A bipartisan group of 68 members of the U.S. House have authored a letter to outgoing Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood asking that U.S. DOT develop performance measures that will specifically target the safety of non-motorized users.
As Martin Di Caro reports, "[t]he representatives, including D.C. Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, are asking Sec. LaHood to establish a national goal to reduce bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities and to push individual states to set 'performance measures' to accomplish the same."
While praising the recent nationwide drop in fatalities for occupants of cars and light trucks, the letter notes the distressing rise in the percentage of pedestrian and bicyclist deaths.
"Safety advocates see the establishment of performance measures as an opening for additional federal funding directed to bicycling and walking infrastructure," says Di Caro. "Currently less than one percent of federal highway safety funds are spent improving bicyclist and pedestrian safety."
FULL STORY: Dozens in Congress Press for Nat’l Bike and Pedestrian Safety Goals, Measurement
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