To end traffic fatalities while still enabling urban mobility, cars will have to slow down and people will have to travel by other modes.
Antonio Loro writes an opinion piece on the subject of traffic safety and the inevitable backlash against efforts to achieve "Vision Zero" safety improvements.
It seems that some members of the public are more concerned that Vision Zero projects (like reducing vehicles lanes, adding traffic calming elements to the street, and improving bike infrastructure) will kill something more sacred than human life—the ability to quickly move from point a to point b in a car. Loro cites recent controversies over road diets on the Westside of Los Angeles as evidence of the willingness of some communities to sacrifice lives for the sake of mobility.
Loro's argument is just the opposite: that urban mobility must not sacrifice human lives. "To end road deaths, cities will have to tame unruly traffic, though it won’t be necessary to slow everything to a crawl; beyond that, more people will have to shift to modes of transport that, conveniently, are both safer than cars and provide more efficient ways to get around cities."
Loro details the kinds of measure that can slow down traffic, while pointing to the example of airline safety as an example of the kind of safety considerations that can be implemented for travel. Still, despite the many options for reconfiguring the street available to Vision Zero campaigns, people will still have to decide to travel by more efficient modes, like biking, walking, or riding public transit, if they want to improve traffic safety and improve congestion in the city.
FULL STORY: What’s the right number of people to kill on the roads? (Hint: it’s zero)
Oregon Passes Exemption to Urban Growth Boundary
Cities have a one-time chance to acquire new land for development in a bid to increase housing supply and affordability.
Where Urban Design Is Headed in 2024
A forecast of likely trends in urban design and architecture.
Savannah: A City of Planning Contrasts
From a human-scales, plaza-anchored grid to suburban sprawl, the oldest planned city in the United States has seen wildly different development patterns.
Washington Tribes Receive Resilience Funding
The 28 grants support projects including relocation efforts as coastal communities face the growing impacts of climate change.
Adaptive Reuse Bills Introduced in California Assembly
The legislation would expand eligibility for economic incentives and let cities loosen regulations to allow for more building conversions.
LA's Top Parks, Ranked
TimeOut just released its list of the top 26 parks in the L.A. area, which is home to some of the best green spaces around.
City of Rochester
Boston Harbor Now
City of Bellevue
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
Mpact Transit + Community
HUD's Office of Policy Development and Research
City of Birmingham, Alabama
City of Laramie, Wyoming
Colorado Department of Local Affairs
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.