Safety
Basics
Nothing to Fear But Drivers’ Lack of Fear
Recently, I shared with a car enthusiast friend that I would never enjoy driving as much as he did, in part because cars scared me a little. I had experienced crashes and lost loved ones to them, I explained, which had a lasting effect. This struck him as both silly (who’s afraid of cars?) and serious (what’s life without the joy of driving?). He had an easy solution, though: Take an advanced driving skills class. My fear, if warranted, would be swept away by my improved ability or, if unwarranted, by my newfound confidence.
February 17, 2012
Blumenauer: Don’t Let American Streets Remain Unsafe Routes to School
Right now the House is debating the GOP leadership's oil drilling-with-a-side-of-highways bill, which may or may not survive the House floor.
February 15, 2012
NTSB: States Should Ban Hands-Free Calls While Driving
In Missouri last year, a 19-year-old driving a pickup at 55 mph sent or received 11 texts in the 11 minutes immediately before he caused a deadly crash.
December 15, 2011
2010 Traffic Fatalities Could Fill 70 Jumbo Jets. And This Is Good News?
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood announced yesterday that 32,885 people lost their lives on our nation’s roads in 2010. While a staggering toll, this represents the lowest total number of traffic fatalities since 1949. "We're making historic progress when it comes to improving safety on our nation’s roadways," said LaHood in a statement, also pointing out that the decrease in deaths came even as Americans are driving more [PDF].
December 9, 2011
Mapping the Consequences of Our Automobile Addiction
Leave it to the Brits to create an incredible tool for examining America’s own crisis of traffic fatalities. Behold this somber map, made by ITO World, a UK-based transportation information firm. Each dot on the map is a traffic-related death. The entire eastern United States is blanketed with them.
November 23, 2011
How Will the House Answer the Senate’s Transportation Funding Bill?
The full Senate passed a major appropriations bill yesterday, including funding levels for transportation and housing. The Senate put the kibosh on Sen. Rand Paul's attempt to strip bike/ped funding from the federal transportation program, as we reported yesterday. Here's the lowdown on the bill as a whole.
November 2, 2011
Feds Put Off Issuing New Trucking Safety Rules
Federal safety officials missed their own deadline Friday for making new rules about dangerous trucks.
November 1, 2011
One More Push Can Preserve Federal Safe Routes to School Funding
This week, the Safe Routes to School National Conference convenes in Minneapolis, a progressive city determined to become the most bicycle friendly in the nation. But even here, far from the nation’s capital, in a region celebrated for its massive greenway system, drama inside the Beltway has instilled an air of urgency to the event.
August 18, 2011
Obama Recalls Minneapolis Bridge Collapse, Media Blunders the Story
(Marybeth Miceli is the President of Miceli Infrastructure Consulting, LLC. She is a bridge testing and assessment specialist and materials scientist with a background in Nondestructive Testing/Evaluation. She has just completed a 3-year term on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), who named her "Young NDT Professional of the Year" in 2003. She is also married to L.A. Streetsblog editor Damien Newton.)
April 21, 2011
Senate Introduces a Narrower Bill for Wider Sidewalks
Like everyone else, Safe Routes to School advocates are scaling back. Last year, a bill introduced in the Senate asked for $600 million to enhance pedestrian and bike safety near schools. “We were working in a pretty different environment,” said Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. “Everybody was talking about a $500 billion transportation bill. So we figured, we don’t know what the full bill will be in the end, but let’s go for the funding we feel like we need.”
April 15, 2011