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A safety campaign blames pedestrians for getting hit by cars. This response is perfect.

StreetSmart, a Washington, DC-area public safety campaign, has been running an ad that lots of people find objectionable:

So DC resident Colin Browne made a slight revision:

What Browne is pointing out here is that the original ad is engaging in a bit of victim-blaming.

Yes, if you're a pedestrian, wearing bright colors reduces your risk of getting hit by a car. But ultimately, it's drivers that are responsible for running over pedestrians — and there's something weird about putting up safety ads on buses that focus on pedestrians' choice of attire instead.

To be fair, StreetSmart also has ads directed at drivers. But in the past, the organization has run other ads that bizarrely seem to suggest jaywalking presents a bigger threat to cars than pedestrians:

streetsmart ad

Read more: The forgotten history of how automakers invented the crime of "jaywalking."

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