People Places -- Stop the War on Pedestrians and Bicyclists

The war on pedestrians and bicyclists has taken too many lives! Murder Marchines Pedestrian Killed Pedestrian Killed Bicyclist Killed Bicyclist Killed Lawmakers seek to remove legal restrictions so that motorists can run over or kill pedestrians with a car without penalty During 2011 in the United States, 32,367 people died in traffic crashes. 4,432 of these people were pedestrians. --Fatality Analysis Reporting System, US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

Pedestrian Issues

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Take Action

1. Stop car-first politicians.
   • StreetsPAC: This organization is based in New York City, but it shows what can be done: simply stop electing politicians who don't have a clue about 21st-century transportation where pedestrians, bicyclists, and people count.
   • Contact you elected and appointed representatives and check their understanding of transportation. If they blab on about cars and highways without a mention of complete and safe streets, livable streets, and putting people first rather than cars, let them know that you will not vote for them. Insist to your elected representatives that they use fact-based reasoning in transporation policies and decisions; for example:
     • Another Study Shows That Narrow Is Safer Than Wide for Traffic Lanes
     • "Free" parking carries a high cost.
     • "Communities can benefit when they implement strategies that make them more walkable, such as making streets pedestrian friendly; building houses, shops, and other destinations close together (mixed land use); and increasing access to public transit." -- U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Step It Up! The Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Promote Walking and Walkable Communities. Washington, DC: U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services, Office of the Surgeon General; 2015.
     • Do Roads Pay for Themselves?: Setting the Record Straight on Transportation Funding
     • "Share the Road" Signs Don’t Work.
2. Champion practices that can improve safety for all road users and tip the balance back toward people versus favoring cars.
   • Have a Pedestrian/Traffic Manager (PTM) in your town: A New Breed of Pedestrian Advocate is Making City Streets Safer for Everyone; advocate for a Pedestrian Priority Zone to protect pedestrians and invigorate the economy of your city.
   • Support Transit Reform that places people first and uses sane, evidence-based, scientific-based reasons for favoring human beings over the subsidy of automobile dependency.
   • Separate housing from parking: don't force people to pay for parking spaces when they rent or buy a home--allow for car-free, parking-space-free transit homes to be established for people who need them.
   • Stop free or under-priced parking: recognize the The High Cost of Free Parking and reset urban priorities to favor pedestrians and bicyclists instead.
   • Insist on enforcement of traffic and parking laws. Too often, public opinion is very much against the law with regard to traffic and parking. Support your local police and politicans who seek to enforce laws on ticketing speeders, illegally parked cars, and other law violations. Call in to your local police reports of vehicles which are speeding or illegally parked. Encourage an attitude among everyone you know that pedestrian safety depends on people obeying traffic laws. If traffic laws are not obeyed and then not enforced, the lives of pedestrians are often miserable (or, sadly, shortened by death).
3. Practice and advocate for pedestrian and bicycle safety.
   • Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center: Information site for pedestrian and bicycle health, safety, engineering, advocacy, education, enforcement, access, and mobility information. Presented by the The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Highway Safety Research Center and edited by engineers, urban planners, and other specialists. Includes links to related Web sites and programs, including International Walk to School in the USA.
   • Pedestrian & Bicycle Safety: This section from the US Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration outlines some plans, facts, and other information.
4. Practice and advocate for safety as a driver.
   • Don't drink and drive.
   • Don't text and drive. Visit It Can Wait: for the love of your family, yourself, and other human beings, don't text and drive. Urge your family members and others you know to take this pledge. Watch this video: "From One Second To The Next," and please share it with others.
   • Don't drive distracted. This means cell phones! Your automobile is deadly--be careful.
   • If you drive a car, realize that you can easily kill people with it! Obey traffic laws. If you simply don't or can't drive responsibly--don't drive--sell your car and live car-free, walk, take a taxi, or take public transit instead.
5. Support Vision Zero, a goal of having 0 traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

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