Ohio’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan (SHSP) is a comprehensive effort to reduce the causes of roadway deaths and serious injuries. This data-driven plan sets goals, priorities and strategies for various safety emphasis areas. It maximizes Ohio's resources to prevent injuries and save lives on all public roads. The SHSP is updated every five years to address the state’s most critical safety issues.
ODOT and its partners face a significant challenge of reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries. The key was not only raising awareness of the issues but also encouraging behavioral change and building support among key audiences.
To address the rising number of traffic fatalities and injuries in Ohio, MurphyEpson has worked with ODOT to implement the SHSP for the last decade. In addition to branding the SHSP with its initial tagline of Toward Zero Deaths and most recently as Vision Zero, a multi-year effort of general SHSP stakeholder education and engagement included a website, fact sheets, tip cards and videos on a range of safety topics for the public and stakeholders such as roundabouts and other unique intersections, the introduction of new traffic signals and highway interchanges like diverging diamonds. Many of these materials are available at local Bureau of Motor Vehicles offices across Ohio. MurphyEpson also has worked on three updates of the SHSP, providing content and creative direction each time. MurphyEpson developed eye-catching infographics and charts to communicate complicated and detailed crash statistics to a wide range of audiences at numerous venues, including The Ohio State Fair.
To raise awareness of the rising number of fatal and serious injuries among older drivers in Ohio, MurphyEpson supported the creation of ODOT’s Stay Fit to Drive Older Driver Safety Program. Stay Fit to Drive educates and informs older road users, their families and caregivers about the importance of staying fit to drive through bold materials, including a resource booklet, fact sheets, tip sheets, landing page and environmental graphics for events, as well as media relations and a social media toolkit for December’s Older Driver Safety Awareness month observance. Another SHSP emphasis area is distracted driving. MurphyEpson planned and staffed the Ohio Distracted Driving Task Force and wrote, edited and designed the task force's report. This was the impetus for Governor Mike DeWine to introduce Ohio’s new primary enforcement distracted driving law, which the legislature passed in 2023.
