Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) employees joined the festivities at the H-E-B Thanksgiving Day Parade, not just showcasing their holiday spirit, but also promoting a critical safety message. These public servants traded their hard hats for walking shoes, as they assisted in guiding the Garfield balloon down Houston's streets last month.
The city's parade, now in its 74th year, attracted thousands who watched the gleeful procession of floats, balloons, and bands span over 20 blocks. The TxDOT group, while contributing to the merriment, had a serious agenda: advancing their #EndTheStreak campaign. "As part of the effort to promote #EndtheStreakTX, we thought it would be great to participate in one the nation’s oldest parades and one of Houston's higher profile and adored events bringing thousands of families together year after year," Dr. Brenda Bustillos, a TxDOT engineer, told TxDOT Newsroom.
The Houston ConnectSmart app, a solution connecting communities with various mobility options, was the primary sponsor of the popular Garfield balloon. A collaboration between TxDOT, the Federal Highway Administration, and local leaders was key in the app's creation, an integral part of the campaign that aims to reduce the daily fatalities on Texas roads, a streak that has persisted since November 7, 2000.
Moreover, the #EndTheStreakTX initiative extends beyond parades and app sponsorships—it's a robust social media and community-driven campaign, which exhorts drivers to adopt safer habits like buckling up, obeying speed limits, and never engaging in distracted or impaired driving. In doing so, TxDOT seeks to curb the over two-decade-long stretch of daily deaths on Texas roadways. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner served as the grand marshal of the parade, with Houston Rockets legends Calvin Murphy and Rudy Tomjanovich as co-grand marshals, adding star power to further draw attention to TxDOT's vital public safety mission.
