Eyes Up Irish is a new Notre Dame Police Department campus safety campaign that encourages pedestrians, motorists and those on bicycles and scooters to pay attention to their surroundings to avoid accidents.
NDPD saw the need for the safety campaign when reports of near misses, accidents and concerns, particularly involving e-scooters, increased this fall. Police also received reports from building managers of people using scooters and skateboards inside buildings.
NDPD conducted benchmarking research against peer institutions to see how they handle similar safety issues. The department found that some universities issue tickets and fines and/or offer safety education that includes the proper use of bikes and scooters. NDPD also discovered some institutions offer storage and maintenance shops for bikes and scooters and/or partner with companies to provide bikes and e-scooters to campus.
Because of the increase in reports of accidents and near misses, NDPD referred to campus security footage to determine areas of high pedestrian traffic and to see how bikes and motorized transportation such as skateboards, hover boards, push scooters and e-scooters affected those areas. NDPD is now concentrating its safety education efforts in those areas.
The department partnered with the University’s Marketing Communications office to create a safety education campaign, which includes this message: “Whether you are riding, driving, rolling or strolling, keep your eyes up. Eyes Up Irish!”
Eyes Up Irish signage is in use in high-traffic areas and will soon appear on digital monitors across campus. Graphics are also popping up on NDPD’s social media accounts.
“This fall, we have had great conversations with students, faculty, staff and the general public visiting campus. They have shared stories of witnessing dangerous situations and have offered suggestions on where we should concentrate our safety efforts on campus. They told us they appreciate the attention we are giving to this matter,” said Robert Martinez, captain of crime prevention and outreach with NDPD.
The police department is also considering in-person or virtual presentations for the campus community, a mobile bike maintenance and registration shop and a bike/e-scooter safety class