Dear Care for Crash Victims Community Members:
We have to thank Harold Meyerson for a great analysis of the rise of Progressive Mayors such as Mayor de Blasio in the U.S. Mr. Meyerson wrote in the Washington Post : “Twenty years ago, half of America’s dozen largest cities had Republican mayors. Today, just one does. Of the 30 largest U.S. cities, 26 have Democratic mayors…”
Former Charlotte Mayor Anthony Foxx recently announced grants to 3 cities (NY, Louisville, and Philadelphia) for pedestrian protection. See
This is a positive small step forward. But as Table 8 in the latest NHTSA Report attached shows many other cities have significant pedestrian safety problems too. In 2012, while NYC had 127 pedestrian deaths, Los Angeles had 99 (Philadelphia had 31 and Louisville 6).
As I commented to NHTSA in February:
“Please consider Executive actions to achieve Vision Zero crash deaths nationally by the year 2024 for the nation – as Mayor de Blasio has nobly and morally done for NYC.
The NY Times reports “Only two weeks into his administration, Mr. de Blasio set a sweeping goal on Wednesday: to bring the number of New Yorkers killed in traffic “literally” to zero, saying it would be “a central focus” of his administration.”
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/nyregion/de-blasio-announces-steps-to-reduce-traffic-deaths.html
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- Imagine a challenge from citizens to Mayors de Blasio, LA Mayor Eric Garcetti, and former Mayor Anthony Foxx to create such a race to stop crash deaths.
- Imagine the competition of the two cities NY and LA with the highest annual number of crash fatalities to achieve Vision Zero crash fatalities first.
- Imagine the LA Times challenging the NY Times on coverage of this race.
- Imagine bi-coastal competitions engaging Boston, Silicon Valley and Silicon Alley.
- Imagine citizens demanding that Mayors challenge the students in Universities to get involved to discover and help apply safety countermeasures.
- Imagine a challenge to students with a worthy goal. Unleash the energy and ability of students in Schools of Law, Medicine, Engineering, Public Health and Safety, Journalism, Public Administration and Management – each year for the next decade – until we achieve Vision Zero Crash Deaths in America.
- Challenge students to research crashes, injuries, treatments, and outcomes and offer solutions.”
See https://www.careforcrashvictims.com/assets/com-NHTSA-strategic-plan.pdf
As citizens concerned with improving auto safety we have a duty to petition, challenge, and help our government to act on our behalf.
As of 3/20/2014, citizens in NYC have recorded on their Vision Zero Clock progress in achieving Mayor de Blasio’s vision zero goal and it showed that NYC is behind in achieving the goal with more than half the deaths in the city being pedestrian deaths.
See http://www.rightofway.org/vision-zero-clock
Let’s help achieve this worthy goal, please.
