Pedestrian safety
Basics
LaHood Incorrectly Blames 80 Percent of Pedestrians for Their Own Deaths
Last week, U.S. DOT Secretary Ray LaHood helped NYC transpo commish Janette Sadik-Khan launch a new phase of the "LOOK!" campaign, with pavement markings instructing texting pedestrians to wake the hell up. He made a comment that made its way into his blog post about the event, as well as other media reports on the event, and it caught the attention of Streetsblog NYC's crack reporting team.
September 27, 2012
Georgia Prosecutor Continues Case Against Raquel Nelson
The impaired hit-and-run driver who struck and killed her son on a metro Atlanta road in 2010 has been released from prison by now, but Raquel Nelson is still being prosecuted for her purported role in the tragedy.
September 11, 2012
Chicago Unveils Its Ambitious Pedestrian Safety Plan
Yesterday, the city of Chicago rolled out a sweeping new plan for pedestrian safety [PDF]. With some 250 recommendations -- including traffic-calming measures like pedestrian islands, chicanes and midblock curb bumpouts -- Chicago joins cities like New York and Portland in formalizing a plan to meet targets for reducing pedestrian injuries and deaths.
September 6, 2012
In New NHTSA Report, Scarce Information on Causes of Pedestrian Deaths
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reported last December that while overall traffic fatalities in the United States dropped in 2010, pedestrian deaths rose higher – up four percent in 2010 over 2009. Yesterday, the agency released some more detailed statistics about those crashes [PDF], but the report includes scarcely any data or analysis about the underlying causes of pedestrian deaths.
August 7, 2012
Making Lawmakers Answer For Pedestrian Deaths In Their Districts
Rep. James Lankford, a Tea Party Republican representing Oklahoma City, probably wasn't responsible for any of the 118 pedestrian deaths in his district between 2001 to 2010. And it's unlikely Rep. Steve Southerland of Panama City, Florida was behind the wheel when any of the 164 people were killed while walking in his district during the decade.
June 21, 2012
FRA Guidance on Pedestrian Safety Still Misses the Real Problem
The Federal Railroad Administration doesn’t call people walking near railroad tracks “pedestrians.” It calls them “trespassers.”
April 30, 2012
Streetsies 2011: Bums and Bummers
On our walk down the memory lane of 2011 so far, we’ve talked about some downers, some inspirations, some triumphs, and some struggles. Check out our first two installments of year-end Streetsie award nostalgia. Here’s some more.
December 29, 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
Bike/Ped Funding Safe as Senate Rejects Rand Paul’s Amendment
Bike/ped funding is pitching a perfect game in the Senate after Republicans swung (and missed) at the popular Transportation Enhancements program for the third time in two months. The final strike came this morning, when Kentucky Republican Rand Paul's amendment to divert all TE funds to bridge repair failed spectacularly, garnering only 38 votes in favor, with 60 senators voting against.
November 1, 2011
T4America Responds to the Raquel Nelson Case in the Washington Post
The first shocking thing about Raquel Nelson's conviction for vehicular homicide was simply that it happened at all. After all, the mother of three wasn't even driving a car -- she was crossing a wide street with poor pedestrian infrastructure when her four-year-old son was killed by a hit-and-run driver.
August 5, 2011