Launched in 2003,
Transit
Watch is a
nationwide public awareness outreach campaign that
encourages the active participation of transit passengers
and employees in maintaining a safe transit environment. The
campaign was also designed to help foster the role of
transit as a safe haven in communities across the country.
The goal was to create a useful toolkit that enabled transit
agencies to customize the materials with local information
and select the campaign and accompanying visuals that would
most effectively address specific community interests and
concerns to maximize interest and involvement.
Since Transit Watch began, many transit agencies have taken
the campaign and adapted it as their own, or have instituted
similar public awareness campaigns. Building on the success
of the initial campaign, the Federal Transit Administration
(FTA), along with its partners at the Department of Homeland
Security (DHS), created supplemental materials to the
original public awareness campaign,
resulting in the 2006
version. These materials include messages pertaining to
unattended bags, evacuation procedures,
translation of the
original Transit Watch materials into Spanish, and the
development of a "Five Step Strategy" for use in enhancing
communication with State and Local Citizen Corps Councils.
The enhanced
Transit Watch toolkit is a downloadable CD
containing the transit evacuation "Listen, Look, Leave"
campaign, the unattended items "Be Alert" and "Is this
Yours?" campaigns, the "Five Step Strategy" for linking
Transit Watch and Citizen Corps, and the Spanish language
translation of the original Transit Watch campaign. This
supplemental
Transit Watch toolkit along with the
original
Transit Watch materials represent the Federal government's
efforts to make our Nation's transit systems safer and more
secure. We believe these toolkits provide an effective means
for transit agencies, transit employees and the riding
public to keep America safe and on the move.
Both the 2003 and 2006 Transit Watch toolkits contain
valuable ideas that may be used as part of a public
awareness campaign, so be sure to download both.
If you have questions about the materials, please contact
Bridget Zamperini (bridget.zamperini@dot.gov) at the Federal
Transit Administration.
