Coalition calls on Congress to adopt ‘complete streets’ program
In the last 15 years, more than 76,000 Americans have been killed while crossing or walking along streets in their communities, including 3,906 children under 16 who have been killed this decade alone, according to a report from the Washington-based Transportation For America (TFA). TFA’s “Dangerous by Design” report urges Congress to include a plan for safer street designs in the federal transportation bill now under consideration.
While most pedestrian deaths are labeled accidents, “Dangerous by Design” suggests that the roads on which they happened were engineered for speeding cars and made little or no provision for people on foot, in wheelchairs or on a bicycle. The report highlights efforts by some communities to reverse that trend by designing “complete streets,” which are safer for pedestrians and transit riders.
The report calls on Congress to adopt a National Complete Streets Policy in the federal transportation bill to ensure that all federally funded road projects take into account the needs of all users of the transportation system, including pedestrians, bicyclists and transit users; expand the Safe Routes to School Program to help more communities and schools across the country address safety concerns for students walking and bicycling to school; and to dedicate at least 11.8 percent of Highway Safety Improvement Program funds to pedestrian projects, because that is the same percentage of traffic fatalities that involve pedestrians.
Download the entire “Dangerous by Design” report.