The premise of Old Enough!, a Japanese reality show streaming on Netflix is simple. In 10-minute episodes a tiny kid sets off to complete the child’s first errand alone. (Well, “alone,” with the cameramen.)
Get your earbuds ready and go for a walk today and listen to
this podcast episode, First Errand on 99% Invisible, based upon the show.
It’s about everything we want for kids, for everyone on our streets – safety from drivers, and streets designed for human mobility.
From the show “Old Enough”
Needless to say, the show couldn’t be set in the United States.
Parents who have allowed young kids independence to play alone have been arrested, or at the very least are labeled terrible parents. This paranoia about kids’ safety in general, and especially on our streets says a lot about our culture.
Only 10% of American kids walk to school, compared with over 80% of kids in Japan. Kids start walking to school in Japan at a very early age, because they CAN. Roads and street networks are designed for kids to walk. Drivers in Japan are taught to yield to pedestrians. Speed limits are low. Neighborhoods have small blocks with lots of intersections. And there is little or no street parking in neighborhoods.
Everyone should be able to safely, REALLY safely walk on American streets.
Pete Buttegieg, USDOT Secretary, plus state, and local legislators support safe road design, and there is local and gov funding available, but we need political will to implement traffic calming measures.
Road design must change to PREVENT crashes involving people who bicycle, walk, run, scooter, skateboard, push strollers, as well as people who drive cars.
Inequitable NJ law already exists requiring a bell and bike lights, and 3 out of 4 people ticketed for bell or light infractions are people of color.
Many people who ride bikes for daily transportation may not have the ability to acquire a helmet – therefore enforcement of a helmet law will lead to even more people being targeted by police.
… it is hard to overstate how our unnatural obsession with head protection is stifling the growth of our bicycle culture. It achieves little, except deterring the most casual cyclists, who also happen to be the slowest and safest ones on the road.
Bad driver behavior is a problem, but…
It has never worked to continually remind drivers to stop texting, obey traffic signals, and slow down. It’s impossible to change human behavior with signs, PSAs, even with laws. Automobile ads promote driver entitlement, and manufacturers are building distractions right into the dashboard. Larger and larger SUVs and trucks are killing more people, and cars that can exceed 100mph, and roads that invite speeding are all ongoing problems.
Jesse Singer’s book There Are No Accidents makes it clear that the system is responsible, not the individual. A helmet law will not keep bike riders safe from crashes, which kill 45,000 people a year in the US, and the number is rising. Crashes are not accidents, “preordained and unavoidable”.
A critical mass of cyclists improves the safety for everyone.
Yale student How Sen writes, “If you do choose to wear a helmet when biking, don’t stop there: Learn how to properly and safely interact with vehicles. Share the road. Know your rights. Learn to take the lane and feel comfortable about it. Not only do motorists treat you differently when you’re wearing a helmet, studies show that helmets may be giving you a false sense of safety.”
“Statistics show that cyclists’ fear of head trauma is irrational if we compare it to some other risks. Head injuries aren’t just dangerous when you’re biking—head injuries are dangerous when you’re doing pretty much anything else.”
Only safe road design will mitigate traffic violence.
Everyone outside of a car is a vulnerable road user, and we cannot and should not depend on helmets, bells, and lights – or even drivers – to keep us safe. Only safe road design will mitigate traffic violence for everyone, including drivers themselves.
Since the 1920s automobile manufacturers have been touting the wonders of car travel.
The goal of the industry was to create this pervasive myth to sell more cars.
Through the 1940s, 50s and 60s owning a vehicle was aspirational, possible for the well-to-do, mostly white American consumer. Racism was structurally built in. Robert Moses leveled minority neighborhoods to build highways to make way for cars.
Sara Seo in Policing the Open Road: How Cars Transformed American Freedom, ” reveals how the rise of the automobile led us to accept – and expect – pervasive police power. As her book makes clear, “this radical transformation in the nature and meaning of American freedom has had far-reaching political and legal consequences.”
”Today, officers make more than 50,000 traffic stops a day. “Driving while Black” has become a major route to incarceration — or much worse.
When Daunte Wright was killed by a police officer in April 2021, he had been pulled over for an expired registration tag on his car’s license plate. He joined the long list of Black drivers whose violent and premature deaths at the hands of police were set in motion by a minor traffic infraction — Sandra Bland (failure to use a turn signal), Maurice Gordon (alleged speeding), Samuel DuBose (missing front license plate), and Philando Castile and Walter Scott (broken taillights) among them. Despite widespread criticism of the flimsy pretexts used to justify traffic stops, and the increasing availability of cellphone or police body cam videos, the most recent data shows that the number of deaths from police-driver interactions is almost as high as it has been over the past five years.”
Asbury Park is the recipient of funds to implement traffic calming methods on 3rd and 4th Avenues.
Some residents have been vocal about their objections to mini roundabouts, citing loss of parking. This is NOT true – the parking they fear losing is not legal within 25′ of the corner. Yellow daylighting paint now clearly indicates required parking distance away from the corners at the intersections.
APCSC is happy to discuss the best ways to help prevent speeding, which can include other treatments like raised crosswalks, and speed humps.
After driving roundabouts, the number of people who favor them more than doubles. A survey on drivers’ views of roundabouts before and after construction conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) illustrates public opinion. Before construction, the number of drivers in favor of roundabouts was only 31 percent, and those strongly opposed was 41 percent. After driving them, this shifted to 63 percent in favor and only 15 percent strongly opposed.
Studies have shown that roundabouts are safer than traditional stop sign or traffic signal controlled intersections.
Roundabouts reduced injury crashes by 75 percent at intersections where stop signs or traffic signals were previously used for traffic control, according to a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). Studies by the IIHS and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) have shown that roundabouts typically achieve:
A 37 percent reduction in overall collisions
A 75 percent reduction in injury collisions
A 90 percent reduction in fatality collisions
A 40 percent reduction in pedestrian collisions
National Association of City Transportation Officials Guide ToMini Roundabouts
NACTO diagram of a mini rondabout.
Mini roundabouts and neighborhood traffic circles1 lower speeds at minor intersection crossings and are an ideal treatment for uncontrolled intersections.
Mini roundabouts may be installed using simple markings or raised islands, but are best applied in conjunction with plantings that beautify the street and the surrounding neighborhood. Careful attention should be paid to the available lane width and turning radius used with traffic circles.
A neighborhood roundabout in Washington State. WSDOT
Roundabouts have become an increasingly popular intersection type by traffic engineers, communities, and transportation officials. The purpose of this report is to examine the safety performance of roundabouts by comparing the before construction crash rates and the after construction crash rates and traffic volume data. Overall, roundabouts are performing well when looking at the crash reduction record. Roundabouts in Minnesota have had over an 80% reduction in fatal and serious injury crashes
Minnesota has ~200 roundabouts, and like any other skeptical traffic engineering team, they’ve been documenting the results.
Carmel, Indiana has 138 roundabouts, the most of any city in the US. Roundabouts move traffic more efficiently and reduce the number of fatalities and serious-injury accidents. They work because of their safety record, their compatibility with the environment, their aesthetics and their ability to make it easier for pedestrians and bicyclists to navigate.
The reasons people choose/use different transport modes are complex, often sensitive and controversial – how about parking??
As advocates for active transport, and safe streets our messaging doesn’t have to be about bikes or cycling, skooting, or even walking.
We can focus our discussion on the type of city in which we all want to live.
n on
If we want to enable more people to engage in active transport, micromobility and transit we cannot afford to have a war with the same people whose hearts and minds we’re trying to win.
Driving a private car has become completely normalized and often unquestioned as the primary choice of transport. But as more and more people are beginning to question it, we can encourage curiosity and interest, not put them in a position of defensiveness.
People who drive exclusively often have never experienced the joy, and health benefits of riding a bike or walking instead of driving.
Other people have no choice and ride bikes or walk because they don’t own cars.
So we must encourage our city leaders of the worthiness of designing road environments and public spaces for purposes and functions for everyone.
It’s about enabling movement of people and goods in various different modes of transport, including motor vehicles. It’s also about creating places where people can linger.
Local councils across the country are working toward implementing a framework to make more liveable cities.
A driver will only receive a ticket if they are speeding 10mph above the speed limit or if they run a red light, basic traffic rules that help save lives and prevent injuries.
PLEASE PLEASE write a short note directly to Tara Gill, tgill@saferoads.orgto sign on. Tell her your name, position, and organization or affiliation and that you support speed cameras in NJ and OPPOSE THIS BILL.
The event will be moderated by the League of Women Voters as well as Asbury Park reporter for The Coaster, Carol Gorga Williams; District 3 Representative, Dan Harris; and President of West Side Citizens United, Nina Summerlin.
The candidates are:
For Mayor:
John Moor
Sonja Mack
Felicia Simmons
For City Council:
Jesse Kendle
Angela Ahbez-Anderson
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition is dedicated to its mission of transportation equity in Asbury Park including equitable access and safety for all users of Asbury Park streets.
The League of Women Voters, a nonpartisan political organization, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
There will be a Q & A, and a drawing for a bike from Second Life Bikes, gifts from Asbury Park Cyclery, Ada’s Gojo, Cryolete, Galley Pizza, Booskerdoo and more!
THE STREET PROJECT is the story about humanity’s relationship to the streets and the global citizen-led fight to make communities safer.
Digging deep into the root causes of traffic violence, the filmmakers engage a diverse array of experts including street historian Peter Norton, city planner Jeff Speck, and urban design expert Mikael Colville-Andersen. These expert interviews are interwoven with the stories of real people working to make their communities safer.
Asbury Park Complete Streets Coalition is dedicated to its mission of transportation equity in Asbury Park including equitable access and safety for all users of Asbury Park streets.
Active transportation refers to human-powered travel, like walking, bicycling, and riding a scooter or skateboard. The North Jersey Transportation Planning Authority (NJTPA) is developing a Regional Active Transportation Plan for 13 counties in northern and central New Jersey. This is an important step in planning safety improvements to protect people walking and biking.
The goal of this plan is to help establish a safe and functional regional network of pedestrian and bicycle facilities to better connect where people live to where they need to go. Active transportation facilities include sidewalks, crossings, bicycle lanes, trails or other elements that provide safe and convenient opportunities for physically active travel.
Take Our Survey
Your responses will help us identify where there are challenges to safely walking or biking. Once you have completed the survey, please use the interactive map below the survey to identify specific locations in our region. The survey will be open through October.
We’re excited to share the documentary,“The Street Project, premiering on PBS International and Amazon Prime Video on Aug. 25.
The film will be illuminating for many, especially those who drive – which is almost everyone. It brings the American traffic safety crisis — and its possible solutions — to a TV audience.
Bicycle fatalities increased more than 40% between 2010 and 2020, according to the National Safety Council, and preliminary 2021 data from the Governors Highway Safety Association showed that last year saw 7,485 pedestrian fatalities, the most in 40 years.
Bicycle infrastructure on Asbury Park streets, particularly protected infrastructure) is far behind were we have hoped it to be since we began advocating in 2015, outlined in the AP Complete Streets Resolution, and in the city’s Plan For Walking And Biking.
Asbury Park Slow Roll, June, 2021
The surge in vehicle crashes is disproportionately harming lower-income families and Black Americans.
Many people in Asbury Park walk and ride bikes or scooters for daily transportation.
Pedestrian behaviors like jaywalking (fake, made up by the auto industry) have been a smokescreen to get drivers off the hook for the surging numbers of walker and bicyclist injuries and deaths in the US. Drivers have gotten off for years claiming, “she came out of nowhere”, and the media, influenced by the auto industry has been blaming people walking distracted by cell phones, or blaming people riding bikes and scooters.
It’s almost NEVER the case that crashes happen because people ride or wander into traffic.
The design of our roads encourage (or do little to deter) speeding, and the proliferation of huge vehicles, and driver distraction from dashboard screens have led to a surge in crashes, injuries and deaths of people outside of vehicles.Tom Flood, a former auto ad executive, now a walking and biking advocate using his ad skills created this jarring video: Dashboard screen experience: iCrash, iKill.
Apple Car Play dashboard screen.
Drivers are speeding in gigantic “living rooms on wheels”, with built-in dashboard distractions, on roads that were designed to expedite the movement of vehicles. The incredible power of auto industry advertising has hijacked our brains into believing that we have a human right to drive, that our vehicles are tied to our identity, and that drivers own the road. Safety campaigns aimed at the behavior of people walking and rolling, and the mistaken idea of “shared responsibility” on our roads are contributing to the ongoing problem of traffic violence.
The government has blamed the increase on speeding, impaired driving and other reckless driving behavior. The USDOT has pledged to fund investments in speed enforcement and to build safer roads. We can do the same here in Asbury Park.
We can do things right now to stop traffic violence in Asbury Park.
Crash on Memorial Ave in August 2022.
Crashes have been occurring with greater frequency in Asbury Park.
Reducing car dependency with alternative transit options (Via in Jersey City is an idea!) will reduce traffic. Traffic calming measures are not always laborious or expensive, and there is already grant funding appropriated for projects which have not yet begun. AP administration has been advised by APCSC of NJDOT grants, and Federal grant programs: SS4A and RAISE grants.
There is funding available, but it takes prioritizing, commitment, and political will to get things done.
We are advocates of safe streets for the most vulnerable road users in Asbury Park – that’s literally anyone not inside a car. Cars still rule here, and there’s a political fear of alienating and angering drivers. We get it. Drivers vote, and votes matter. But what matters more is the human health crisis of traffic violence. We believe that a message promoting a safe and healthy city will win votes.
APCSC supports bold candidates who will step up to make permanent change on our streets. Stay tuned.
