This Sunday is World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims
Sunday, November 19 is the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, an annual, international event to remember those killed and injured in crashes and to amplify the call for change. Now in its 23rd year, communities across the U.S. and from all around the world will commemorate the day through a variety of events and actions calling attention to the roadway safety crisis and the proven strategies we need to implement to create safe streets for people.
Safe Streets for People is this year’s overarching theme and it is a timely one. With 2021 U.S. roadway fatalities at its highest in 16 years, and pedestrian fatalities reaching a 40-year high in 2022, the U.S. now ranks the worst amongst 29 high-income countries analyzed for road safety by the Centers for Disease Control, presenting an “exceptionally American” problem. And Tucson, which is now the 13th most dangerous metro area in the nation for walking, is not immune from this trend. Our traffic deaths here have been on an upward trajectory for the past several years, concluding 2023 with 99 fatalities. We have had 89 people killed on our streets so far this year. Each of these people is someone’s mother, father, sibling, child or a loved one and every death is unacceptable.
What is equally worrisome is the general acceptance of and tolerance for traffic fatalities as an unavoidable byproduct of modern-day travel to get to our everyday destinations. But it doesn’t have to that way and proven strategies implemented in places where decision-makers are serious about preventing the loss of human life show us that we have the tools and the solutions to put an end to this crisis. Here are three of those highlighted in this year’s World Day of Remembrance press release:
Re-design roads and set policies to prioritize Safety over Speed. Speed is a top contributor to the occurrence of traffic crashes and a top indicator of severity of injuries. A reduction of just1mph in operating speed can result in a notable 17% decrease in fatal crashes.
Leverage historic, new funding for near-term safety investments, particularly in most needed communities. Transportation funding should be focused on safe mobility – not speed – and prioritized to benefit the communities suffering disproportionately, including people walking and biking, people in low-income areas and communities of color.
Boost safe transit, walking and biking options for more people. We cannot reach national climate goals without more convenient alternatives to single car use. Relying on shifting more people to electric vehicles will not get us to needed climate targets fast enough, nor does it meet Vision Zero safety goals.
We can and we have a moral obligation to protect lives, and for that we need a paradigm shift to recognize that these tragedies are not inevitable. What follows then would be a commitment to prioritizing safety over speed by redesigning our dangerous streets, lowering speeds, requiring safer vehicle design and technologies, while also investing in walking, biking, and public transit. Therefore, on this World Day of Remembrance, we invite you all to acknowledge that we built this system and we can change it to create #SafeStreetForPeople.
