Take the Duke Safety Pledge

Last year, two Duke University Press staff members suffered minor injuries after cars hit them as they crossed busy intersections in downtown Durham.

To help minimize roadway crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists, Duke University Press management partnered with the city of Durham and Duke University Police Department to adjust traffic signals outside Press offices to give pedestrians more time to cross the street.

“We have to be responsible for our safety,” said Bonnie Conner, budget and logistics manager at Duke University Press who was not involved in the accident but was part of the traffic effort. “We continue to remind our employees to be cautious and not to assume the driver will see you, especially nowadays with people looking at phones and being in a hurry.”

Conner is helping Duke Police introduce “Yield to Blue Devils,” a new safety campaign in which Duke community members sign a pledge to obey traffic laws and help keep campus roads and crosswalks safe for pedestrians, motorists and bicyclists.

Employees and students who sign the pledge at police.duke.edu/yield will receive an “I Yield to Blue Devils” sticker.

From left to right, Bonnie Conner with Duke University Press, Eric Hester with Duke Police, and Melissa Neeley with the John Hope Franklin Center are working together to spread the word about "Yield to Blue Devils."

Duke Police officially kicked off its campaign Aug. 2 at National Night Out, a community-building crime prevention event, on Central Campus. Officers will also get help from nearly 120 alumni of Duke’s Citizens’ Police Academy, including Conner, who will share information about Duke’s safety campaign with schools, departments and offices.

“We want people to be mindful of pedestrians and realize that at some point they will be pedestrians themselves,” said Eric Hester, Duke Police’s crime prevention specialist. “Not only is pedestrian safety a law enforcement concern, but it is a community concern, and we all can take a few minutes to look at the pledge, sign up for it and make this difference.”

Vehicles hit more than 2,600 pedestrians and 970 bicyclists each year in North Carolina, according to Watch for Me NC, a safety program run by the North Carolina Department of Transportation.

Melissa Neeley, a building manager for the John Hope Franklin Center, works at the busy corner of Erwin Road and Trent Drive. She and other Duke employees who work near that intersection meet with Duke Police once a year to discuss pedestrian safety.

“I take public transportation, I am a driver, and on campus, I am a pedestrian,” Neeley said. “Taking the pledge and reviewing this information can give you a new perspective. It reminds drivers that they are also pedestrians sometimes, and drivers should yield to bicyclists and pedestrians.”