Angie Schmitt
Recent Posts
Why American Trucks Are So Deadly for Pedestrians and Cyclists
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Large trucks are a leading killer of cyclists and pedestrians and cyclists in urban areas. While London has recently decided to kick the most dangerous trucks out of the city, in the U.S., truck safety regulations are much further behind.
Alex Epstein, left, a researcher with U.S. DOT’s Volpe Center, has been studying how side guards (the [...]
How American Cities Can Protect Cyclists From Deadly Trucks
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Side guards save lives. Photo via Vision Zero Network
Heavy trucks kill. They account for as much as 32 percent of cyclist deaths in New York City and 58 percent in London, far out of proportion to their share of traffic. Across the U.S., 1,746 bicyclists and pedestrians have been killed in collisions with commercial trucks over the last [...]
The Highway Era Is Over. When Will Our Institutions Catch Up?
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The highway era is over. The construction of the Interstate Highway System is essentially complete.
How much has changed at American transportation agencies since the 1960s? Image via YouTube
Americans will continue to log lots of miles on highways, but for the most part, the job of building them is over. We’ve already connected the places worth connecting by highways.
The problem is that transportation agencies — [...]
Why Do We Put the Onus for Traffic Safety on Kids?
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.@NTSB Vice Chairman: Practice safe walking behavior. Stay alert, walk on sidewalks, cross at crosswalks. #NationalWalkToSchoolDaypic.twitter.com/TWRChfTdcZ
— NTSB (@NTSB) October 5, 2016
It’s Walk-to-School Day, a day when children all over the country get to enjoy the simple experience of traveling somewhere using their own power. It makes me happy because I love seeing the pictures of kids walking with [...]
The 4 Biggest Sins Committed By Reporters Covering Pedestrian Deaths
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Each year, motorists on American streets kill nearly 5,000 pedestrians. The loss of life is enormous — equivalent to 12 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors — but the steady drumbeat of pedestrian fatalities doesn’t register as an urgent public safety crisis. Maybe it would seem more urgent if the press covered pedestrian deaths as the preventable [...]
Adieu, Cars: Paris Riverfront to Be Permanently Returned to the People
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A rendering of the Right Bank of the Seine — sans highway. Credit: Luxigon
After years of experimentation, the Paris City Council this week committed to the permanent conversion of two miles of the Georges Pompidou expressway along the River Seine into a waterfront park.
The 1960s expressway carried two lanes of traffic and about 43,000 vehicles a day along [...]
Will US DOT’s Self-Driving Car Rules Make Streets Safe for Walking and Biking?
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This week, U.S. DOT released guidelines for self-driving cars, a significant step as regulators prepare for companies to bring this new technology to market. Autonomous vehicles raise all sorts of questions about urban transportation systems. It’s up to advocates to ensure that the technology helps accomplish broader goals like safer streets and more efficient use of urban space, [...]
How Transit Agencies Can Offer Better Paratransit Service at Lower Costs
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Paratransit costs are rising fast. Graph: Brookings via Rudin Center
Paratransit service for people with disabilities is a big part of what modern transit agencies do, and it’s getting bigger all the time. As the population ages and more people rely on paratransit to get around, agencies need to get smart about how they provide the service [...]
Where Car Commuting Is Shrinking — And Where It’s Not
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Where are Americans making the shift away from driving to work?
Crunching newly-released Census data, Yonah Freemark looked at how commute travel is changing in different cities and regions. In general, car commuting in major metro areas declined between 2005 and 2015, but the shift was greater than a couple of percentage points in only a few cities.
Keep [...]
FHWA’s New Goal: Eliminating Pedestrian and Cyclist Deaths in America
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Pedestrian and cyclist deaths account for a growing share of traffic fatalities in America. Can federal officials reverse the trend? Graph: FHWA
The Federal Highway Administration wants to eliminate pedestrian and cyclist fatalities “in the next 20 to 30 years.” In a new strategic plan [PDF], the agency calls for reducing serious injuries and deaths 80 percent in the [...]
How Unrepresentative Is Your Regional Planning Agency?
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Do the people who make transportation funding decisions in your region represent the people who actually live in your region?
Who makes decisions at the Texas Department of Transportation? These guys (and one woman). Image: Jay Crossley
After sitting through dozens of meetings presided over by a legion of white men, Texas transportation reformer Jay Crossley wanted to find [...]
America Has a Terrible Traffic Safety Record Because We Drive Too Much
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Traveling by car is much more dangerous than traveling by train or bus. Table: APTA
Even though the U.S. traffic fatality rate per mile driven has fallen by two-thirds in the last 50 years, America today still has the deadliest road system per capita in the developed world. Much of the improvement from safer driving and better emergency care has been wiped [...]