Last weekend I was riding my bike down 2nd Street NE towards East Capitol Street when a particularly aggressive driver decided that I had no right to be on the road. A shout, a flicked finger, and a week later, the District Department of Transportation has announced that it’s going to start reminding drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians to relax a little — the road belongs to us all.

According to a press release, DDOT is kicking off a new advertising campaign in seven of the city’s eight wards (all but Ward 3, we’ve been told) featuring billboards and movie trailers to encourage District residents to “Be Safe, Share the Road!” Forty billboards in bus shelters across the city will spread the word, while two movie theaters, Loews Georgetown 14 and Regal Gallery Place 14, will air the videos on TV screens located in the concession areas.

I suppose this is better than the alternative I would have proposed — an image of an angry cyclist with the caption, “Ride my Back Wheel Again and You’re Getting Popped in the Face.”

Image of the billboard from the DDOT website. The videos can be viewed here.