A Portland woman whose son was killed by a drunk hit-and-run driver has proposed a new method to apprehend motorists who flee the scene of a deadly collision. She hopes to bring an Amber Alert-like notification system to Portland to help nab the bad guys. The proposal is based on a system that's already up and running in Denver, reports Michael Andersen at Bike Portland:
Last week, Colorado's governor signed a statewide rollout of apparently successful pilot programs in Denver and Aurora.
"The notification goes to all patrol cars, cabdrivers, news outlets, truck drivers and pedicab operators. A message is displayed on traffic reader boards and on Crime Stoppers' Twitter and Facebook accounts," adds the Denver Post.
That paper reported last year that seven such alerts had been issued in the area in 2012-2013, and "some have resulted in arrests."
It also takes advantage of existing regulations that gather the contact information of professional drivers.
There's a discussion in the Bike Portland comments about how effective this system would be and whether it could safely alert people who are behind the wheel. What do you think?
Elsewhere on the Network today: PubliCola at SeattleMet reveals that a "coalition of groups" opposing a Seattle transit ballot measure appears to be composed of phantom organizations. Portland Transport says that in order for transit to function well on routes that include transfers, service needs to be relatively frequent. And Rails-to-Trails reports that an international working group on cycling safety is calling for a mix of speed control and protected bike infrastructure in cities.
This week, we talk to the great Gabe Klein, executive director of President Biden's Joint Office of Energy and Transportation (and a former Streetsblog board member), about curbside electrification.
U.S. car crash deaths are nearly 10 percent higher if you count collisions that happen just outside the right of way. So why don't off-road deaths get more air time among advocates?