Postulations: Move the Curb Blog

Cities with good and getting better traffic safety records focus on speeds, vulnerable road users, and driver inattention; normalize enforcement; and outreach via known channels like schools. They do this with physical changes to the roadway such as traffic calming and bicycle facilities. Their initiatives are preventative and prescriptive, targeting specific actions at particular times and locations. There is a recognition that improved traffic safety will be reached through sustained and consistent efforts.

Thanks to @willsherman, who did most of the research

We cannot allow Vision Zero to be a repackaged three E’s. We are leaders in this field, we are culpable, and we must take responsibility. We all have striped bike lanes that disappear at intersections, located bus stops where there are no safe crossings, worked on “blame the victim” campaign, assumed people on foot or bike had no other option, and have stood by as enforcement just creates more victims.

Edited version of an article originally published in Imprécis, a magazine of the GSAPP of Columbia University, 1989.