By Sean Barry
–newspapersThis week’s issue of TIME Magazine topped off three weeks of nationwide coverage of Transportation for America’s Dangerous by Design report ranking communities according to the risk for pedestrians.
The excellent TIME piece opens with the tragic story of Ashley Nicole Valdes, “a smart, pretty 11-year-old girl” who was killed while crossing the street in Miami earlier this year and became “a heart-wrenching symbol of South Florida’s notoriously reckless car culture.”
Florida was identified in the report as being the most dangerous for pedestrians. “You see all these people getting run over,” said Ashley’s mother, Adonay Risete, “and you ask yourself: What’s happened to us as people here? We need to get tougher and change attitudes.”
The phenomenal response to Dangerous by Design is a hopeful sign that change may be under way.
More than 150 newspapers, 300 TV broadcasts and 50 radio programs have covered the report, co-authored by the Surface Transportation Policy Partnership, since its release three weeks ago. The report’s findings speak to the need for action: America has a pedestrian fatality rate equivalent to a jumbo jet full of passengers crashing every 31 days. This decade alone, 43,000 Americans – including 3,906 children under 16 – have been killed while walking or crossing the street.
We could make great strides on pedestrian safety by adopting “complete streets” policies, ensuring that roads are designed to be safe and accessible for everyone who uses them, whether motorist, bicyclist, transit rider or pedestrian. You can help by asking your member of Congress to support the pending national Complete Streets Act.
Continue reading “TIME Magazine features Dangerous by Design report on pedestrian safety, culminating three weeks of coverage nationwide”
Vote for Annapolis Bicycle Project!
The Brighter Planet is an organization that makes it easier for anyone to get involved in the fight against climate change. Simply put, they help people manage and mitigate their environmental footprint.
They also provide funding for community projects that aid in growing the climate movement from the ground up. In coordination with the Dept. of Rec & Parks, APD and DOT, the City of Annapolis have submitted the Revolution Kids project for funding.
The mission is to promote opportunities for bicycling in the City of Annapolis through the education of youth and youth mentors. Elementary through High School students will have opportunities to earn bikes and learn about safe cycling through a variety of hands-on programs. The objectives include
1) increasing youth opportunities to safe cycling as a mode of transportation and a form of healthy physical activity; and
2) providing at-risk teens with skills necessary to repair broken bicycles and gain job opportunities while giving them a chance to earn a bicycle.
The funding comes through a competition however, where website visitors vote for their favorite project. As such we need to the get the word out to vote for "Revolution Kids". The voting begins on Dec 1st at https://brighterplanet.com/project_fund_projects and ends on Dec 15th. Please vote and spread the word. Thanks.
Iain J. Banks, PTP
Personal Transportation and Parking Specialist
Department of Transportation
City of Annapolis
www.annapolis.gov/bikeannapolis
Issued a warning ticket for riding my bike at Ft. McHenry
[From our mail bag:]
All paths within FT. McHenry are closed to cyclist until the new construction is complete Oct 2010. The rangers/federal police officers, informed me there are signs posted. I did not see the sign when I entered the property. The only reason I was given a warning ticket instead of verbal warning is because the director wants to document all encounters with cyclist. Of course they did run my drivers license in their, I assume federal, computer system. Both officers were very polite and friendly, probably because I was open and honest answering their questions. They also liked the One Less Car sticker on my bike. If I would have been issued a ticket, instead of a warning, the fine is $150.