The Town of Chapel Hill will hold an educational campaign throughout the month of March focusing on efforts to keep pedestrians safe.

The campaign starts Friday with “Phone Free Friday,” in which the town is asking everyone who travels to do so without looking at their phone in order to see how much they may miss while using that device.

This comes after two pedestrians were struck and killed on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and a third pedestrian was struck near University Place mall in January and February.

“With more people walking and biking around our beautiful community, and in light of recent events, we recognize the importance of drawing more attention to travel safety,” police chief and executive director for community safety Chris Blue said in a release. “We’re taking this opportunity to further educate our residents and visitors on best practices for safely traveling through our community. We’ll be doing so in addition to our normal enforcement practices throughout town.”

The town is taking other measures to prevent further accidents such as adding a new traffic light at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Longview Street and holding weekly Bike/Ped Team meetings to discuss improving pedestrian safety.

“We have received an outpouring of concern for safety for the pedestrians in our community and—with that concern—many requests for improvements,” said town manager Roger Stancil. “A group of town staff members representing many of our departments meet once a week to discuss ways to improve travel throughout our community and will be discussing these requests and other ways to continue improving travel safety in our community.”

More information on the safety campaign will be shared through the Chapel Hill Police Department’s social media channels.

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