Report, petition call for safer roadway planning

Last week, our friends at Transportation For America and the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership released a valuable report called Dangerous By Design. Yesterday I met with James Corless of t4America and a few of his colleagues from other interest groups about this report and its conclusions.

Now, "Dangerous By Design" has turned a lot of heads and for good reason. It shows that 11.8% of all traffic fatalities in America are pedestrians.

Look, no amount of engineering to make the insides of our vehicles safer for occupants is going to protect pedestrians and bicyclists. We need safer roadways. We need roadways designed to account for the needs of everyone who uses them, whether driving, walking, or riding in a wheelchair or on a bicycle.

The great thing about this Complete Streets approach to road planning is that it's actually cheaper to plan for multiple road uses ahead of time than to retrofit roadways after they are built and someone gets injured or killed.

The problem with this approach is that it does cost a little extra up front. And states and communities facing budget shortfalls may be tempted to let road safety features--wide sidewalks, safe crosswalks--get cut along the way.

That's why the groups I met with yesterday are asking for federal leadership. And that's where this DOT comes in. It turns out that a complete streets approach offers the perfect intersection of my twin guideposts: safety and livable communities.

But, as much leadership as DOT can offer, only Congress can authorize federal funding for such programs. And, as the petition urging my leadership on safer roadway planning reminds us:

"The Transportation Bill comes around just once every six years, and we can’t afford another six-year delay on building the 21st Century transportation system our country craves."

That's why, when we hold our upcoming open meetings on new transportation legislation, I urge all of you who care about this important issue--from experts to everyday pedestrians--to come forward and tell us how strongly you feel about this. Then, we can let Congress know how much momentum is truly behind safer road planning.

So please stay tuned as we announce the dates and locations of these meetings and please visit the websites of the organizations who visited me yesterday (I've listed them below) to see what you can do to raise your voice on this important issue.

AARP
America Bikes
American Public Health Association
National Complete Streets Coalition
Safe Routes to School National Partnership
Smart Growth America
Surface Transportation Policy Partnership
Transportation For America

Comments

[Mindy Craig]

As a sponsor organization for Dangerous by Design, America Walks, applauds Ray LaHood's call to action and support of Complete Street policies and implementation! The time has come to build environments for people not cars and create safer, healthier and more walkable environments nationwide.

[Marion Rice Galford]

This is awesome.. as a mom who bikes my kids most everywhere, grocery shops and runs errands by bike, having better bike and walking infrastructure is so important to me. Thanks for helping our country get back on track from a health and wellness perspective by creating livable communities where walking and biking are the norm.

[Barbara McCann]

We truly appreciate the opportunity to meet with Secretary LaHood, and his focus on safety and livability. Be sure to check out our fact sheets on the safety, livability, and the cost advantages of Complete Streets. http://www.completestreets.org/complete-streets-fundamentals/factsheets/

[Chris Morfas]

Wonderful! Complete streets will help the transportation system better serve American communities. This is exactly the sort of leadership we need from the Obama-LaHood USDOT.

[Eileen McCarthy]

[I don't necessarily mean for this comment to be published, but I hope it will at least be read by someone who can address the issue I'm raising.] A good example of "dangerous by design" is the intersection of Naylor Road and Suitland Parkway in Maryland. On November 11, a pedestrian was killed by a driver (or two). The crash is still under investigation, so it isn't clear exactly how it happened. But leaving aside the particulars of that crash, if you look at Google's "street view" of that intersection from a pedestrian's perspective, you would see that whoever designed this intersection decided that it would be a good idea to pave a sidewalk and mark a crosswalk on only one side of the intersection AND to place the traffic signal so that only peds walking in the crosswalk toward the Metro station (which is visible in the background on street view) could clearly see it. If you're a ped walking home from the Metro along Naylor on the sidewalk, when you come to Suitland Parkway, you would look ahead of you and see no signal because the only signals are behind you and on the far side of the intersection. From your perspective, the intersection is unsignaled. I have seen this kind of set up in several different places in MD (and a few in DC, where I live). I complained to MD DOT about one in Kensington and, after telling me they would fix it in 18 months, they blamed the design on USDOT regs -- though, when I asked them to identify the reg involved, they didn't respond. I don't know who is responsible for this ill-considered design idea, but I'm writing to say a) it's dangerous; and b) it denies equal protection of the law to pedestrians. If there is a USDOT reg involved, you should change it, and if there isn't, you should start de-funding the road projects of any state that designs intersections this way.

[Michael E. Bailey]

I also think this is great and like the cell phone and driving issue, it was a long time in coming. Orange County, too, has plenty of unsafe streets for pedestrians and persons in wheelchairs. Some have the sidewalk only on one side of the street, some crosswalks the stripes are gone and there are large cracks and potholes in the pavement. At some intersections, the streets are not aligned, while others like the intersection of The City Drive and Chapman Avenue where those two major streets cross and near freeway on and off ramps too, seem to have been designed to be poorly designed. This initiative is a good thing and it needs to start as soon as possible. Best wishes, Michael E. Bailey.

[Judy]

Where and when are the east coast meetings?

[Veronika W Herdan]

This is awesome.. as a mom who bikes my kids most everywhere, grocery shops and runs errands by bike, having better bike and walking infrastructure is so important to me. Thanks for helping our country get back on track from a health and wellness perspective by creating livable communities where walking and biking are the norm.