NJ is the most dangerous state for pedestrians. What’s Asbury Park doing about it?

How safe do you feel on Asbury Park city streets? We’d love to hear from you. Email: apcompletestreets@gmail.com

We all walk sometimes. Some of us ride bikes, and many drive.

Are you ever fearful when you’re seeing a loved one off in a car, on a bike, or sending a child off walking to school?

What’s Asbury Park doing about safety on city streets?

There have been some efforts to implement measures to calm traffic, but bike lanes are not connected, curb extensions are not built into newly paved roads. School zones lack basic complete streets infrastructure.

Our streets are wide and seem to invite speeding, so that’s what drivers do. Drivers routinely ignore stop signs, and run through right turns on red without stopping.

Factors that worsen pedestrian safety include long crossing distances, intersections where right-on-red is allowed. More cities are banning right turn on red, and like in Hoboken redesigning streets to save lives. .

Things to know about crosswalks and pedestrian safety.

Meanwhile, there is also a sense of driver entitlement, and simmering anger at anyone using the roads other than drivers.

Road rage leads to traffic violence.

Incidents of road rage escalate across the country. Anger triggered by stress leads to aggressive driving behavior, speeding, and crashes: “humans are just too overwhelmed with, just, everything.”

Road rage in Poughkeepsie involved gunshots, and leads to fist fighting in Ohio days ago.

New Jersey has the distinction of being the most dangerous state in the country for pedestrians.

At some point in life, nearly everyone has been a pedestrian, whether out on an evening stroll, crossing a busy street in the center of town or walking home from school or the bus stop as a kid.

A study has found that the overall number of pedestrian fatalities has increased by 53.34% since 2012.

By gathering and analyzing data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s fatality analysis reporting system, the study also found that New Jersey is the most dangerous state in the country for pedestrians.

Streets are public space. Everyone deserves to use the space equitably and safely.

In April Smart Growth America reported that pedestrian fatalities are at a historic high.

We know the problem, we know the cause, and we know how to fix it.

Painted stripes on the road are not the only solution.

Paint doesn’t protect. 18% of crashes take place in crosswalks.

Our streets are dangerous by design, designed primarily to move cars quickly at the expense of keeping everyone safe.

Let us know what you think about your safety on city streets in Asbury Park. Email apcompletestreets@gmail.com

Onward~

Polli Schildge, Editor APCSC

February 25, 2021February 25, 2021

Support The Federal Complete Streets Act!

Take one minute to help make a safer, healthier, and more equitable community.

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

The Complete Streets Act Is Back

By Helen Hope · February 24, 2021

Today, Senator Edward J. Markey (MA) and Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) re-introduced the Complete Streets Act of 2019, a bill that promotes safer and more accessible street design across the United States.

The United States has a crisis: pedestrian fatalities increased by 35.4 percent between 2008 and 2017. In 2018 alone, 6,227 pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes, the highest fatality rate since 1990.

The alarming increase in the number of people killed while walking 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.

These numbers can change with better street design (as we argue in our landmark report on pedestrian fatalities every other year). A “Complete Street” is one designed to provide safe and accessible transportation options for multiple modes of travel, as well as for people of all ages and abilities. They can accommodate pedestrians, bicyclists, and public transit users, not just cars and freight vehicles.

To create safer streets, the Complete Streets Act does three basic things:

Sets aside federal funds to support Complete Streets projects (five percent of annual federal highway funds)
Requires states to create a program to provide technical assistance and award funding for communities to build Complete Streets projects
Directs localities to adopt a Complete Streets policy that meets a minimum set of standards to access that dedicated funding

The Complete Streets Act requires that states set aside a portion of their federal highway funding to create a grant program that funds Complete Streets projects to make transit routes safer and more accessible. Through this program, eligible local and regional entities can apply for technical assistance and capital funding to build safe streets projects, such as sidewalks, bike lanes, crosswalks, and bus stops.

The federal Complete Streets Act is modeled on a landmark law in Massachusetts that has catalyzed the adoption of nearly 200 local Complete Street policies and implementation plans and funded over 100 safety projects in just three years. The cumulative effect is safer roads for everyone—no matter whether they’re walking, biking, scooting, taking transit, or driving.

November 5, 2019November 4, 2019

IT’S TIME TO DESIGN FOR SAFETY, NOT SPEED

We know how to save the lives of people walking and biking…but will we #slowthecars?

Policy makers might not understand how to design safe roads, but more problematic, they are influenced by the automotive industry, so it behooves them to prioritize motor vehicles over other road users – the most vulnerable are not driving or buying cars.

Traffic engineers by definition prioritize the level of service (LOS) of automobiles moving in traffic. In the world of traffic engineering, speed limits are determined by allowing drivers to self-govern, thereby setting speeds according to the 85th Percentile Speed – the speed at or below which 85 percent of vehicles travel.

The numbers of deaths increases drastically with every 10mph. (See graphs/images in the article.) APCSC would like to see Asbury Park determine speed based upon safety. Most drivers know that they can exceed speed limits by 10mph, so how about #20isplenty?

SAFETY OVER SPEED WEEK: THERE’S ONE THING THAT ALMOST EVERY FATAL CAR CRASH HAS IN COMMON

It’s “safety over speed” week here at T4America, and we are spending the week unpacking our second of three principles for transportation investment. Read more about those principles and if you’re new to T4America, you can sign up for email here. Follow along on @T4America this week and check back here on the blog for more related content all week long.

Let’s start with a number: 49,340.

That’s how many people were struck and killed by cars while walking on streets all across the United States between 2008 and 2017. Almost 50,000 preventable deaths.

And yet, by and large, we call these crashes “accidents”. We still believe that these 50,000 deaths, and the deaths of almost 32,000 people every year killed inside of vehicles, are either just the cost of doing business for our transportation system, or were the product of bad behavior: distracted drivers, fatigued drivers, drunk drivers, or drivers not wearing seat belts.

There’s no doubt that distracted driving increases crash risk and should be punished. But distracted driving can’t explain all of these deaths. There’s one thing that almost every crash has in common, though: high vehicle speed.

When crashes occur at higher speeds, they are more likely to be fatal, especially when they involve a person biking or walking.

Read all about it:

http://t4america.org/2019/11/04/safety-over-speed-week-theres-one-thing-that-almost-every-fatal-car-crash-has-in-common/#easy-footnote-bottom-1-28661

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 12, 2019

Take Action! Support A National Complete Streets Bill

A NEW FEDERAL BILL TO MAKE OUR STREETS SAFER

A handful of leaders in the U.S. House and Senate introduced a bill that would finally require states and metro areas to design and build safer streets for everyone, but it will need strong and vocal support from across the country to become law.

Take Action For National Complete Streets

The Complete Streets Act of 2019would require states to set aside money for Complete Streets projects, create a statewide program to award the money (and provide technical support), and adopt design standards that support safer, complete streets. It was introduced today by Sen. Edward Markey (MA) and Rep. Steve Cohen (TN), and co-sponsored by Senators Blumenthal (CT) and Schatz (HI), and Reps. Espaillat (NY) and Gallego (AZ).

Complete Streets bill—tell your senators and representative to co-sponsor the Complete Streets Act of 2019.

February 7, 2019February 6, 2019

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

October 27, 2018November 1, 2018

Free Webinar: Small Places, Smart Mobility

Asbury Park fits the description of a small city developing smart ways to address equitable transportation. Learn about other ways that small cities are bridging the transportation gap for people who lack access to dependable transportation, or need a connection between their transit stop and final destination. Free webinar, “Small Places, Smart Mobility”, Thursday, Nov. 1 at 2pm EST.

By Natasha Riveron · October 17, 2018

The National Complete Streets Coalition continues the webinar series on implementation and equity this month with two stories of small towns doing big, innovative work to implement equitable transportation.

On Thursday, November 1, 2018 at 2 p.m. EDT is the next webinar, ”Small Places, Smart Mobility.”

https://smartgrowthamerica.org/register-for-small-towns-smart-places-webinar/