national Vision Zero belief. Focusing on influencing dangerous driver behaviors before serious and fatal crashes occur. Target Zero aligns resources and establishes actions for all safety partners to take evolutionary steps. Improving how Florida connects, interacts, plans, designs, operates, and maintains its transportation system.

Eliminating roadway fatalities is our highest priority. Of course, we recognize that achieving zero deaths and serious injuries will not be easy and will require commitment, energy, and innovation. Together, we can make progress to achieve our target of ZERO.

Zero is our goal. A Safe System is how we will get there.

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has committed zero deaths by adopting the Safe System Approach to address the high number of severe and fatal injuries resulting from vehicle crashes. This holistic view of the road system anticipates human mistakes. Furthermore, it keeps impact energy on the human body at tolerable levels. Safety is an ethical imperative for everyone, including users, designers, and transportation system owners.

The Safe System Approach is based on six principles:

Death and serious injury are not acceptable.
Humans make mistakes.
Humans are vulnerable.
Responsibility is shared.
Safety is proactive.
Redundancy is crucial.

Five elements that work together for a safer and more accessible transportation system. Reducing severe injuries and fatalities, as a result:

Safer Roadways – This includes design and planning to make roadways more forgiving of human mistakes by separating users in time and space. For example, dedicated bicycle lanes or the implementation of pedestrian scrambles. This is where only pedestrians are given dedicated time and space to navigate intersections.
Safer Speeds – The magnitude of speed is directly correlated to the survivability of a crash. Mitigation examples include implementing countermeasures such as lane narrowing or speed feedback signage. Designing context-based roadways that set “target speed” goals. If a crash occurs, it is at a speed at which humans can survive.
Safer Road Users – This includes ALL road users and encompasses shared responsibility. Users must practice safe behavior, such as using raised medians that protect pedestrians when crossing and make them more visible.
Safer Vehicles – Employing safety measures in vehicles that help prevent crashes or reduce the magnitude of a crash. This can reduce fatalities and serious injuries. For example, autonomous braking, lane departure warnings, and driver alcohol detection systems.
Post-Crash Care – Ensuring proper emergency response is deployed, and all traffic incident management systems work in unison. Additionally, this includes the integration of emergency vehicle preemption or automatic crash notification systems.

Safe System Approach vs. Traditional Road Safety Practices

Traditional road safety strives to modify human behavior and prevent all crashes. Whereas the Safe System approach also refocuses transportation system design and operation on anticipating human mistakes and lessening impact forces to reduce crash severity and save lives.

Traditional Approach

Prevent crashes

Improve human behavior

Control speeding

Individuals are responsible

React based on crash history

Safe System Approach

Prevent deaths and serious injuries

Design for human mistakes/limitations

Reduce system kinetic energy

Share responsibility

Proactively identify and address risks

Additional information and resources available:

Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety Tips

Posted on 03/06/2023 by Traffic Safety Team

Florida’s weather may be unpredictable, but it offers many great opportunities to get outside. Residents, snowbirds, and vacationers enjoy riding their bikes and walking. Your Community Traffic Safety Team wants everyone to stay safe by following these pedestrian and bicyclist safety tips!

Pedestrian/Bicyclists | Safety Tips

bike ped safety tip card — *Wear bright colors. Increase your visibility and use bike lights/reflectors.*

With so many people heading outdoors for a bike ride, motorists – please ALWAYS WATCH for bicyclists on the road. Bicyclists, wear bright colors or reflective gear, so you are visible.

Walking is great for your health and environment! Lace-up and get moving, but be sure to SEE and BE SEEN. Make eye contact with drivers. Drivers, please look in all directions for people on foot!

bike safety tip — *Be predictable. Use sidewalks where provided. Cross streets where it is legal to do so.*

It’s essential when riding your bicycle to be predictable. Use sidewalks and cross where it is legal. Motorists are to give three feet by law when following or passing cyclists.

Walking is a great way to get fresh air and exercise. Remember to look left, right, and left again for traffic. Motorists, please drive with care and share the road.

Pedestrians should walk defensively and be prepared for the unexpected. Drivers, please remember to focus on driving and eliminate distractions; phones down, eyes up!

Be careful in busy parking lots – these areas can be more dangerous than streets! Drivers must proceed with caution and be on the lookout for pedestrians.

WALKING AND BIKING DEFENSIVELY

Walking and bike riding are great ways to stay active and healthy. Exercising is also a great tool for people of all ages and improves driving skills, especially older drivers. To learn more, check out our Defensive Driving Tools.

Exercise/Fitness Benefits:

Enhances mobility, flexibility, and balance
- Helps maintain or lose weight
- Reduces impact of illness and chronic disease
- Helps with better sleep and more energy
- Improves mood and self-confidence
- Boosts cognitive function

Click here for more great pedestrian safety tips for walkers and drivers.

Click here for important bicycle safety tips and resources for cyclists and motorists.

Three Defensive Driving Tools to Avoid Impact

Posted on 04/01/2020 by Traffic Safety Team

FDOT District Two Community Traffic Safety Program presents: Three Defensive Driving Tools to Avoid Impact, by Jeff Hohlstein, a Traffic Safety Team member in Clay County, Florida. From 2009 through 2016 Jeff was a Traffic Cycling Instructor certified by multiple organizations. There he learned a lot about vehicles’ next actions without looking at the driver. He also adopted OODA, a quick decision-making tool originally developed for combat by Retired Colonel John “Forty-Second” Boyd, USAF. The OODA Loop is easily adopted to defensive driving, to help you see and avoid conflicts before they become crashes.Learn about the OODA Loop: Observe • Orient • Decide • Act and other defensive driving tips to help reduce crashes on our roadways in this educational traffic safety video.

Defensive Driving Tools

Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act for Safe Driving

Adjusting Side View Mirrors for Safer Driving

Proper Safe Following Distance

Downloadable version of the video as a PDF presentation file for viewing and sharing:

Read the complete article, “Three Defensive Driving Tools to Avoid Great Impact,” below:

By Jeff Hohlstein

What do OODA, Three Mississippi’s, and a vehicle’s front wheels have in common? They can all be defensive driving tools that will alert and prepare you for potential conflict situations and avoid a crash.

In another year or so, I’ll enter that age range of 78–85, when most people decide to quit driving. Over the years, I’ve learned some tools that I hope will allow me to drive safely far beyond that range. I’m not a certified driving instructor, so I’ll describe the tools and how I use them. How you choose to use them is up to you.

The OODA Loop: See and avoid trouble

So what’s an OODA? The OODA Loop is a rapid decision-making tool developed by Retired Colonel John Boyd, USAF. In combat, OODA is used to totally confuse and demoralize the enemy. In defensive driving, OODA is a disciplined way of thinking that helps one see and avoid trouble. OODA stands for Observe > Orient > Decide > Act, and then do it again.

It sounds like common sense, doesn’t it? But then there’s a joke—Two crows were sitting in a tree above a corn field. Crow One said, “Let’s fly down and eat some corn.” Crow Two, “We can’t. There’s a man standing in the field.” Crow One, “That’s a scarecrow. If it was a man, he’d be looking at his cell phone.”

How many times do we see people who aren’t even observing? And, as we age, we need a conscious, disciplined decision-making tool to drive safely. OODA can be that tool. Let’s start with an easy example.

Three Mississippi’s: Three second rule

2019 Training Day

Posted on 07/24/2019 by Traffic Safety Team

Thank you for attending the 2019 Training Day for Traffic Safety Team Members in Gainesville and Jacksonville!

We had a great time at the 2019 Training Day – and we hope you did too. If you were not able to attend—here’s what you missed! All of the presentations are now available for download! Be sure to check out and share the photos from both trainings, too!

Training Day Team Packet

Training Day Team Member Tools

Photo Galleries

Gainesville Training	Jacksonville Training

The FDOT District Two Community Traffic Safety Program’s (CTSP) mission statement is to reduce traffic-related fatalities and injuries. The premise of the program is local communities, solving local problems with state assistance.

District Two covers the Northeast Florida region including the following 18 counties: Alachua, Baker, Bradford, Clay, Columbia, Dixie, Duval, Gilchrist, Hamilton, Lafayette, Levy, Madison, Nassau, Putnam, St. Johns, Suwannee, Taylor and Union. The major cities include Jacksonville, Gainesville, St. Augustine, Lake City, Palatka, Perry and Starke. As a major access gateway with connections throughout Florida and into other states, District Two plays an important role in regional mobility and the state economy.

Highway safety is at its best when we can address driver behavior, road conditions and vehicle factors as three interacting aspects of collision and injury prevention. Through events, on-going educational programs, education and action projects, individuals and agencies are combining resources to improve awareness and understanding of safety issues on a local level.

Community Traffic Safety Teams (CTSTs) are locally based groups of highway safety advocates who are committed to solving traffic safety problems through a comprehensive, multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary approach. Members include city, county, state, private industry and citizens. The common goal of each CTST is to reduce the number and severity of traffic crashes within their community.

Multi-disciplinary means integrating efforts of the four “E” disciplines that work in highway safety, including Engineering, Education/public information, Enforcement, and Emergency Medical Services. By combining these various disciplines, the CTSTs help to solve local traffic safety problems related to the driver, the vehicle and the roadway.

Traffic Safety Team

Bringing you home safely

Author Archives: Traffic Safety Team