In 2023, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced an $8 million grant for the City of Gainesville to transform University Avenue into a Complete Street-- a crucial step for a thoroughfare that over the previous few years had seen a total of 70 pedestrian crashes with seven fatalities. At the direction of the Gainesville City Commission, our office launched a communications campaign around the issues of traffic safety, multimodal transportation and road improvements.
The goal was to reduce vehicular, pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities and injuries through a set of initiatives, programs and policy changes that would be shared with our residents through robust and multi-faceted communications.
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In developing a strategic communications campaign, I worked with the team to vet material and manage the scheduling of new content to maximize engagement and reach; utilize a mix of available mediums and channels; collaborate with stakeholders, policymakers and trusted messengers; and measure effectiveness of methods by observing outcomes.
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The communications case study below shows that traffic deaths in the City of Gainesville dropped from a high of 24 in 2022 to 18 in 2024-- a 25% reduction. By August of 2025, the number stood at just eight.
Strategic Communications
News Releases
With traffic safety at the forefront of local public awareness-- the Gainesville City Commission having declared a "traffic violence crisis"-- our communications team prioritized high level publicity for all transportation projects, grants and initiatives.
Booklet with Road Projects
Part of our strategy was to integrate transportation elements into the city's umbrella story. We did this through social media, news releases, the annual State of the City address, and this associated high-quality print booklet distributed to local audiences (along with a webpage and interactive GIS map).
Personal Testimony
When four-year-old Dylan Roberts was killed on University Avenue while walking home from a park, it galvanized community support for traffic safety measures. When I arrived in Gainesville one year later, the city manager asked me to call Dylan's mother, Megan Durant, and essentially conduct a "listening session."
Megan arrived at city hall with her family in tow, and we talked about Dylan, the family's deep sense of loss, and acts the city could take to help bring meaning to this tragedy. I proposed a strategy that would achieve that goal while serving the dual purpose of advancing our overall traffic safety measures. We would widely share everything moving forward. It was a story that had touched our entire community and could now be fronted by a woman exhibiting inspiring levels of courage and determination in the face of intense personal grief.
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I will never forget the moment I asked Megan to search her phone for images of Dylan we hoped to use in a flyer. She said she didn't want to scroll past the pictures taken at the hospital as she gave him his last bath. It was a gut punch. This single sentence shifted my perspective. It made the quality of her strength, and the importance of our communications work, more real. We had been given an opportunity to stand beside a hero facing impossible circumstances, and together we could create positive change.
This partnership with Megan led to numerous local headlines about traffic safety; the installation of a Pedestrian Hybrid Beacon (PHB) at the site of the accident; city and county resolutions to memorialize the PHB; and a visit to the state capitol where Megan addressed the Florida House Transportation & Modals Subcommittee along with a member of our legislative delegation, Rep. Yvonne Hinson (D).
Crosswalk Installation and Dedication
A main component of our multi-media communications campaign was the progress timeline. With regular achievements to report, we were able to sustain momentum and public support for the changes directed by our policymakers. The dedication of Dylan's crosswalk was a high point.
Earned Media
The media reports-- print, television and digital-- provided one measure of the effectiveness of our messaging. We were persuasive and getting attention. A second, more important measure was documented in the form of a correlating drop in traffic fatalities. A sampling of local news reports resulting from our communications campaign appears below.
Measurable Results
Since beginning this campaign in 2023, data from the Gainesville Police Department (GPD) has shown a substantial decrease in vehicle-related injuries and fatalities on city roads.
The number of traffic homicide victims within city limits, which peaked at 24 in 2022, began a slow but steady decline following the directive from the city commission and resulting operational and communications initiatives.
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As the graphic below demonstrates, traffic fatalities dropped to 20 in 2023, 18 in 2024, and by August of 2025 the number stood at eight (latest available data).
