By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
Six local students were awarded a total of $1,100 in privately donated cash prizes for winning a cartoon contest that will spearhead the Princeton Borough Traffic and Transportation Committee’s long-term “Safe Princeton” traffic safety education campaign.
Four Princeton High School students and one student each from Montgomery High School and Community Park Elementary School competed to name and write catchy punch lines for one or more of six satirical cartoon characters drawn by Joy Chen, the owner of “JoyCards.”
The students used their creativity and wit to spoof various hazardous trends whether it was texting while driving, speeding down sidewalks via bicycles, or crossing through the middle of traffic just to get a cup of coffee.
Princeton High School students William Xu and Augustus Huang each won $300 for coming up with a name and two punch lines for several cartoons and Jeanna Cody won $200 for two winning names.
Another Princeton High student, Liana Bloomwon, was awarded $100 for her punchline, “It’s Nassau, not NASCAR,” a line that prompted the judges to request Ms. Chen to create a new drawing of drivers trying to beat red lights on Nassau Street.
Representing Montgomery High School, Rebecca Ravitz nabbed $100 for her caption, “better to show up late than not to show up at all,” which is tagged to a character dodging traffic outside of a crosswalk to grab a cup of coffee.
Community Park student Jake Renda beat out six high school contenders and earned $100 for coining a motorist “Texting Tim” a character guilty of texting while driving.
Instead of handing out tickets and fines to offenders, the cartoons aim to raise awareness of all pedestrians, bikers and drivers by lampooning dangerous behaviors that have contributed to a 60 percent increase in accidents in the borough over the last two years.
With an increasing number of visitors, students, bicyclists, drivers and pedestrians in the downtown area, the committee hopes the campaign will result in reductions in accidents, risky behaviors and improved public sensitivity.
”Reluctant to embark on an enforcement campaign, the committee decided to undertake a more concerted Princeton-wide traffic education ‘Safe Princeton’ campaign aimed at heightening public awareness and stigmatizing some of the most dangerous behaviors through humor,” said Ralph Widner, the Safe Princeton campaign coordinator.
”Our town is getting more crowded all the time so it’s an increasing concern. We will use these characters to continue to educate residents and start to expand the campaign throughout town,” said Councilwoman Jo Butler.
