Tag: Dangerous by Design

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Distracted Walking Is A Myth – update.

Hello readers.

I saw the immediate aftermath of a bike rider getting hit by a driver one block from our house this weekend. The bike rider himself unbelievably seemed ok, and he said “I’m sorry…” but the driver had been far exceeding the local 25mph limit.

Why would even a bike rider himself take the blame for being hit by a driver? It’s a successful campaign by the auto industry to hijack American brains.

Let’s stop blaming pedestrians and bicyclists for their injuries and deaths.  Here’s the truth.

Why the ‘distracted pedestrian’ is a myth

This Curbed Article was written in 2018.  This is an update.

Victim blaming much?

It’s just easier, and it suits the industry to shift the responsibility for safety off the driver,  to take focus off humongous 9000lb vehicles, and away from infrastructure that is dangerous by design.

Place responsibility on the walker or on the person on a bike for their own safety. Done.

Truth: Drivers are killers. But hear me out…drivers themselves can’t be totally to blame…

Cell phones and gadgets which irresistibly distract drivers have contributed to soaring numbers of fatalities and injuries. Now cars like the 2021 Mercedes have huge dash screens, and other built-in distractions like “infotainment systems”, but car makers tell drivers to use them with caution, so oh yeah, we’re good.

Distracted driving that leads to injuries and death is a public health crisis. 

A Center for Disease Control updated study cited that one in every five people killed by distracted drivers was not in a vehicle — they were walking, riding a bike, or otherwise outside of a vehicle.

Texting while driving has been said to be as dangerous as driving drunk.”

But wow this is happening!  Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touch screens. Buttons are back!

For the past several years, huge SUVS and trucks are almost the only vehicles being built in America, so what’s a driver to do?  They’re marketed with features that protect people inside the vehicles, but everyone outside the vehicle is at risk. A walker hit by a driver of a Honda Civic will probably be injured, but maybe not killed. A person walking hit by the driver of a Ford F150 will be dead.

Roads are designed for speed. Most American traffic engineering designs roads to expedite traffic: Wide roads look and feel like landing strips, which invite, and encourage drivers to speed. It’s just what happens.

Onward~

Polli Schildge Editor APCompleteStreets.org

Send your comments and share your email to: apcompletestreets@gmail.com

 

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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.

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Dangerous By Design Letter: Health And Safety Risk On Memorial Drive

While we are listening intently to news about containing the Covid-9 virus, and trying to stay safe and healthy, there is an ongoing problem with a local county road which needs to be addressed as a serious health and safety issue.
This story about Good Samaritans in the Asbury Park Press on March 18th needs to bring focus to the deadly Monmouth County Rt 40A, Memorial Drive, which is dangerous by design.
Please read the letter dated today, March 25th, 2020 to the Asbury Park Press from Kenny Sorenson, resident of Neptune City, bike/walk advocate, father, grandfather, aka musician, “Stringbean”:
 
Dear Austin,
 In response to your brief article about another bicyclist run over by an S.U.V. on Rt. 35 in Neptune, I would like to suggest that you further investigate the plight of bicycle riders and pedestrians in Asbury Park and Neptune.
 
While A.P. has recently made safety improvements with bike lanes and a Main St. “road diet”, Neptune lags far behind. The danger to vulnerable road users is both a public health and a social justice issue.
 
Please consider contacting the people involved with the grassroots organization known as “Asbury Park Complete Streets”. They, along with Asbury’s transportation director, have made great strides in pedestrian and bike access and safety. Contrast that with the failures of Neptune and Neptune City.
 
A road like Memorial Drive, that is maintained by Monmouth County is dangerous by design. It functions as a kind of “mote” to keep undesirables on foot, namely people without cars who live in Neptune, from entering the exclusive shore communities of Avon-by-the-Sea and Bradley Beach.
 
The Asbury Park Press is a car culture newspaper with aa suburban bias. You Mr. Austin have a unique opportunity to change that.
 
Please feel free to call me. I would also be happy to take a walk or ride a bike with you when we are free to do so.
 
Sincerely,
Ken Sorensen
Neptune City
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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/

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From Dangerous By Design – to Safe by Design!

A user-friendly guide to things that any city can do to make it safe and more livable.

February 6, 2019

24 THINGS CITYMAKERS MUST DO STAT TO DESIGN FOR OUR LIVES!

“…we took our best stab at distilling the vastly important Smart Growth America, Dangerous by Design report into what we believe are the main takeaways, both in terms of the key evidence-based findings and the critical design and policy guidance that came out of the report. We also aimed to translate these directives into specific, actionable urban design recommendations that citymakers must – and can – start implementing STAT.

Together, we can go from Dangerous by Design to Safe by Design! Let’s do this thing.

Read about it…

http://www.stateofplace.co/our-blog/2019/1/safe-by-design-t8n9s