It’s that time of the year when parents rejoice, and some kids lament. It’s also the time when you find a lot more children and young adults on and around roads. Today marks the first day of most schools across B.C. It’s also the start of our back-to-school campaign.

Like last year’s campaign, this year, we’re doing something that’s completely new and never been done before in North America to get people thinking about driving the speed limit in school zones.

Preventable, together with the BCAA Road Safety Foundation, the City of Burnaby, and City of Surrey, has set up a mobile digital billboard roadside at select schools that will photograph cars speeding in the area and post photos of them on the billboard along with the message, “Before you rush through here, have a word with yourself.”

The idea behind the (dare I say, provocative) campaign is to remind people that children are in the area and that they need to drive responsibly. Think of it like holding a mirror up to the speeder since they will see themselves onscreen as they drive by. We want to externalize that little internal voice. Having drivers see their cars on the billboard  might make them concerned that others might see it as well. As  Mayor Derek Corrigan of Burnaby said at the media launch outside of Aubrey Elementary,  ”The campaign is like the Homer Simpson moment when you go ‘Doh, I can’t believe I did that.’”

The signs aren’t linked to any police monitoring (although the police and the community were consulted with on the campaign), and the images aren’t stored in any database. Once a speeding car is photographed, the image stays on the screen for 30 seconds and is then replaced with a photo of the next car driving over the speed limit.

The digital billboard and photo capturing equipment will be moved to different schools in Burnaby and Surrey between September 6-9. The hope is that drivers who see their cars on the billboard will read the message and think about their driving habits around children.

If you’ve driven past this billboard or had a photo taken of your car, let us know what you think of the campaign. Or, If you haven’t seen the billboard in person, let us know about your thoughts are on drivers’ attitudes when it comes to school zones.