Pedestrian Deaths Are Rising – Support the Federal Complete Streets Bill

In this article you’ll learn all you need to understand the critical importance of the Federal Complete Streets Bill. Saving lives is only one (the best) reason. Click to support a long-awaited federal Complete Streets bill.

“Our roads and sidewalks are far more than a means of transportation, they are a means of economic growth and community development, and we must make them safe and accessible for everyone,” said Sen. Markey said in a statement. “Whether you are traveling by foot, spoke, or pass, everyone deserves ‘complete streets,’ and this legislation will help fund safe transportation options for the 21st century.”

Pedestrian deaths keep rising in the U.S. Can Congress reverse the trend?

A proposed federal bill would require states to set aside highway funds for safer streets

By Alissa Walker Jul 11, 2019

After years of safety gains, pedestrian and cyclists deaths are up 30 percent in New York City this year.

Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

For the past decade, about 13 people per day have been killed while walking in the U.S., a number that remains troublingly high even as other roadway deaths go down. Now a new federal bill intends to address the country’s increasing pedestrian deaths as a national crisis.

The Complete Streets Act, introduced yesterday in both houses of Congress by Sen. Ed Markey, of Massachusetts, and Rep. Steve Cohen, of Tennessee, would require states to aside five percent of federal highway funds for complete streets programs. Complete streets are defined as corridors that are redesigned to give all users of the street equal access to the roadway, with a special emphasis on safety for the most vulnerable users.

Do You Hate Cyclists?

It seems everyone is hating on cyclists, aka people on bikes. We constantly hear that bikes “scare” people, or that they “almost got run down”… (scooters are a close second in the hating department). But why isn’t everyone seriously hating on drivers? Drivers of multi-ton motorized vehicles kill nearly 1.25 million people in crashes each year, on average 3,287 deaths a day. We have been led to believe that we need vehicles, but they are actually killing us.

Why Do NYC Drivers And Pedestrians Loathe Cyclists?

BY SHUMITA BASU, WNYC

JULY 16, 2019

“So we set out to explore the psychology of what happens to us when we compete for limited road space, and why much of the frustration seems to get dumped on cyclists. We walked the streets, spoke to people on bikes and on foot at the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, chatted with delivery truck drivers, and hung around the break room of a taxi garage to get a variety of road-users’ perspectives.”

Cars Are Killing Us

Asbury Park is perfectly designed to support alternatives to cars. Bike share, scooter share, electric car share, jitneys, pedicabs, and more.

This article in The New Yorker, in addition to recent articles in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and other respected and well- known publications tells the history and social, health and environmental impacts of automobiles in this country. It has become clearer that we need to address the problem of #toomanycars.

“The road has emerged as the setting for our most violent illustrations of systemic racism, combustion engines have helped create a climate crisis, and the quest for oil has led our soldiers into war.”

The “Automobile Era” was ushered in by men who saw a way to make a lot of money hustling Americans into thinking that everyone needed, and everyone could afford a car, and that vehicles represented freedom and our very identity.

This author quotes the stats: “Since 1899, more than 3.6 million people have died in traffic accidents (*Let’s make sure we NEVER say “accident”. They’re CRASHES.*) in the United States, and more than eighty million have been injured; pedestrian fatalities have risen in the past few years.”

“In 2018 alone, an estimated 40,000 people lost their lives to car crashes.” Since 1990 1 million people have been killed in car crashes.”

The environment has suffered irreparably from automobile emissions, and from our dependence on gas and oil. Human health has been adversely affected with particulates in the atmosphere.

Let’s keep working toward a car-free Asbury Park.

Was the Automotive Era a Terrible Mistake?

For a century, we’ve loved our cars. They haven’t loved us back.

By Nathan Heller

July 22, 2019

READ IT:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/07/29/was-the-automotive-era-a-terrible-mistake

July 25, 2019July 22, 2019

Dangerous By Design 2019

READ THIS REPORT.

Our cities are overrun by motor vehicles, and more people being killed outside of cars. Fewer drivers and passengers are being killed due to improved safety standards inside vehicles, but auto makers are building fewer cars in favor of large SUVs and trucks which kill people at a much higher rate.

We will continue to work to make streets safe for people walking and riding bikes, scooters, in pedicabs, and with any other alternative modes of transportation in Asbury Park.

“The last two years on record (2016 and 2017) were the most deadly years for people killed by drivers while walking since 1990.

This is happening because our streets, which we designed for the movement of vehicles, have not changed. In fact, we are continuing to design streets that are dangerous for all people. Furthermore, federal and state policies, standards, and funding mechanisms still produce roads that prioritize high speeds for cars over safety for all people.”

Between 2008 and 2017, drivers struck and killed 49,340 people who were walking on streets all across the United States. That’s more than 13 people per day, or one person every hour and 46 minutes. It’s the equivalent of a jumbo jet full of people crashing—with no survivors—every single month.

READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE:

https://smartgrowthamerica.org/dangerous-by-design/

July 24, 2019July 22, 2019

The Atlantic: US Legal System Prioritizes Cars

Since the crash that killed this author’s friend in 1995, approximately 1 million more Americans have been killed in car crashes. This carnage has been normalized in the US, and “governments have prioritized motorists’ convenience over other goals, including the lives of people who aren’t driving”. If you ride a bike have you ever been accused that you don’t belong on the road because drivers pay gas taxes? Speaking of taxes, buyers of expensive new electric or hybrid cars get great tax breaks:

“Those who walk or bike to work receive no commuter tax benefit, while those who drive receive tax-deductible parking. Another provision of the tax code gives car buyers a tax rebate of up to $7,500 when their new vehicles are electric or hybrid; buyers of brand-new Audis, BMWs, and Jaguars can claim the full $7,500 from the American taxpayer. Environmentally, these vehicles offer an improvement over gas-powered cars (but not public or active transit). Even so, 85 to 90 percent of toxic vehicle emissions in traffic come from tire wear and other non-tailpipe sources, which electric and hybrid cars still produce. They also still contribute to traffic, and can still kill or maim the people they hit. Why are we taxing bus riders to pay rich people to buy McMansions and luxury electric SUVs?

The automobile took over because the legal system helped squeeze out the alternatives.

JUL 9, 2019

Gregory H. Shill, Law professor

People drive on Highway 134 (Ventura Freeway) at the end of the evening rush hour in Glendale, California on September 3, 2010, before the start of the three-day Labor Day holiday weekend. Close to 34.4 million people will travel at least 50 miles from home over the long weekend and about 10.3 percent more will go by car this year as compared to last, according to predictions of The Automobile Club of America (AAA). AFP PHOTO / Robyn Beck (Photo credit should read ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

In America, the freedom of movement comes with an asterisk: the obligation to drive. This truism has been echoed by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has pronounced car ownership a “virtual necessity.” The Court’s pronouncement is telling. Yes, in a sense, America is car-dependent by choice—but it is also car-dependent by law.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/07/car-crashes-arent-always-unavoidable/592447/

July 23, 2019July 22, 2019

GREEN Streets Act Introduced

In keeping with the GREEN Streets Act, this is Asbury Park’s goal: “…we must make it possible for people to take fewer and shorter car trips, as well as make it easy and convenient for people to bike, walk and use transit.”

Generating Resilient, Environmentally Exceptional National (GREEN) Streets Act introduced in the Senate today

Today Senators Ed Markey (D-MA) and Tom Carper (D-DE) introduced a bill that would measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions and vehicle miles traveled. This would be transformative.

“Unfortunately, our federal transportation program forces people to drive more by measuring success through vehicle speed—not the time it actually takes people to reach their destination. Building wider highways and sprawling cities to accommodate high-speed driving creates a feedback loop of more driving, virtually guaranteeing ever-increasing transportation emissions (and congestion). “

July 22, 2019

Who Pays For Roads?

As we become a more muti-modal country many drivers are claiming the roads they use are intended for motor vehicles only – bicycles and scooters are considered usurpers. There has been a belief that roads are meant for vehicles because drivers pay gas tax. But everyone is paying for roads, car owners, or not. In this 2015 article the author suggests, “It’s also high time to enact a per-mile fee that can be adjusted for the types of transportation costs we’d like to capture—emissions, congestion, construction, maintenance, transit equity…”

Debunking the Myth That Only Drivers Pay for Roads

ERIC JAFFE MAY 13, 2015

Landing on the moon was still a wild dream the last time gas taxes paid nearly the full cost of our roads.

“”When you tally all these hidden costs together, alongside the assists that already occur for road construction and maintenance, the average household pays between $1,105 and $1,848 a year in what the report calls “uncompensated damage costs to support motor vehicle use in the United States.” Again: whether they drive a lot or hardly at all.””

News: Electric Scooters And Valet Parking!

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition says YES to mobility options like scooters, which will get people out of cars, reduce congestion in the city, and provide transportation for people who don’t own cars .

Asbury Park Transportation News!

The City of Asbury Park released its Summer 2019 transportation updates Friday.

“This summer, the City launches an electric scooter program, downtown receives a valet parking service, an additional parking payment app becomes available, and the new Guest Parking Permit program was introduced,” a written news statement said.

July 14, 2019July 14, 2019

Video: WNYC, Gothamist, The Green Space Panel On Biking

Watch (or listen) to this show if you’re a bicyclist – or have interest in safety for everyone on our streets. Panelists dig deep into issues that concern everyone in any city in the US: bike and pedestrian infrastructure, car culture, law, e-bikes, police enforcement and more…NYC Police Chief even gets some heat.

We the Commuters: Biking NYC

Originally Aired: Thursday, July 11, 2019

Up for discussion: Biking (and bicyclists’ safety), Citi Bike, delivery guys and more. Throughout the night there will also be bike-curious trivia, where we’ll put your bike-related knowledge to the test for some super sweet swag.

WNYC and Gothamist reporters Shumita Basu, Jake Offenhartz, Stephen Nessen and Chris Robbins host the evening with guests State Senator Zellnor Myrie; Chief Terence Monahan from the NYPD; Citi Bike‘s Caroline Samponaro; bike lawyer Adam White; Jing Wang, the filmmaker behind the documentary “A Winter With Delivery Workers“; and Shabazz Stuart, an urban transportation advocate and CEO of Oonee.