Transforming Transportation

Transforming Transportation: Toward Sustainable Mobility for All

SUBMITTED BY JOSE LUIS IRIGOYEN ON WED, 01/11/2017

CO-AUTHORS: HOLGER DALKMANN

Personal cars were a 20^th century symbol of prosperity, but in the 21^st century, they contribute to three pernicious trends:

• Congestion
• Pollution and Greenhouse Gas Emissions

• Road Crashes

  Globally, about 1.25 million people die each year because of road traffic crashes. Ninety percent of the world’s road fatalities occur in low- and middle-income countries, even though these countries have only about 50% of the world’s vehicles. Half of these global road fatalities occur among the most vulnerable populations: pedestrians, motorcyclists, and cyclists. As if a fatality in itself is not devastating enough, road traffic fatalities cause economic losses to the victim’s family and society: traffic crashes cost countries between 3 and 5% of their GDP.

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City responsible for Road Violence

No Traffic Calming? City responsible for Road Violence Injuries in Landmark Decision

-“New York City and other municipalities can be held liable for failing to redesign streets with a history of traffic injuries and reckless driving.”

The judge commented: It is  known among traffic engineers that straight, wide roads with little interference from pedestrians and other vehicles encourage speeding because drivers feel more comfortable on roadways with those characteristics…traffic calming measures deter speeding because they cause drivers to be more cautious, and that such measures are known to reduce the overall speed on roadways.” The upshot? The jury could conclude that “negligence was a proximate cause of the accident”.

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Why We Say ‘Car Accident,’

Why We Say ‘Car Accident,’ and Why We Need to Stop

• SARAH GOODYEAR

The term suggests fatal crashes are inevitable and beyond our control—they’re not.

The words we use, on some level, simply describe the world we live in. It’s a world in which we’ve surrendered to cars as the primary way to move our fragile bodies around. Accidents will happen.

I think we routinely use language to distance ourselves from the idea that drivers in fatal crashes are killers, because we know that means we could be killers, too. We’re protecting ourselves from the brutal reality that all too quickly, we ourselves could be the ones making an error in judgment, losing control, and destroying people’s lives.

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