“Safe Ankara, Safe Pedestrian” Reflector campaign
Within the scope of the "Safe Ankara, Safe Pedestrian" campaign organized with the collaboration of the Finnish Embassy in Ankara and Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, 750 reflective armbands were distributed to students.
In the statement made by Ankara Metropolitan Municipality, it was mentioned that this is a very brilliant start for good cooperation with the Embassy of Finland in Ankara on a campaign that the municipality has already started to ensure the safety of students who had to go to school in the dark of the day.
The reflectors were distributed in a secondary school In Ankara and the project will continue with other schools in the coming terms. The aim of the project is to create more awareness of road safety as a part of educating the children about safety and well-being and for all citizens to notice the importance of safety measures.
HISTORY OF REFLECTORS
It is not very widely known that the pedestrian reflector was invented in the early 1950s by a Finnish farmer to protect his cart horses and trailers from car collisions in the dark. Then the idea was developed to be used for pedestrians, which then lead to the first version of reflectors. Today pedestrian reflectors come in numerous shapes and colors. The snowflake reflector is the most popular design of reflectors which is now considered as a Finnish classic. In addition to new reflector designs, the Finns are constantly coming up with new ways for pedestrians to get noticed in the dark. For example, a Finnish supermarket chain has recently introduced reusable shopping bags made from reflective material.
Ambassador Ari Mäki made a statement on his Twitter account: “We are glad to start this reflector campaign which I have used since my childhood. Now as a keen driver, I cannot but emphasize the visibility of all pedestrians during dark evenings. My snowflake and the yellow #reflector are from the 1970s. The orange Helsinki city traffic card has a reflector on the backside to show the bus drivers to stop when you are signaling them at the bus stop.”
We hope this cooperation continues and as Finland and Turkey have been cooperating in many fields, it creates more opportunities for our countries’ institutions to continue sharing their expertise for the well-being and safety of citizens.