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Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America
The face of the pedestrian safety crisis looks a lot like Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez. The 77-year old grandfather was struck in a hit-and-run crash while trying to cross a high-speed, six-lane road without crosswalks near his son’s home in Phoenix, Arizona. He was one of the more than 6,000 people killed while walking in America in 2018. In the last ten years, there has been a 50 percent increase in pedestrian deaths.
The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguez—immigrants, the poor, and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten.
In Right of Way , journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguez’s are not unavoidable “accidents.” They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve.
Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dying—and she demands action . Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem, acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths, and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately, Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives.
Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities, where no one is expendable.
The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguez—immigrants, the poor, and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten.
In Right of Way , journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguez’s are not unavoidable “accidents.” They don’t happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable, occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools, but not the will, to solve.
Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dying—and she demands action . Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem, acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths, and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately, Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives.
Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities, where no one is expendable.
248 pages, Paperback
First published August 27, 2020
69 people are currently reading
2202 people want to read
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December 23, 2020
A must read for every American, particular those who drive and think traffic deaths are “just accidents” and bound to happen.” Schmidt does a Herculean job of collecting heartbreaking stories of pedestrians killed from all regions in the US. I can’t help but cry, repeatedly, reading this book — as all of these deaths are so senseless, preventable and utterly tragic. Having been a part of the safe streets movement in NYC for the last five years, I’ve followed many of these stories as they happened in real time and met many of the brave and fearless families who have lost loved ones to traffic violence. Schmidt does their stories and our work justice. The chapter on Amy Cohen, the Liao family and the founding of Families for Safe Streets is particularly moving, both objectively and personally. Amy Cohen and the Liao family are some of the most brave, courageous and perseverant people I have ever met on this planet. May this book be widely read by those new to the cause. And may these ideas finally listened to by those political and DOT leaders who know better and should be ashamed of themselves if not held criminally liable. We’ve known for decades how to stop the epidemic of traffic violence. Shame on us all.
March 31, 2023
Many people enjoy going to a spa and having a complete stranger slather warmed mud all over their face and body, and then lying in this commercial space listening to the mud harden before being violently hosed down, to emerge pink-cheeked, soft, and refreshed to go about the rest of their day.
Dear spa people, I finally get it.
This book, examining transportation infrastructure, US law and legislation, and intersectional systems of oppression, is my mud pack.
Cover me, dear author, in facts and figures connecting hostile road design, signal failures by the US government to fund public infrastructure, and the economic forces behind gentrification and its ripple effects. Head to toe. Leave no spot unslathered, so I too may emerge pink-cheeked, soft, and refreshed for my fight with local and regional government over public transportation and infrastructure.
All that, and it's a pretty compelling read, to boot.
I learned so many things, including:
--"In most states, almost every intersection is considered an unmarked crosswalk, meaning that pedestrians have the legal right to cross there, even if there are no stripes on the road"*
--"22 US states have amended their constitutions to forbid any gasoline tax revenues at all from being spent on sidewalks"
--"A low-income census tract...could expect to have 1.8 more pedestrian crashes over a four-year period if it contained a Walmart, and an additional 0.68 crash if it contained a fast-food restaurant"
--As of 2009, traffic lights are set (via an industry set of guidelines) for pedestrians to have a walking speed of 3.5 feet per second, based on a "relatively fit middle-aged adult man". (Before that they were set at 4.0 feet per second, which I'M SORRY WHAT?) That said, AARP says that "Many older people walk closer to three feet per second, and those with mobility aids might move as slowly as 2.5 feet per second."
Yesssssss, we talk about disability and the inordinate dangers faced by people using wheelchairs on public streets because this warm, soft mud is cleansing in an intersectional way.
The book is very heavy on facts and figures, but they're arranged well, held together by specific localities, anecdotes, and filling-rattling WTF facts. Such as all the things going on in this passage, which are a lot, so take your time with it:
One criticism I have about the book is that the author seems at many points reluctant to just come right out and talk specifics in terms of racism. Which is wild, given the title of the book.
Let's stay for a second in good old Clayton County:
Now, that paragraph's very interesting if you're the type of nerd who is already half-slathered in this book. But lovely author, when you say "dramatic racial change" and "first waves of migration", what were the specific changes to the racial makeup in Clayton? Who migrated, and from where?
This is a pattern throughout the book, and it's a shame because a) otherwise a great book and b) America's racist actions impact various races differently, and to talk about that, we need those specifics. We need to talk about America's anti-Black legislation and policies. We need to spell out that Black people were being impacted by white segregationist policies in Clayton, and if the migration you're talking about involves Black people or other POC groups being forced from one area to another by legal or economic policy, we need to spell that out, because it had and continues to have an impact on racist nonsense to this day.
We do get there eventually with Clayton (at least in the text) -- "'During the '90s, Clayton County goes from a suburb that's white and becomes a place where many black people move to for the ideal suburban life,' said King-Williams, an Atlanta-based writer and documentary film-maker" -- but when you're talking about the methods of oppression, I feel like we're still very much at a point where we need to explicitly connect each dot.
But this is a minor complaint. Overall, the book is amazing, but it will also infuriate you on many levels: "Transit in Cobb County [GA]...is miserable, offering minimum service. Nelson and her children had to wait more than an hour for the next bus."
Bruh. Rural Vermont. Two buses per day, excluding weekends.
Anyway. That quote comes from the heartbreaking story of Raquel Nelson who, along with her children, was hit by a speeding drunk driver, after which the solicitor general of Cobb County filed charges against Nelson for the death of her son. Nelson, btw, is Black; the solicitor general at the time, Barry Morgan, is a) white, and b) was himself arrested and tried for a DUI.
This whole book is a lot, in a really welcome kind of way. I actually wound up being able to use it to answer a question that came up at a local bike infrastructure advocacy meeting while I was reading, and honestly that is a very specifically delightful feeling.
(Did I mention the 45 pages of endnotes? I should mention those, seeing as how I blew half a pack of post-it flags on them. So many sources, so much context.)
So. If you are looking for a book that will help you understand much more about intersectional oppression and public design (especially the legislative bits), this will absolutely be your cup of mud.
*Vermont, it appears, is not one of these fucking states, so let's add that to my to-do list.
Dear spa people, I finally get it.
This book, examining transportation infrastructure, US law and legislation, and intersectional systems of oppression, is my mud pack.
Cover me, dear author, in facts and figures connecting hostile road design, signal failures by the US government to fund public infrastructure, and the economic forces behind gentrification and its ripple effects. Head to toe. Leave no spot unslathered, so I too may emerge pink-cheeked, soft, and refreshed for my fight with local and regional government over public transportation and infrastructure.
All that, and it's a pretty compelling read, to boot.
I learned so many things, including:
--"In most states, almost every intersection is considered an unmarked crosswalk, meaning that pedestrians have the legal right to cross there, even if there are no stripes on the road"*
--"22 US states have amended their constitutions to forbid any gasoline tax revenues at all from being spent on sidewalks"
--"A low-income census tract...could expect to have 1.8 more pedestrian crashes over a four-year period if it contained a Walmart, and an additional 0.68 crash if it contained a fast-food restaurant"
--As of 2009, traffic lights are set (via an industry set of guidelines) for pedestrians to have a walking speed of 3.5 feet per second, based on a "relatively fit middle-aged adult man". (Before that they were set at 4.0 feet per second, which I'M SORRY WHAT?) That said, AARP says that "Many older people walk closer to three feet per second, and those with mobility aids might move as slowly as 2.5 feet per second."
Yesssssss, we talk about disability and the inordinate dangers faced by people using wheelchairs on public streets because this warm, soft mud is cleansing in an intersectional way.
The book is very heavy on facts and figures, but they're arranged well, held together by specific localities, anecdotes, and filling-rattling WTF facts. Such as all the things going on in this passage, which are a lot, so take your time with it:
Clayton County [GA] pedestrians have worn dirt paths in the grass up and down Tara Boulevard. Tara Boulevard was never designed to accommodate large numbers of pedestrians; it was designed to be a rural highway, and the mismatch is deadly. Seven people were killed on Tara Boulevard between 2011 and 2015. Another 17 were seriously injured... Meanwhile the Clayton County Police Department's solution has been to ticket pedestrians.
One criticism I have about the book is that the author seems at many points reluctant to just come right out and talk specifics in terms of racism. Which is wild, given the title of the book.
Let's stay for a second in good old Clayton County:
Despite their early efforts at segregation, counties like Clayton have experienced dramatic racial change. The first waves of migration began when the Atlanta Housing Authority began shuttering high-rise public housing projects in the 1990s. Spurred on by the federal HOPE VI housing program, which encouraged the creation of mixed-income housing, public housing in Atlanta was decimated, and only a small portion of those units were replaced by mixed-income housing.
Now, that paragraph's very interesting if you're the type of nerd who is already half-slathered in this book. But lovely author, when you say "dramatic racial change" and "first waves of migration", what were the specific changes to the racial makeup in Clayton? Who migrated, and from where?
This is a pattern throughout the book, and it's a shame because a) otherwise a great book and b) America's racist actions impact various races differently, and to talk about that, we need those specifics. We need to talk about America's anti-Black legislation and policies. We need to spell out that Black people were being impacted by white segregationist policies in Clayton, and if the migration you're talking about involves Black people or other POC groups being forced from one area to another by legal or economic policy, we need to spell that out, because it had and continues to have an impact on racist nonsense to this day.
We do get there eventually with Clayton (at least in the text) -- "'During the '90s, Clayton County goes from a suburb that's white and becomes a place where many black people move to for the ideal suburban life,' said King-Williams, an Atlanta-based writer and documentary film-maker" -- but when you're talking about the methods of oppression, I feel like we're still very much at a point where we need to explicitly connect each dot.
But this is a minor complaint. Overall, the book is amazing, but it will also infuriate you on many levels: "Transit in Cobb County [GA]...is miserable, offering minimum service. Nelson and her children had to wait more than an hour for the next bus."
Bruh. Rural Vermont. Two buses per day, excluding weekends.
Anyway. That quote comes from the heartbreaking story of Raquel Nelson who, along with her children, was hit by a speeding drunk driver, after which the solicitor general of Cobb County filed charges against Nelson for the death of her son. Nelson, btw, is Black; the solicitor general at the time, Barry Morgan, is a) white, and b) was himself arrested and tried for a DUI.
This whole book is a lot, in a really welcome kind of way. I actually wound up being able to use it to answer a question that came up at a local bike infrastructure advocacy meeting while I was reading, and honestly that is a very specifically delightful feeling.
(Did I mention the 45 pages of endnotes? I should mention those, seeing as how I blew half a pack of post-it flags on them. So many sources, so much context.)
So. If you are looking for a book that will help you understand much more about intersectional oppression and public design (especially the legislative bits), this will absolutely be your cup of mud.
*Vermont, it appears, is not one of these fucking states, so let's add that to my to-do list.
August 27, 2020
As someone involved in this advocacy, and as a follower of Schmitt on Twitter, there wasn't much new here for me. However, I really appreciate the research and documentation, especially around automotive design and technological developments.
March 22, 2022
Is this the book that ultimately ends up making me semi-rage quit driving? Maybe.
I think anyone working in any field that is remotely connected to cars, traffic, roadways, and more should read this book - from car designers, to mayors, to traffic engineers. Pedestrian deaths have been sharply increasing, while driver and passenger deaths remain steady. Schmitt hits home the importance of the crisis that is largely invisible to most people.
When I read that about every 90 minutes, one person is killed walking on a street somewhere in the US, I audibly gasped. Add on top that pedestrians and cyclists account for one in five traffic deaths in the US but those groups only receive about 1.5% of federal transportation funding. What a dismal world we live in - where the lives of people are sacrificed for the sake of traffic flow.
Schmitt discusses how other nations tackle traffic and pedestrian issues, noting that "The guiding principle in Swedish traffic safety is to ensure that the human body is not exposed to impacts that will cause death and serious injury. So in areas where pedestrians are present – residential areas or shopping districts for example – the speed limit is mostly limited to 30 kilometers per hour (about 18.5 miles per hour). At that speed, even when a pedestrian is struck by a car, the odds of survival are very high: only about 6 percent of pedestrians struck at that speed die.” Oh, how can the US learn from this philosophy!
The chapter "Killer Cars" was the most powerful of the book. I read it before bed one night and was filled with just utter rage that I had to go do something else for a bit before I could fall asleep. Here are some quotes that speak for themselves in terms of how badly the US mishandles pedestrian safety.
In regards to vehicles and blind spots:
• "In 2019, the consumer safety group KidsandCars.Org and news station WTHR in Indianapolis conducted an experiment to see how many children could sit in front of a 2011 Chevy Tahoe before they would be visible to the driver. SEVENTEEN children were completely obscured by the forward blind zone. More would have fit but the organization was limited by how many children they could find whose parents agreed to participate." (The photo included is TERRIFYING).
• "Rear blind spots can also be massive. In 2011, the consumer safety group KidsandCars.org did an experiment to test out the blind spot behind an SUV. THe organization found that it could place SIXTY-TWO children in a group behind the rear of the car and ALL SIXTY-TWO would be totally invisible in both the rear window and rearview mirrors."
• "In a special report in 2019, WTHR News in Indianapolis used a large traffic cone approximating the height of a toddler to measure the blind zone in front of twenty-two vehicles. For the car that rated worst, a Cadillac Escalade, the cone was not visible to a five-food four-inch tall woman sitting at normal posture in the driver's seat until the cone was ten feet two inches away. In a Dodge Ram, it was nine feet ten inches. In a Ford Explorer, it was eight feet five inches. The best performer, a Toyota Camry, on the other hand, was three feet, three inches."
If those stats don't make you want to smash things, I don't know what will.
Schmitt also notes the importance of vehicle front end height. For example, a lot of compact cars, minivans, and some compact SUVs have their front ends ranging from two and a half feet to three feet high, which is not too bad. However, when you start talking about cars like Jeeps, Ford Expeditions, Cadillac Escalades, etc, the front end height is three and a half feet tall upwards. And we're not even talking about those ridiculous souped up trucks that LOOM over an average sized adult.
Front end height, combined with shape of a vehicle, are a deadly combination. Schmitt states:"The front end of a large pickup or SUV is very box and flat compared to the sloping front end of the Ford Focus. That high front end is very bad news for pedestrians because higher bumpers hit pedestrians higher on the body, where our vital organs live....Getting struck by a car in the abdomen is much worse for survival odds than getting hit in the legs...Pedestrians who are hit low in the body - by a Ford Focus, for example - tend to fall forward and hit the front of a car, with their head hitting the windshield which often cracks and warps. Often the motion of the car pins them to the windshield, where they remain until the car comes to a stop. Meanwhile, not only a child...be rendered invisible by the high profile of an SUV; he might then be stuck in the head- the kind of injury most likely to be fatal - and then pushed under the tires and then run over"
Like I said. Rage inducing. This book really makes you think, especially our transportation network, your driving habits and your own car, if you have one. Schmitt also goes into the details behind building infrastructure that improves pedestrian safety as well as the international state of pedestrian deaths and more. It's a worthwhile read for sure, and who knows, maybe you'll also be as enraged as I am.
(This gif is a joke.)
I think anyone working in any field that is remotely connected to cars, traffic, roadways, and more should read this book - from car designers, to mayors, to traffic engineers. Pedestrian deaths have been sharply increasing, while driver and passenger deaths remain steady. Schmitt hits home the importance of the crisis that is largely invisible to most people.
When I read that about every 90 minutes, one person is killed walking on a street somewhere in the US, I audibly gasped. Add on top that pedestrians and cyclists account for one in five traffic deaths in the US but those groups only receive about 1.5% of federal transportation funding. What a dismal world we live in - where the lives of people are sacrificed for the sake of traffic flow.
Schmitt discusses how other nations tackle traffic and pedestrian issues, noting that "The guiding principle in Swedish traffic safety is to ensure that the human body is not exposed to impacts that will cause death and serious injury. So in areas where pedestrians are present – residential areas or shopping districts for example – the speed limit is mostly limited to 30 kilometers per hour (about 18.5 miles per hour). At that speed, even when a pedestrian is struck by a car, the odds of survival are very high: only about 6 percent of pedestrians struck at that speed die.” Oh, how can the US learn from this philosophy!
The chapter "Killer Cars" was the most powerful of the book. I read it before bed one night and was filled with just utter rage that I had to go do something else for a bit before I could fall asleep. Here are some quotes that speak for themselves in terms of how badly the US mishandles pedestrian safety.
In regards to vehicles and blind spots:
• "In 2019, the consumer safety group KidsandCars.Org and news station WTHR in Indianapolis conducted an experiment to see how many children could sit in front of a 2011 Chevy Tahoe before they would be visible to the driver. SEVENTEEN children were completely obscured by the forward blind zone. More would have fit but the organization was limited by how many children they could find whose parents agreed to participate." (The photo included is TERRIFYING).
• "Rear blind spots can also be massive. In 2011, the consumer safety group KidsandCars.org did an experiment to test out the blind spot behind an SUV. THe organization found that it could place SIXTY-TWO children in a group behind the rear of the car and ALL SIXTY-TWO would be totally invisible in both the rear window and rearview mirrors."
• "In a special report in 2019, WTHR News in Indianapolis used a large traffic cone approximating the height of a toddler to measure the blind zone in front of twenty-two vehicles. For the car that rated worst, a Cadillac Escalade, the cone was not visible to a five-food four-inch tall woman sitting at normal posture in the driver's seat until the cone was ten feet two inches away. In a Dodge Ram, it was nine feet ten inches. In a Ford Explorer, it was eight feet five inches. The best performer, a Toyota Camry, on the other hand, was three feet, three inches."
If those stats don't make you want to smash things, I don't know what will.
Schmitt also notes the importance of vehicle front end height. For example, a lot of compact cars, minivans, and some compact SUVs have their front ends ranging from two and a half feet to three feet high, which is not too bad. However, when you start talking about cars like Jeeps, Ford Expeditions, Cadillac Escalades, etc, the front end height is three and a half feet tall upwards. And we're not even talking about those ridiculous souped up trucks that LOOM over an average sized adult.
Front end height, combined with shape of a vehicle, are a deadly combination. Schmitt states:"The front end of a large pickup or SUV is very box and flat compared to the sloping front end of the Ford Focus. That high front end is very bad news for pedestrians because higher bumpers hit pedestrians higher on the body, where our vital organs live....Getting struck by a car in the abdomen is much worse for survival odds than getting hit in the legs...Pedestrians who are hit low in the body - by a Ford Focus, for example - tend to fall forward and hit the front of a car, with their head hitting the windshield which often cracks and warps. Often the motion of the car pins them to the windshield, where they remain until the car comes to a stop. Meanwhile, not only a child...be rendered invisible by the high profile of an SUV; he might then be stuck in the head- the kind of injury most likely to be fatal - and then pushed under the tires and then run over"
Like I said. Rage inducing. This book really makes you think, especially our transportation network, your driving habits and your own car, if you have one. Schmitt also goes into the details behind building infrastructure that improves pedestrian safety as well as the international state of pedestrian deaths and more. It's a worthwhile read for sure, and who knows, maybe you'll also be as enraged as I am.
(This gif is a joke.)September 22, 2020
I enjoyed this book. But I'm the choir, in the preaching to the choir. I'm an avid bike rider on my city's transportation commission and actively engaged in changing how my city thinks about pedestrians. Moreover, my city (and to a lesser extent) my county is already going down the path to a Vision Zero existence. That is a good thing. So, I guess, this a book that needs to get into the hands of policy makers and policy maker assistants that don't understand the crisis we're in. But, I don't see the book easily finding its way in there.
If you are a new city planner at any city bigger than 50k, this book should be on your desk when you arrive. If you are a legislative assistant for a State Rep or a State Senator and your district includes a city over 50k, this book should be required reading. Because it will help you understand that A. Change is Necessary. and B. Change is Possible. and C. Change is not that hard or expensive.
If you are a new city planner at any city bigger than 50k, this book should be on your desk when you arrive. If you are a legislative assistant for a State Rep or a State Senator and your district includes a city over 50k, this book should be required reading. Because it will help you understand that A. Change is Necessary. and B. Change is Possible. and C. Change is not that hard or expensive.
January 23, 2021
As someone who has spent years of my adult life traveling by foot, train, bus, and bike in a city dominated by cars, I found "Right of Way" a compelling argument for policies prioritizing pedestrian safety.
I learned the most new information—and got the most angry—reading the chapter “Pedestrian Safety on the Technological Frontier.” Schmitt lays out the massive and unregulated landscape of automobile technology (most notably self-driving cars) alongside the devastating human costs—the death of the most vulnerable residents. I was struck by the ways tech and auto companies accept the death of pedestrians as part of the costs of disrupting, and so often hold a cavalier attitude about human lives.
Her ongoing framing and re-framing, shifting blame from individual actors (pedestrians, cyclists, even drivers) to policies and infrastructure is effective. Schmitt makes clear the results of an American car-friendly, "freedom"-loving culture in politics, within companies, and in the general public. And she shows alternatives, in some US cities and internationally.
But although Schmitt discussed the disproportionate effects of this crisis on Black people, people of color, and low-income people, she missed a big opportunity by not explaining the why and how of structural racism and widening economic inequality. It’s not on accident that these marginalized groups are affected by traffic violence more frequently—it’s a result of hundreds of years of systemic racism in practices and policies, starting from the European occupation of indigenous land and slavery. Exploring the more contemporary histories of redlining and the razing of entire Black communities to create highways would be a good place to start. Schmitt only touches on these points vaguely in passing. The actual racist polices and practices in housing, urban planning, and infrastructure construction throughout US history should be central to her argument about the pedestrian epidemic being deeply tied to racism.
I learned the most new information—and got the most angry—reading the chapter “Pedestrian Safety on the Technological Frontier.” Schmitt lays out the massive and unregulated landscape of automobile technology (most notably self-driving cars) alongside the devastating human costs—the death of the most vulnerable residents. I was struck by the ways tech and auto companies accept the death of pedestrians as part of the costs of disrupting, and so often hold a cavalier attitude about human lives.
Her ongoing framing and re-framing, shifting blame from individual actors (pedestrians, cyclists, even drivers) to policies and infrastructure is effective. Schmitt makes clear the results of an American car-friendly, "freedom"-loving culture in politics, within companies, and in the general public. And she shows alternatives, in some US cities and internationally.
But although Schmitt discussed the disproportionate effects of this crisis on Black people, people of color, and low-income people, she missed a big opportunity by not explaining the why and how of structural racism and widening economic inequality. It’s not on accident that these marginalized groups are affected by traffic violence more frequently—it’s a result of hundreds of years of systemic racism in practices and policies, starting from the European occupation of indigenous land and slavery. Exploring the more contemporary histories of redlining and the razing of entire Black communities to create highways would be a good place to start. Schmitt only touches on these points vaguely in passing. The actual racist polices and practices in housing, urban planning, and infrastructure construction throughout US history should be central to her argument about the pedestrian epidemic being deeply tied to racism.
January 27, 2021
A must read for city planners, traffic engineers, and anyone with a stake in making our streets more humane, healthy, and sustainable. Angie Schmitt brings the data, best practices, case studies, policies, and most importantly, the personal stories of tragedy that have resulted from prioritizing drivers over pedestrians.
Americans as whole have become so inured to a vehicle-dominated landscape that it's hard to imagine an alternative. This lack of imagination is exacerbated by low levels of travel abroad, where the best examples of pedestrian-oriented streets are located. Right of Way is a strong reminder of what we've lost, while providing some inspiration and pathways along the way.
In summary, a few excerpts:
The problem: "The general acceptance of [pedestrian] deaths as tragic but inevitable has headed off the necessary work of recognizing solutions and finding the will to implement them, even as the numbers have soared." (page 5)
The tragic math: "...bike and pedestrian crashes cost Americans the equivalent of about $400 per person per year in 2010. Since that time, pedestrian fatalities have increased dramatically... but these modes receive just about 1.5% of federal transportation funding, or about $2.65 per American per year." (pp 119-120)
Inexpensive solutions abound if the will is there: "Pedestrians need complete sidewalks to be safe. They need comprehensive street lighting. They need curb ramps so that wheelchair users are not struck in the street. They need bus stops that are located in safe places, preferably with shelter. They need traffic signals that give them enough time to cross. They need crosswalks at locations where pedestrians really want and need to to cross, not just where it is expedient for drivers. And because drivers are so bad about yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks, these crosswalks often need additional treatments such as raised speeding tables and flashing lights." (page 175)
Americans as whole have become so inured to a vehicle-dominated landscape that it's hard to imagine an alternative. This lack of imagination is exacerbated by low levels of travel abroad, where the best examples of pedestrian-oriented streets are located. Right of Way is a strong reminder of what we've lost, while providing some inspiration and pathways along the way.
In summary, a few excerpts:
The problem: "The general acceptance of [pedestrian] deaths as tragic but inevitable has headed off the necessary work of recognizing solutions and finding the will to implement them, even as the numbers have soared." (page 5)
The tragic math: "...bike and pedestrian crashes cost Americans the equivalent of about $400 per person per year in 2010. Since that time, pedestrian fatalities have increased dramatically... but these modes receive just about 1.5% of federal transportation funding, or about $2.65 per American per year." (pp 119-120)
Inexpensive solutions abound if the will is there: "Pedestrians need complete sidewalks to be safe. They need comprehensive street lighting. They need curb ramps so that wheelchair users are not struck in the street. They need bus stops that are located in safe places, preferably with shelter. They need traffic signals that give them enough time to cross. They need crosswalks at locations where pedestrians really want and need to to cross, not just where it is expedient for drivers. And because drivers are so bad about yielding at uncontrolled crosswalks, these crosswalks often need additional treatments such as raised speeding tables and flashing lights." (page 175)
July 31, 2025
This book is powerful and needed. Schmitt centers the critical issues threatening pedestrian safety in the US in a compelling way interspersed with stories of individuals and families who have been impacted. The chapters are short and punchy. Emphasis on the intersectionality of race, class and geographic disparities brings pedestrian issues to the forefront as a real justice problem, not a side issue, as it is too often misconstrued. Our lack of pedestrian infrastructure, not to mention lack of federal oversight of the auto industry, disproportionately impact low-income people of color living in urban sprawl, and vulnerable road users in general.
This book opened my eyes to the idea of the "suburbanization of poverty." To live in our suburban, car-centric places on a low income and without a car truly seems like a hellish experience, especially if, like Raquel Nelson in Chapter 3, you are effectively blamed for the violence you experience -- for "the crime of being poor," as Yolanda Pierce writes. Nelson lost her four-year-old son in a hit-and-run crash while they were trying to cross a busy road in Atlanta's northern suburbs. She was convicted of vehicular homicide, even though she didn't even own a car (p. 47).
Stories like this, as well as Chapter 5's analysis of aggressive car designs, are as mobilizing as they are disturbing. Schmitt closes the book with practical, societal recommendations about reframing the narrative and changing our infrastructure.
My key takeaway? As Lindsey Ganson of Walk Bike Nashville is quoted on p. 174, "Pedestrian deaths are preventable deaths." Rather than happening solely because an individual driver or pedestrian was foolish or distracted, these casualties are "injustices caused by policy failures" (p. 161).
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to advocate for safer and better communities, where human lives are valued over a relentless pursuit of speed.
This book opened my eyes to the idea of the "suburbanization of poverty." To live in our suburban, car-centric places on a low income and without a car truly seems like a hellish experience, especially if, like Raquel Nelson in Chapter 3, you are effectively blamed for the violence you experience -- for "the crime of being poor," as Yolanda Pierce writes. Nelson lost her four-year-old son in a hit-and-run crash while they were trying to cross a busy road in Atlanta's northern suburbs. She was convicted of vehicular homicide, even though she didn't even own a car (p. 47).
Stories like this, as well as Chapter 5's analysis of aggressive car designs, are as mobilizing as they are disturbing. Schmitt closes the book with practical, societal recommendations about reframing the narrative and changing our infrastructure.
My key takeaway? As Lindsey Ganson of Walk Bike Nashville is quoted on p. 174, "Pedestrian deaths are preventable deaths." Rather than happening solely because an individual driver or pedestrian was foolish or distracted, these casualties are "injustices caused by policy failures" (p. 161).
I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to advocate for safer and better communities, where human lives are valued over a relentless pursuit of speed.
September 29, 2020
SEEKING PEDESTRIAN JUSTICE
Horror begins Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way. Eleven pedestrians are killed by motor vehicles during a seven-day-period in Phoenix Arizona. Late Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez, 77-years-old, was killed by a hit-and-run driver, one of three people dying in recent years trying to cross a particular stretch of a six lane road.
Horror grows: Rodriguez’s son, Felipe Duarte, pleaded with the city to have a designated crosswalk installed in the middle of a ten city-block-long stretch with no indicated crosswalk where his father was killed. Mr. Duarte had hope to stop the carnage here. The city had done nothing about this in over two years since.
In 2018, 6,283 pedestrians were killed across the U.S.—53 percent more that were killed in 2009, writes Schmitt.
Pedestrian traffic deaths receive halting consideration from U.S. leaders. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic when, according to Schmitt: “…many right-wing figures, including President Trump, used traffic deaths—some 37,000 annually (U.S.)—to make the case that some amount of loss of life is an acceptable price to pay for a strong economy.”
And, unfortunately, the U.S. news media is often ignorant and negligence in reporting about pedestrian deaths.
As with Covid-19, pedestrian traffic deaths are disproportionately among “poor, black and brown, elderly, disabled, low-income…marginalized people with fewer political resources to demand reforms.”
As a bicyclist for many decades in the U.S., I too share Schmitt’s view that many automobile drivers here, “view pedestrians, (and bicyclists), as an annoyance or irritation, a potential obstacle on their journey.”
Schmitt competently sorts through this dilemma—though, lying in wait for anyone trying to solve this is: Flawed public policy; State constitutions not allowing gasoline tax money to be used for non-motor vehicle uses; Increasing volumes of big SUVs—ever more dangerous to pedestrians; Demographic change has put more pedestrians out into auto-oriented suburbia; and a host of other pedestrian-killing realities; nested with indifferent or hostile bureaucratic and political inclinations toward pedestrian safety that inflicts the U.S. today.
Schmitt’s initial suggestion of an overall solution, provided on page five, is: “Understanding the systemic causes is the first step to saving lives. Given the right level of public commitment and resources, pedestrian deaths are preventable.”
While a large and growing amount of America’s pedestrian carnage is in the south and south west, the horror occurs where ever thoughtless infrastructure has been installed—in many places in the U.S.
“Pedestrian deaths, in other words, are a design problem. Certain streets are designed to kill,” writes Schmitt.
Schmitt enumerates concentrated places of pedestrian death across the U.S. Accounts from bereaved family members—often who are now pedestrian safety activists—and words from municipal and academic authorities, all provide hope for change that Schmitt builds upon.
Potential solutions are never far away in this book. New York City authorities overhauled Queens Boulevard, (known by locals as the “Boulevard of Death”), in 2014, after 189 people, mostly pedestrians, were killed in the previous 24 years. The redesign, “was cheap,” $4 million. There were no traffic fatalities on that road for three years after the redesign.
Unfortunately, the forces against bettering the lot of pedestrians have much power. A city councilman-led campaign claiming that extreme slowing of traffic would be drivers’ plight if a pedestrian-accommodating proposal was broadcasted to his 19,000 member social media list in Phoenix Ariz. After this, almost to the last member, the appointed volunteers seated on the Phoenix Complete Streets Advisory Board resigned en masse. They said they were “maligned by developer lobbyists, disrespected by City staff…”
Schmitt provides repeated accounts of excruciating journeys to find solutions that finally pop up as an improvement. Her research is extensive—the components of this story are from many knowledgeable sources across the U.S. In a way, this book is a knock-off of Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’ the 1835 sociological-political-geography study by a French writer of the new United States of America.
‘Justice for American Pedestrians’ could be the title of this book!
Current errant norms across America today can be changed—which Schmitt shows through accounts of a variety of Americans taking hold of and bringing positive change.
And, there is hope for the U.S. news media—as Schmitt bobs the reader back to surface once again. The advocacy treatment of a an especially horrific pedestrian death in East Cleveland Ohio from Fox News 8 provides an outstanding example of how news media can shine.
It stirred Ohio Republican governor Mike DeWine to take a direct role. (He travelled over 200 miles round trip to visit the site of this traffic death, in a ‘ghetto’ suburb, and commiserated with the family who’s loved one was killed).
Pressured by the broader news media attention that followed, soon the Ohio Department of Transportation installed a crosswalk light, which ODOT had negligently removed without replacement some months before.
Schmitt repeatedly operates a narrative that first drops readers into horror, then uplifts readers into humanoid success at improving public health.
Schmitt’s ever wiggling back and forth from horror to solution from horror, reminds me of the minister of a church I attended in my early teens.
In the early 1960s, with my late biological mother, we attended the Sunday adult services at a protestant Christian denomination in Akron O.
Kindly, Mom allowed me to avoid ‘Sunday School,’ which I despised. With her, I sat with the adults. The minister’s preaching style took the congregation down into Hell, then, at just the right moment, brought congregants back up redemption. To get you out of Hell, you need to be saved. To become a member of the church it was required to be saved twice.
If you have a smidgen of feeling for humankind, Angie Schmitt, in Right of Way, is more or less, like this minister. She joggles the reader loose through a hell-to-redemption roller coaster. As for saving one’s soul a second time, working as an activist to change this, one way or another, may redeem you.
Lee Batdorff has been a pedestrian and bicycle advocate in Cleveland Ohio for many years.
END
Horror begins Angie Schmitt’s Right of Way. Eleven pedestrians are killed by motor vehicles during a seven-day-period in Phoenix Arizona. Late Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez, 77-years-old, was killed by a hit-and-run driver, one of three people dying in recent years trying to cross a particular stretch of a six lane road.
Horror grows: Rodriguez’s son, Felipe Duarte, pleaded with the city to have a designated crosswalk installed in the middle of a ten city-block-long stretch with no indicated crosswalk where his father was killed. Mr. Duarte had hope to stop the carnage here. The city had done nothing about this in over two years since.
In 2018, 6,283 pedestrians were killed across the U.S.—53 percent more that were killed in 2009, writes Schmitt.
Pedestrian traffic deaths receive halting consideration from U.S. leaders. Early in the Covid-19 pandemic when, according to Schmitt: “…many right-wing figures, including President Trump, used traffic deaths—some 37,000 annually (U.S.)—to make the case that some amount of loss of life is an acceptable price to pay for a strong economy.”
And, unfortunately, the U.S. news media is often ignorant and negligence in reporting about pedestrian deaths.
As with Covid-19, pedestrian traffic deaths are disproportionately among “poor, black and brown, elderly, disabled, low-income…marginalized people with fewer political resources to demand reforms.”
As a bicyclist for many decades in the U.S., I too share Schmitt’s view that many automobile drivers here, “view pedestrians, (and bicyclists), as an annoyance or irritation, a potential obstacle on their journey.”
Schmitt competently sorts through this dilemma—though, lying in wait for anyone trying to solve this is: Flawed public policy; State constitutions not allowing gasoline tax money to be used for non-motor vehicle uses; Increasing volumes of big SUVs—ever more dangerous to pedestrians; Demographic change has put more pedestrians out into auto-oriented suburbia; and a host of other pedestrian-killing realities; nested with indifferent or hostile bureaucratic and political inclinations toward pedestrian safety that inflicts the U.S. today.
Schmitt’s initial suggestion of an overall solution, provided on page five, is: “Understanding the systemic causes is the first step to saving lives. Given the right level of public commitment and resources, pedestrian deaths are preventable.”
While a large and growing amount of America’s pedestrian carnage is in the south and south west, the horror occurs where ever thoughtless infrastructure has been installed—in many places in the U.S.
“Pedestrian deaths, in other words, are a design problem. Certain streets are designed to kill,” writes Schmitt.
Schmitt enumerates concentrated places of pedestrian death across the U.S. Accounts from bereaved family members—often who are now pedestrian safety activists—and words from municipal and academic authorities, all provide hope for change that Schmitt builds upon.
Potential solutions are never far away in this book. New York City authorities overhauled Queens Boulevard, (known by locals as the “Boulevard of Death”), in 2014, after 189 people, mostly pedestrians, were killed in the previous 24 years. The redesign, “was cheap,” $4 million. There were no traffic fatalities on that road for three years after the redesign.
Unfortunately, the forces against bettering the lot of pedestrians have much power. A city councilman-led campaign claiming that extreme slowing of traffic would be drivers’ plight if a pedestrian-accommodating proposal was broadcasted to his 19,000 member social media list in Phoenix Ariz. After this, almost to the last member, the appointed volunteers seated on the Phoenix Complete Streets Advisory Board resigned en masse. They said they were “maligned by developer lobbyists, disrespected by City staff…”
Schmitt provides repeated accounts of excruciating journeys to find solutions that finally pop up as an improvement. Her research is extensive—the components of this story are from many knowledgeable sources across the U.S. In a way, this book is a knock-off of Alexis de Tocqueville’s ‘Democracy in America’ the 1835 sociological-political-geography study by a French writer of the new United States of America.
‘Justice for American Pedestrians’ could be the title of this book!
Current errant norms across America today can be changed—which Schmitt shows through accounts of a variety of Americans taking hold of and bringing positive change.
And, there is hope for the U.S. news media—as Schmitt bobs the reader back to surface once again. The advocacy treatment of a an especially horrific pedestrian death in East Cleveland Ohio from Fox News 8 provides an outstanding example of how news media can shine.
It stirred Ohio Republican governor Mike DeWine to take a direct role. (He travelled over 200 miles round trip to visit the site of this traffic death, in a ‘ghetto’ suburb, and commiserated with the family who’s loved one was killed).
Pressured by the broader news media attention that followed, soon the Ohio Department of Transportation installed a crosswalk light, which ODOT had negligently removed without replacement some months before.
Schmitt repeatedly operates a narrative that first drops readers into horror, then uplifts readers into humanoid success at improving public health.
Schmitt’s ever wiggling back and forth from horror to solution from horror, reminds me of the minister of a church I attended in my early teens.
In the early 1960s, with my late biological mother, we attended the Sunday adult services at a protestant Christian denomination in Akron O.
Kindly, Mom allowed me to avoid ‘Sunday School,’ which I despised. With her, I sat with the adults. The minister’s preaching style took the congregation down into Hell, then, at just the right moment, brought congregants back up redemption. To get you out of Hell, you need to be saved. To become a member of the church it was required to be saved twice.
If you have a smidgen of feeling for humankind, Angie Schmitt, in Right of Way, is more or less, like this minister. She joggles the reader loose through a hell-to-redemption roller coaster. As for saving one’s soul a second time, working as an activist to change this, one way or another, may redeem you.
Lee Batdorff has been a pedestrian and bicycle advocate in Cleveland Ohio for many years.
END
January 20, 2023
An enjoyable and accessible read on the public health crisis of pedestrian deaths in the United States. Topics covered included the ways in which poor, BIPOC, elderly, and disabled people are disproportionately affected, the lack of action from all levels of government in addressing the crisis, the growing partisan divide in the way the issue is discussed, the marketing and lack of regulation around more dangerous consumer vehicles, the activism taking place in cities to improve roads for cyclists and pedestrians, and more. I loved it all, but wished it could have gone deeper into each topic. Highly recommended for anyone, but especially people looking for a foot in the door on this topic.
September 23, 2020
This is a good overview of the current pedestrian safety crisis in the United States (and to a lesser extent, the developing world). I'd recommend it as a good primer on the subject, especially for people who have no background in or knowledge of any of these horrific trends.
My main issue with the book deals with the writing and editing. The author is a journalist, and each chapter feels very much like a disjunct long-form news article, rather than a connected chapter typing together broader arguments in a book. Paragraphs are very short--oftentimes just one or two sentences, much like a news article. And the introduction chapter seems all over the place, jumping from argument to argument in a loosely-structured way. Finally, there are multiple typos / editing issues in this book. I'm not sure if that had to do with it going through the editing process during COVID, but it still impacts readability.
Overall, though, I definitely recommend this book, if only for the important subject matter alone. Schmitt has tackled a huge subject and one that is overlooked in modern discourse on our transportation system.
My main issue with the book deals with the writing and editing. The author is a journalist, and each chapter feels very much like a disjunct long-form news article, rather than a connected chapter typing together broader arguments in a book. Paragraphs are very short--oftentimes just one or two sentences, much like a news article. And the introduction chapter seems all over the place, jumping from argument to argument in a loosely-structured way. Finally, there are multiple typos / editing issues in this book. I'm not sure if that had to do with it going through the editing process during COVID, but it still impacts readability.
Overall, though, I definitely recommend this book, if only for the important subject matter alone. Schmitt has tackled a huge subject and one that is overlooked in modern discourse on our transportation system.
September 11, 2020
I found this while (virtually) stack browsing and went in not knowing anything about the subject matter. Wow. I've had my share of terrifying experiences as a pedestrian but never realized how intentionally our western cities and towns prioritize the comfort and convenience of drivers over the lives of those who are on foot.
March 11, 2025
“About every 90 minutes, one person is being killed walking on a street somewhere in the United States.”
In the United States, deaths and injuries caused by car traffic are seen as a tragic but inevitable part of life. Simple “accidents” that just sometimes happen. But traffic violence is preventable. It does not have to be this way. There is a very large list of simple things we could do right now to save thousands of lives a year because, as Schmitt demonstrates in this book, pedestrian deaths are not random. They are caused by systems and industries designed to value the convenience of drivers over the safety of others, particularly the most vulnerable amongst us.
This book was a good summary of many of the key ways in which traffic violence is perpetuated in the United States. There’s definitely room to dive much deeper into the topics of this book, but as Schmitt says in the conclusion, the first step is getting people to see and acknowledge that this is a problem in the first place.
I do appreciate that Schmitt emphasizes that this tragic problem does not impact everyone equally. As is the case with most systemic problems in the US, it is minorities, the poor, and other demographic with limited power who are forced to bear the most suffering. Special attention must be dedicated to righting these injustices. It is not enough to simply improve these problems for the white and the wealthy.
In the United States, deaths and injuries caused by car traffic are seen as a tragic but inevitable part of life. Simple “accidents” that just sometimes happen. But traffic violence is preventable. It does not have to be this way. There is a very large list of simple things we could do right now to save thousands of lives a year because, as Schmitt demonstrates in this book, pedestrian deaths are not random. They are caused by systems and industries designed to value the convenience of drivers over the safety of others, particularly the most vulnerable amongst us.
This book was a good summary of many of the key ways in which traffic violence is perpetuated in the United States. There’s definitely room to dive much deeper into the topics of this book, but as Schmitt says in the conclusion, the first step is getting people to see and acknowledge that this is a problem in the first place.
I do appreciate that Schmitt emphasizes that this tragic problem does not impact everyone equally. As is the case with most systemic problems in the US, it is minorities, the poor, and other demographic with limited power who are forced to bear the most suffering. Special attention must be dedicated to righting these injustices. It is not enough to simply improve these problems for the white and the wealthy.
May 25, 2022
Concrete (pun intended) look at the serious foundational issues facing walkers in the U.S. I am in Canada, and so the international comparison chapter at the end was of interest, but many of the 'U.S. problems' described ring true here, too. When you consider the politics (outside of geographically small, dense and wealthy urban cores) of who 'has to' walk (because that is always how 'we' frame it - you would drive, take an Uber, or work from home if you could) it's little wonder that the same people too often end up injured or dead. What you may not realize is how avoidable this can and should be and how infrastructure, policing and other policies influence that. A worthy read!
June 20, 2021
Nothing surprising here for anyone who has followed Schmitt's work - it's a clear, well researched, and heartfelt summary of the epidemic of traffic violence in the US, and if you decide you want to research any of the chapter topics in more depth, chances are you'll find more of Schmitt's articles and tweets right away. I wish I could get this into the hands of policymakers who have decided not to care, who have never seen their every-30-minutes bus pulling up on the other side of a road and had to decide between missing it and risking a run against traffic, who think of bike/ped infrastructure as some kind of urban elitist frivolity. It's infuriating how simple/cheap the engineering solutions are next to how daunting the political process and culture are.
Highly recommended if transportation policy and planning isn't something you read about regularly; it's a quick and easy (technically if not emotionally) read that will open your eyes to why traffic deaths are a systemic problem and what works to make roads and sidewalks safer.
Highly recommended if transportation policy and planning isn't something you read about regularly; it's a quick and easy (technically if not emotionally) read that will open your eyes to why traffic deaths are a systemic problem and what works to make roads and sidewalks safer.
January 25, 2021
Angie pulls back the curtain on America's pedestrian safety crisis which is more grim than many realize. The content is very current and even considers some of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on commuting habits. This book should be required reading for every public official responsible for local transportation decisions. As someone who has long been passionate about urban issues and transportation, much of the information in this book was not new to me.
November 28, 2020
A report of sorts on the state of pedestrian safety in the United States, taking the perspective of traffic deaths & injuries as a public health crisis. Discusses the auto-centric mindset that pervades transportation decision making. I would have liked if the section about the media's influences on our perception of pedestrian traffic deaths were longer. I wish there had been more detail about the history of the term "Jaywalking", and more about how views on the appropriate use of streets changed to where we are today. I most of all wish there was more good news and progress for this book to cover! I hate real-life Frogger!
May 16, 2022
Everyone should read this book about the myriad ways city planners and corporate overlords have failed our most vulnerable people by failing to keep them safe on streets. I do wish Schmitt had dug deeper into the systemic roots of housing segregation and other factors that make people of color and poor people particularly at risk. Still, I feel radicalized by this book!
January 1, 2023
A solid summary of how the US and states created an epidemic of pedestrian deaths from traffic violence. Unsafe street designs, culture and politics discussed and how to address all three to make real change.
Author personally signed my copy with “stay hopeful” message.
Author personally signed my copy with “stay hopeful” message.
March 26, 2021
Very thorough introductory overview for those looking to understand how traffic violence is a racial and economic injustice caused by policy failures.
January 22, 2024
should be mandatory reading for all drivers
October 5, 2020
Preaching to the choir here, but Schmitt's framing is extremely useful for understanding just how deep car culture goes. Everyone should read this, especially my city council members!
December 8, 2022
This. Is. An. Eye opener! And a book that every driver should read. As a frequent walker, I have been keenly aware of the pedestrian’s worry with cars. This book has made me hyper aware.
January 29, 2024
God that's depressing
March 1, 2021
An infuriating read. Angie Schmitt’s book puts into words (and backs with citations) the experience many of us feel when simply going for a walk. I know the plague of automobile violence has been felt greatly in my town kalamazoo, mi. From tragic events that made global news like: the ‘Uber shooter’ who drove wildly thru kalamazoo for hours on a shooting spree.. picking up Uber rides in between murders, to the bike tragedy, one of the largest traffic violence crashes involving bike riders in recent history, causing 6 deaths... this driver also drove wildly thru town prior to his murder was committed with a truck... kalamazoo has had its share of profound, horrific traffic violence. But it’s also apparent on any walk downtown, or to the grocery store. High speed (35mph) 3 lane one ways flow thru our downtown and intersect neighborhoods. Sprawling suburbs that are openly hostile to walkers, bikers and bus riders surround kzoo. It’s a deadly combination that political and city leadership fails to even acknowledge at this point. After the bike tragedy I’ll never forgot the kalamazoo mayor texting me from the crash site that this had nothing to do with safe streets. The book provided a historical context to this dysfunction and even a few solutions to start to address the issue. Speed governors on cars are something I’ll add to my advocacy list. Appreciated all the examples of towns that have started to address the issue. A lot to think about in this book and I’ll be re-reading it.
September 17, 2021
This October 2019 article from Houston Public Media distills the message of Angie Schmitt's important book. Auto-pedestrian collisions, including fatal ones, are becoming more frequent year over year, outpacing the growth in population. And we cannot just keep blaming the dead pedestrians or just accepting the inevitability of traffic deaths as the cost of improved mobility.
I am amazed that there aren't a lot more such collisions on Old Spanish Trail. My wife and I live just a few feet from OST, a segment of US-90A that runs about five miles south of Downtown Houston. West to East, it diverges from Main Street near NRG Park, passes through portions of the Texas Medical Center, crosses the South Freeway (TX-288), divides the relatively upscale South MacGregor district from the low-to-mid-level homes mid-century bungalows of South Union, continues through some industrial areas south of the University of Houston, veers northward, and becomes South Wayside Drive just before reaching the Gulf Freeway (I-45).
For most of its length, OST is six lanes plus left-turn cutaways, with speed limits at 35 or 40. Motorists with sports cars, muscle cars, motorcycles, Polaris Slingshots, jacked up pickups and SUVs ignore the limit constantly. Day and night, drivers gun their engines, show off their glass-pack exhaust systems, act like they don't know what a school zone is and even accelerate through the zone to pass the slow-pokes complying with the reduced limit. It certainly doesn't help that somebody built a gigantic sports bar/night club/hookah lounge right at OST and 288.
Pedestrians, many of them low-income POC, many of them seniors with mobility issues (but also schoolchildren and young families) cross OST at random points constantly, day and night, seeming not to care whether a young dude in a modified Dodge Challenger is bearing down on them. In parts of OST, the sidewalks are either crumbling or blocked by trees, bus shelters, or lamp posts that a driver has knocked over—so pedestrians just walk in the highway to get around these impediments.
In other words, OST fits the profile of the hyper-perilous traffic corridors that feature so prominently in Right of Way. It is designed to expedite the movement of cars and trucks...which it doesn't do very well. Particularly from 288 to Spur 5 by UH, the traffic lights are poorly timed. Far too often a driver can encounter red lights at every lighted intersection. So, to avoid the red lights, drivers speed from light to light, maybe treating the red light as a stop sign, maybe just plowing through the intersection.
But enough about my hood. What's so remarkable about Schmitt's book? Top on my list is that it takes a holistic approach to this under-reported phenomenon. Individual crashes may be reduced to a single cause; the rapid, steady increase in fatal auto-pedestrian crashes results from combinations of factors, most of which in turn result from planning that shows callous disregard for the lives of people who walk or use wheelchairs to get around. There's also the heavy marketeering of taller, heavier pickups and SUVs by the auto industry, mostly because the profit margins on these vehicles dwarf those for sedans. In just a few years, these motorized behemoths have practically erased all the progress toward improved fuel efficiency and curtailing climate chaos that has been made since the 1970s, the advent of Tesla and other electric vehicles notwithstanding.
Second, Schmitt dives into the details to show that these factors actually cause increased traffic violence rather than merely correlate with it. How? By citing examples of places that have applied fixes and seen their traffic fatality numbers decrease instantly. Fixes include redesigning streets and roads in line with Vision Zero guidelines, reducing speed limits, adding crosswalks (too often crosswalks are too far apart, potentially adding half a mile to one's walk), installing traffic-calming devices, removing auto traffic entirely from specified business districts, and educating the public about safe navigation of urban streets. Maybe government agencies can eventually concentrate on discouraging citizens from buying those god-awful SUVs.
Third, Schmitt has collected material from sources all over North America and beyond. That source material includes not only the stark statistics kept by advocacy groups and government agencies, but also the anecdotes of regular folks whose loved ones were killed by drivers who mostly faced no consequences for their "accidents." Schmitt constructs a big-picture view of the root of the problem: over-reliance on statistics, but not all the relevant statistics. In an attempt to appear "evidence-based," agencies and policy makers tend to make decisions based partly on the stats, partly on budgetary considerations; however, they tend to work only with the stats that support their plans. They tend not to listen to the people who will be or have been harmed. It's only when a politician or local luminary takes up the cause of those harmed that media outlets pay attention and the issue enters public consciousness.
I have seen something like this phenomenon up-close, especially in the last few years with the proposed North Houston Highway Improvement Plan (NHHIP), also known as the I-45 expansion. The Texas Department of Transportation's own impact statements include estimates of the number of residents and businesses displaced, the number of schools and parks brought within 500 feet of the freeway's exhaust cloud, etc. Following a longstanding American tradition, those displaced are mostly (you guessed it!) low-income African American and LatinX folk.
Nevertheless, TxDOT and the Houston-Galveston Area Council have pushed ahead with the plan despite impassioned testimony from residents and advocates, including Houston's legendary furniture guy Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. It has taken a lawsuit from Houston and Harris County government to block NHHIP on civil rights grounds, but even that injunction is temporary. I've also seen commuters on Facebook and Twitter saying basically that they don't give a shit who gets displaced as long as the North Freeway gets widened and their commute times lessened—but guess what, guys! That solution is also temporary! More lanes lead to induced demand, as we've seen on the expanded Katy Freeway; those lanes will fill up again, especially with more housing development along the corridor and more subdivisions springing up around Conroe, so...you see where all this is going, right?
In recent years, I have also seen our city and county governments respond positively to the need for alternative and multi-modal transportation options: improved pubic transit, protected bike lanes, bike racks on the fronts of buses, better connectivity between hike-and-bike trails, etc. Gentrification is often an unfortunate side-effect of these improvements, but that would be happening with or without the addition of bike lanes in traditionally black and brown neighborhoods. Sadly, real estate development trends and heavy demand for heavier vehicles are working against local governments' efforts: Pedestrian fatalities are still increasing. We have a long way to go to catch up with the Portlands of the world, let alone the Copenhagens and Amsterdams. We have a lot of attitudinal barriers to overcome, which is nice way of saying there a lot of sociopaths making and influencing policy, especially in Texas and elsewhere in the Sun Belt. As long as they get paid, these assholes don't care who lives or dies as a result of their decisions.
Indeed, if there's any way to summarize the combinations of factors contributing to the increase in pedestrian deaths, it's assholes. Whether those assholes are driving policy or driving (or selling) Hummers, they are creating the conditions that make walking in the US a high-risk activity, especially in Sun Belt cities. Making our society less assholish is an uphill battle; Schmitt and other transportation wonks, including myself, are grateful for the people waging that battle to halt traffic violence.
I am amazed that there aren't a lot more such collisions on Old Spanish Trail. My wife and I live just a few feet from OST, a segment of US-90A that runs about five miles south of Downtown Houston. West to East, it diverges from Main Street near NRG Park, passes through portions of the Texas Medical Center, crosses the South Freeway (TX-288), divides the relatively upscale South MacGregor district from the low-to-mid-level homes mid-century bungalows of South Union, continues through some industrial areas south of the University of Houston, veers northward, and becomes South Wayside Drive just before reaching the Gulf Freeway (I-45).
For most of its length, OST is six lanes plus left-turn cutaways, with speed limits at 35 or 40. Motorists with sports cars, muscle cars, motorcycles, Polaris Slingshots, jacked up pickups and SUVs ignore the limit constantly. Day and night, drivers gun their engines, show off their glass-pack exhaust systems, act like they don't know what a school zone is and even accelerate through the zone to pass the slow-pokes complying with the reduced limit. It certainly doesn't help that somebody built a gigantic sports bar/night club/hookah lounge right at OST and 288.
Pedestrians, many of them low-income POC, many of them seniors with mobility issues (but also schoolchildren and young families) cross OST at random points constantly, day and night, seeming not to care whether a young dude in a modified Dodge Challenger is bearing down on them. In parts of OST, the sidewalks are either crumbling or blocked by trees, bus shelters, or lamp posts that a driver has knocked over—so pedestrians just walk in the highway to get around these impediments.
In other words, OST fits the profile of the hyper-perilous traffic corridors that feature so prominently in Right of Way. It is designed to expedite the movement of cars and trucks...which it doesn't do very well. Particularly from 288 to Spur 5 by UH, the traffic lights are poorly timed. Far too often a driver can encounter red lights at every lighted intersection. So, to avoid the red lights, drivers speed from light to light, maybe treating the red light as a stop sign, maybe just plowing through the intersection.
But enough about my hood. What's so remarkable about Schmitt's book? Top on my list is that it takes a holistic approach to this under-reported phenomenon. Individual crashes may be reduced to a single cause; the rapid, steady increase in fatal auto-pedestrian crashes results from combinations of factors, most of which in turn result from planning that shows callous disregard for the lives of people who walk or use wheelchairs to get around. There's also the heavy marketeering of taller, heavier pickups and SUVs by the auto industry, mostly because the profit margins on these vehicles dwarf those for sedans. In just a few years, these motorized behemoths have practically erased all the progress toward improved fuel efficiency and curtailing climate chaos that has been made since the 1970s, the advent of Tesla and other electric vehicles notwithstanding.
Second, Schmitt dives into the details to show that these factors actually cause increased traffic violence rather than merely correlate with it. How? By citing examples of places that have applied fixes and seen their traffic fatality numbers decrease instantly. Fixes include redesigning streets and roads in line with Vision Zero guidelines, reducing speed limits, adding crosswalks (too often crosswalks are too far apart, potentially adding half a mile to one's walk), installing traffic-calming devices, removing auto traffic entirely from specified business districts, and educating the public about safe navigation of urban streets. Maybe government agencies can eventually concentrate on discouraging citizens from buying those god-awful SUVs.
Third, Schmitt has collected material from sources all over North America and beyond. That source material includes not only the stark statistics kept by advocacy groups and government agencies, but also the anecdotes of regular folks whose loved ones were killed by drivers who mostly faced no consequences for their "accidents." Schmitt constructs a big-picture view of the root of the problem: over-reliance on statistics, but not all the relevant statistics. In an attempt to appear "evidence-based," agencies and policy makers tend to make decisions based partly on the stats, partly on budgetary considerations; however, they tend to work only with the stats that support their plans. They tend not to listen to the people who will be or have been harmed. It's only when a politician or local luminary takes up the cause of those harmed that media outlets pay attention and the issue enters public consciousness.
I have seen something like this phenomenon up-close, especially in the last few years with the proposed North Houston Highway Improvement Plan (NHHIP), also known as the I-45 expansion. The Texas Department of Transportation's own impact statements include estimates of the number of residents and businesses displaced, the number of schools and parks brought within 500 feet of the freeway's exhaust cloud, etc. Following a longstanding American tradition, those displaced are mostly (you guessed it!) low-income African American and LatinX folk.
Nevertheless, TxDOT and the Houston-Galveston Area Council have pushed ahead with the plan despite impassioned testimony from residents and advocates, including Houston's legendary furniture guy Jim "Mattress Mack" McIngvale. It has taken a lawsuit from Houston and Harris County government to block NHHIP on civil rights grounds, but even that injunction is temporary. I've also seen commuters on Facebook and Twitter saying basically that they don't give a shit who gets displaced as long as the North Freeway gets widened and their commute times lessened—but guess what, guys! That solution is also temporary! More lanes lead to induced demand, as we've seen on the expanded Katy Freeway; those lanes will fill up again, especially with more housing development along the corridor and more subdivisions springing up around Conroe, so...you see where all this is going, right?
In recent years, I have also seen our city and county governments respond positively to the need for alternative and multi-modal transportation options: improved pubic transit, protected bike lanes, bike racks on the fronts of buses, better connectivity between hike-and-bike trails, etc. Gentrification is often an unfortunate side-effect of these improvements, but that would be happening with or without the addition of bike lanes in traditionally black and brown neighborhoods. Sadly, real estate development trends and heavy demand for heavier vehicles are working against local governments' efforts: Pedestrian fatalities are still increasing. We have a long way to go to catch up with the Portlands of the world, let alone the Copenhagens and Amsterdams. We have a lot of attitudinal barriers to overcome, which is nice way of saying there a lot of sociopaths making and influencing policy, especially in Texas and elsewhere in the Sun Belt. As long as they get paid, these assholes don't care who lives or dies as a result of their decisions.
Indeed, if there's any way to summarize the combinations of factors contributing to the increase in pedestrian deaths, it's assholes. Whether those assholes are driving policy or driving (or selling) Hummers, they are creating the conditions that make walking in the US a high-risk activity, especially in Sun Belt cities. Making our society less assholish is an uphill battle; Schmitt and other transportation wonks, including myself, are grateful for the people waging that battle to halt traffic violence.
August 19, 2020
Angie Schmitt explores the many causes of a rapid rise in pedestrian deaths in American cities. Her new book is a must-read for people interested in mobility justice. Review here:
https://anoutsidechance.com/2020/08/1...
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September 22, 2020
Over the past decade, the number of pedestrians killed by automobiles has increased by 50 percent; by contrast, in Europe pedestrian death rates have actually gone down by 36 percent. What went wrong?
This book outlines the causes of the problem, including:
*Demographic change. Large Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Tampa are the most dangerous for pedestrians, because they have the most wide, speeding-friendly roads. (Where traffic is fast, a collision is more likely to be fatal than in a place where cars only go 20 miles per hour or so). As these regions have grown, more people have moved to those regions, causing more auto/pedestrian collisions.
*The growth of “killer cars.” Sport utility vehicles cause more than twice as many deaths per collision as sedans, because drivers of tall vehicles have more difficulty seeing pedestrians, and because a SUV is likely to hit a pedestrian in the middle of the body instead of the legs. “Bull bars” added to SUVs increase risks to pedestrians by concentrating the force of a blow; they are banned in the United Kingdom but not in the U.S.
*An aging society. A middle-aged man can walk 3.5 feet per second, while older people walk 2.5-3 feet per second. Traffic engineers time lights for a walking speed of 2.5 feet per second, ensuring that older walkers are stranded in the middle of the road when lights change.
One common response to dead pedestrians is to blame the victim. For example, one study showed that only 25 percent of pedestrians seriously injured by cars were at crosswalks- implying that the rest were struck in midblock where people arguably should not be crossing streets. However, Schmitt looked at the study more carefully, and points out that only 25 percent of seriously injured walkers were crossed at midblock. (The rest were injured in situations that do not fit either category, such as pedestrians struck in parking lots, or attacked by cars traveling in reverse). Moreover, crosswalks are infrequent in the suburban areas where injuries are most common, making it difficult for pedestrians NOT to cross midblock.
She also discusses solutions, like:
*Road redesign. In New York City, Queens Boulevard was narrowed by the addition of bike lanes, reducing the number of lanes walkers have to cross at a time. Between 1990 and 2014, 189 walkers died on this “boulevard of death” while in some recent years, none have.
*Street lighting. After Detroit repaired thousands of nonfunctioning streetlights, the pedestrian death rate fell 50 percent in two years- at a time when deaths were rising in the rest of Michigan.
*Imposing rules to make SUVs safer. For example, European nations score cars on impacts to pedestrians, encouraging carmakers to introduce safety features to raise their scores.
*More crosswalks and sidewalks.
*Changing traffic lights to give walkers a 5-7 second head start before vehicles get a green light.
*Lower speed limits, enforced by speed cameras. When New York City approved a pilot speed cameras program for school zones, injury crashes were reduced by 17 percent.
This book outlines the causes of the problem, including:
*Demographic change. Large Sun Belt cities like Phoenix and Tampa are the most dangerous for pedestrians, because they have the most wide, speeding-friendly roads. (Where traffic is fast, a collision is more likely to be fatal than in a place where cars only go 20 miles per hour or so). As these regions have grown, more people have moved to those regions, causing more auto/pedestrian collisions.
*The growth of “killer cars.” Sport utility vehicles cause more than twice as many deaths per collision as sedans, because drivers of tall vehicles have more difficulty seeing pedestrians, and because a SUV is likely to hit a pedestrian in the middle of the body instead of the legs. “Bull bars” added to SUVs increase risks to pedestrians by concentrating the force of a blow; they are banned in the United Kingdom but not in the U.S.
*An aging society. A middle-aged man can walk 3.5 feet per second, while older people walk 2.5-3 feet per second. Traffic engineers time lights for a walking speed of 2.5 feet per second, ensuring that older walkers are stranded in the middle of the road when lights change.
One common response to dead pedestrians is to blame the victim. For example, one study showed that only 25 percent of pedestrians seriously injured by cars were at crosswalks- implying that the rest were struck in midblock where people arguably should not be crossing streets. However, Schmitt looked at the study more carefully, and points out that only 25 percent of seriously injured walkers were crossed at midblock. (The rest were injured in situations that do not fit either category, such as pedestrians struck in parking lots, or attacked by cars traveling in reverse). Moreover, crosswalks are infrequent in the suburban areas where injuries are most common, making it difficult for pedestrians NOT to cross midblock.
She also discusses solutions, like:
*Road redesign. In New York City, Queens Boulevard was narrowed by the addition of bike lanes, reducing the number of lanes walkers have to cross at a time. Between 1990 and 2014, 189 walkers died on this “boulevard of death” while in some recent years, none have.
*Street lighting. After Detroit repaired thousands of nonfunctioning streetlights, the pedestrian death rate fell 50 percent in two years- at a time when deaths were rising in the rest of Michigan.
*Imposing rules to make SUVs safer. For example, European nations score cars on impacts to pedestrians, encouraging carmakers to introduce safety features to raise their scores.
*More crosswalks and sidewalks.
*Changing traffic lights to give walkers a 5-7 second head start before vehicles get a green light.
*Lower speed limits, enforced by speed cameras. When New York City approved a pilot speed cameras program for school zones, injury crashes were reduced by 17 percent.
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February 4, 2022If you are thinking of buying an SUV, just read this book.
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