ADOT’s popular Safety Message Contest is underway for 2024

PHOENIX – The Arizona Department of Transportation is once again asking citizens to put their word skills on display as part of the agency’s annual Safety Message Contest.

ADOT opened the submission window for the 2024 edition of the popular tradition on Tuesday and will accept entries online through July 29.

This is ADOT’s eighth year of asking the public to come up with engaging and creative traffic safety messages.

“Safely connecting people is our top priority,” ADOT Director Jennifer Toth said in a press release. “This contest is an engaging way to remind everyone about the importance of being alert so everyone can get home safely.”

ADOT’s Safety Message Contest is back again!

We want to see your creative and engaging traffic safety messages! Send in as many submissions as you’d like at https://t.co/AzKFnwiEHG through July 29. pic.twitter.com/oguLyxxHtm

— Arizona DOT (@ArizonaDOT) July 23, 2024

ADOT will review the entries and determine which ones earned the right to be finalists. Members of the public will then vote on their favorites from a field of at least 10 options.

The top two Safety Message Contest finishers will get to see their words in lights along Arizona’s highways.

ADOT Safety Message Contest entry guidelines

Submissions must meet several guidelines to be considered. Foremost, the slogans have to be related to traffic safety.

Entries also have to fit the format of ADOT’s overhead message signs, with three lines, each 18 characters or fewer.

Emojis, hashtags, phone numbers and web addresses are no-nos, but ampersands (&) can be used to save a few characters.

The 2023 contest drew 3,700 entries. The winning messages were “Seatbelts always pass the vibe check” and “I’m just a sign asking a driver to use turn signals.”

ADOT has reputation for humorous safety messages

ADOT’s professionals have famously delivered humorous messages to encourage safe driving for years, often using pop culture references on the department’s 300-plus electronic signs.

The greatest hits include nods to Taylor Swift (“Cut off? Don’t get bad blood, shake it off”), “Hamilton” (“History has its eyes on you, slow down”), and “Star Wars” (“Focused driving is the way of the Jedi”).

Earlier this year, the fun phrases were thought to be an endangered species under new federal regulations. But that was just an incorrect interpretation of updated guidelines in the Federal Highway Administration’s Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices.

“The new edition does not include a ban on humor or pop culture references on changeable message signs. Rather, it includes a recommendation to avoid the use of humor and pop culture references in changeable message signs that may confuse or distract drivers,” an FHWA spokesperson told KTAR News in January.

Related

No, feds aren't banning humorous messages on Arizona freeway signsADOT reveals 2 winners for its annual Safety Message ContestADOT reveals 2 winners of traffic safety messages for sixth contestPhoenix officer is among winners of 2021 ADOT safety message contest2 found dead after fire at home in MaricopaNewborn found safe in northern AZ after being abducted from West Valley