Month: March 2021

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CALL TO ACTION: NEED YOUR COMMENTS

REVISE THE MANUAL ON UNIFORM TRAFFIC CONTROL DEVICES! 
To our supporters: Many may not realize that there is a manual governing how our roads are designed, which is to prioritize the expedited movement of motor vehicles, NOT for the safety of people. It’s called the Manual On Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD). It’s outdated and related to, if not responsible for many of the problems on our streets today.
A large population in Asbury Park, and all over the US are  is directly affected by streets that are not designed for people. We need to change this. We need streets that are safe for the most vulnerable road users.
This graph from the last census shows the numbers of people who walk and bike to work – everyone deserves equitable mobility.
 
Please read about the initiative to rewrite the MUTCD and add your comment.  You can copy and paste the text below (or write your own comment) on the Transportation For America page, and click on “submit your comment” where you can also post on the Regulations.gov site.
MUTCD Revision:
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition supports America Walks. And I personally care deeply about my community, Asbury Park, NJ, and neighboring communities in the Jersey Shore area.The MUTCD is an obstacle to human activity by prioritizing the level of service for vehicular traffic, and must be completely revised to change the way roads and streets are designed.I join America Walks and other groups to ask that U.S. DOT perform a comprehensive overhaul of the MUTCD, centering on safety and equity. We need a rule book that is designed to support healthier, safer communities, that:
  • Ensures every urban and suburban signalized intersection has basic pedestrian infrastructure, like curb ramps, pedestrian signal heads that display “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” messages and crosswalks.
  • Sets speed limits based on safety, not based on how fast drivers can speed through our cities and towns.
  • Gives local residents a voice in what kind of infrastructure is needed.
  • Gives engineers flexibility to design streets that are safe enough for children, and all vulnerable users to navigate.I join America Walks in asking that FHWA reframe and rewrite the MUTCD, creating a path for guidance that aligns with the equity, safety, and sustainability goals of American cities, as well as those of the Biden Administration.
Thank you,
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition
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SECRETARY PETE BUTTIGIEG ADVOCATES A NATIONAL VISION ZERO, AND DE-PAVING CITIES

As we move into the next phases of adjustment to what a “post-covid” world could be like, we have a great opportunity to make permanent, big changes in our cities to make streets safe for everyone, especially the most vulnerable in Asbury Park. We have a car problem, not a parking problem. #toomanycars

Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition advocates for the city to adopt a Vision Zero Policy for Asbury Park to prevent crashes, injuries and fatalities.

 

Crashes can be prevented by building traffic calming measures that prioritize people walking and riding bikes, like truly protected bike lanes, bulb-outs, and to #slowthecars, mini traffic circles, and other built infrastructure to effectively make it impossible to speed, and unlikely not to see a traffic signal. As long as the design of our streets make it easy to speed, there will be crashes. Let’s keep the conversation going. Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition is here to help, advocating for safe, equitable access for everyone, especially the most vulnerable. This is Traffic Calming 101: https://apcompletestreets.org/traffic-calming-101/. Spread the word. Follow and support @asburyparkcompletestreets.

Buttigieg’s Infrastructure Plan Calls for a National Vision Zero

The Democratic candidate’s $1 trillion pledge to upgrade roads, utilities, and public transportation has an emphasis on road safety and climate adaptation.

His commitment to pair massive projects with a $200 billion job retraining program and 6 million new jobs has echoes of the Green New Deal, supported by candidates like Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.

Buttigieg goes further, however, in linking road-building with road safety: As president, he’d commit to a national Vision Zero policy. Sweden, where the traffic safety movement was born in 1997, has made Vision Zero a national priority; other countries like Canada and the Netherlands have followed suit by launching country-wide campaigns and setting out sustainable safety approaches, respectively. In the U.S., however, Vision Zero goals have been set at the state and city level, with varying levels of ambition and success.

Read more:  $1 trillion in investment in roads, utilities, broadband, public transportation, and lead mitigation, while putting more power in the hands of local communities to use funding on their own terms.

Buttigieg Says US DOT Should Support ‘Right-Sizing’ City Asphalt

Decommissioning even a fraction of our estimated two billion parking spots, for instance, could free up critical space for sorely needed affordable housing, parks, in-neighborhood grocery stores, and so much more; some advocates argue that simply ending local mandatory parking minimums so we don’t build any more unnecessary spots would have a seismic effect on American life.

Even thoughtfully removing small bits of asphalt without repurposing that land for other uses can carry benefits, for a simple reason: it reduces demand for car travel, while making streets safer for the vulnerable road users that remain.

READ ABOUT IT>DE-PAVING

Buttigieg says Transportation Department will push ‘bold’ thinking

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris holds a ceremonial swearing-in for Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg as his husband Chasten Buttigieg holds the Bible at the White House in Washington, U.S., February 3, 2021. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

“Today we face an unprecedented health crisis, we’re navigating an economy in danger and our nation is reckoning with the impacts of systemic racism,” he said in the one-minute campaign-style video. “But with new leadership comes a new opportunity, a chance to build our transportation system back better than it ever was before.”

Read about it: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/buttigieg-says-transportation-department-will-push-bold-thinking

 

 

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Our Streets Are Dangerous By Design

The Dangerous By Design Report

If the streets in your city are not designed for you and your kids, parents, or grandparents to walk or ride a bike, they are dangerous by design. Are there transit and mobility options for people to get around without a car? If not, your city streets are designed to prioritize traffic, not people.

Automobile crashes are occurring in every city in the US, including a rash of recent crashes at certain intersections in Asbury Park. The time is NOW to take a serious look at the way our streets are designed, and demand change.  Our cities are designed to prioritize drivers of motor vehicles leading to more deaths and fatalities than ever.

“The four most recent years on record (2016-2019) are the most deadly years for pedestrian deaths since 1990. During this ten-year period, 53,435 people were hit and killed by drivers.

In 2019, the 6,237 people killed is the equivalent of more than 17 people dying per day. ”

This doesn’t include 2020, the year of COVID when traffic fatalities went up, with less driving.

Learn about Dangerous By Design, and add your name to the petition for the 2021 Federal Complete Streets Bill.

Dangerous By Design 2021

 

The number of people struck and killed by drivers nationwide while walking increased by an astonishing 45 percent over the last decade (2010-2019).

The four most recent years on record (2016-2019) are the most deadly years for pedestrian deaths since 1990. During this ten-year period, 53,435 people were hit and killed by drivers.

In 2019, the 6,237 people killed is the equivalent of more than 17 people dying per day. 

The risk is not evenly distributed

Older adults, people of color, and people walking in low-income communities are disproportionately represented in fatal crashes involving people walking—even after controlling for differences in population size and walking rates.

Although people of all ages, races, ethnicities, and income levels suffer the consequences of dangerous street design, some neighborhoods and groups of people bear a larger share of the burden than others, which may contribute to the indifference of many policymakers to this astonishing increase. From 2010-2019, Black people were struck and killed by drivers at a 82 percent higher rate than White, non-Hispanic Americans. For American Indian and Alaska Native people, that disparity climbs to 221 percent.

A Federal Complete Streets Bill – Support the federal Complete Streets Act of 2021

A federal solution to a national problem

America’s streets are deadly. For too long, federal policy has prioritized high-speed driving at the expense of safety; tens of thousands of people are killed every year because of it. The number of people struck and killed by drivers while walking increased by 45 percent over the last decade. We are in the midst of an astonishing safety crisis as the United States has become an incredibly deadly place to go for a walk.

But a handful of leaders in the U.S. House and Senate have introduced a bill that would finally require states and metro areas to design and build safer streets for everyone. The Complete Streets Act of 2021 is desperately needed but it will take your support—and the support of your members of Congress—to get this bill passed into law.

Support this long-awaited federal Complete Streets bill—tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor the Complete Streets Act

Send a message to your Congressional representatives today urging them to support this legislation that could help lead to safer streets for people of all ages, races and abilities.