Transportation Secretary Foxx Announces Bike/Ped Safety Initiative

"The top priority, [Foxx] said, will be closing gaps in walking and biking networks where 'even if people are following the rules, the risk of a crash is too high,'" writes Snyder from the Pro-Walk Pro-Bike Pro-Place conference that took place from Sept. 8-11. She adds that Foxx called it "the most comprehensive, forward-leaning initiative U.S. DOT [Department of Transportation] has ever put forward on bike/ped issues.”

According to the DOT press release on the new initiative, "Injuries and fatalities of pedestrian and people bicycling have steadily increased since 2009, at a rate higher than motor vehicle fatalities. From 2011 to 2012, pedestrian deaths rose 6 percent and bicyclist fatalities went up almost 7 percent."

The new pedestrian and bicycle safety initiative will promote design improvements to ensure safe and efficient routes for pedestrians and bicycles, promote behavioral safety, and provide education to help individuals make safer travel choices. The initiative will also encourage vehicle safety by drawing on current crash avoidance technologies to alert motorists to the presence of bicyclists and pedestrians.

The "DOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Initiative" is one of many improvements that DOT included in its new "Safer People, Safer Streets" [PDF], which they describe as a "Transportation Action Plan to Increase Walking and Biking and Reduce Pedestrian and Bicyclist Fatalities." The document also includes information on road diets and protected bike lanes.

Back to his announcement at the conference, "Foxx also said the department plans 'to re-examine our policies and practices that without intending to do so have occasionally resulted in road designs that shut out people on foot and on bicycle',” writes Snyder.

Snyder points to DOT's PedSafe program, perhaps oddly located on a Federal Highway Administration Research and Technology webpage defined as "Coordinating, Developing, and Delivering Highway Transportation Innovations." She adds that "it appears to be underutilized."

Snyder ends on a most positive note for those who walk and bike, calling DOT's Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Initiative "a welcome development and a sign that Foxx intends to follow through on earlier hints that he plans to make pedestrian and bike safety his signature issue, just as his predecessor, Ray LaHood, made distracted driving his."