This past week, SVBC’s Executive Director wrote a guest opinion piece that was published in the Mercury News and East Bay Times. It was written in response to the allegation that people who are killed while walking or biking are often to blame for their own death. The piece is pasted below and outlines the reasons why designing people-centered communities and streets is the best tool for creating safe roadways.

SVBC invites you to read it and use it to help your friends, colleagues, and family understand that if designed right, streets can be safe, naturally, for everyone. We invite you to use it to help those in your circles see that when decisions are being made about how to stripe the streets, we all need to stand up and say yes to building communities in a way that facilitates walking and biking.

As an example, this very thing happened this past Tuesday night when the City of San Mateo voted to move forward on the North Central Bike Lane Project. But it was not without a fight. The crux of the issue was the same old debate between bike lanes/safer streets versus slightly inconveniencing people who drive (by removing on-street parking). Decisions to continue catering to car culture at the expense of safety are being made every Tuesday night in our city halls. Get involved. Join your local team. Tell your councilmembers to prioritize the safety of people instead of keeping us tethered to a car-centered culture that is killing us all.

“We’re not trying to victim blame. These are just facts.” This SJPD quote followed a comment highlighting that pedestrians killed in San Jose were outside of a crosswalk, (“San Jose Shattered Records for Traffic Deaths”.) Two days later, a follow up article led with the headline “5 of 6 recent pedestrian deaths outside of crosswalks.”

This is the wrong way to talk about traffic violence.

Whether a pedestrian was in or out of a crosswalk obscures the fact that our auto-centric-designed cities kill people who walk, people who bike, and people driving – all of us. It distracts us from what we really need to do to create healthy communities that by design, keep us safe – to build people centered neighborhoods holistically with affordable housing, jobs, services, parks, all within walking and biking distance.

40,000 people nationwide die on our streets every year. In San Jose, 70% of fatal crashes occur during dark hours, 30% are due to speed, and 67% are male drivers. Here’s more bad news:

10 crashes take place in San Jose every day–that’s over 300 a month in one city alone. Twenty of those monthly crashes end in death or severe injury.
For people 25 and under, dying in a car crash is the leading cause of death nationwide.
25% of pedestrian deaths nationwide happen inside of crosswalks. The rate of pedestrian deaths in Black communities is twice that of white people in part because Black and brown neighborhoods are less likely to have crosswalks or other traffic calming measures due to years of neglect and disinvestment.

And, our auto-centered culture causes harm in more ways than one.

Transportation is the leading cause of air pollution in the US, which causes human health problems and climate change.
Cars contribute to our sedentary lifestyle and the diseases that flow from inactivity.
And as someone who grew up dependent on transit and bikes, I know firsthand that the expense of a car and lack of adequate transportation alternatives is a barrier to upward mobility. The necessity of car ownership keeps people down, economically.

What do we do?

It is unrealistic to think we can fund the number of police officers needed to catch and prevent poor driving, nor is it desirable given the impacts of policing on Black and Brown communities.

If we want to create a healthier community, we have to recognize that our physical environment determines and predicts behavior. If you design a couch with three seat cushions, three people feel invited to sit on it. If streets are designed so that corners are sharp, lanes are narrow, and lighting is good, people drive slowly and more safely. And if neighborhoods are redesigned so that groceries, libraries, jobs and affordable housing are within biking and walking distance, people are encouraged to get outside on foot, build bonds with each other, and care for neighbors, reducing our dependence on the car overall.

It is unacceptable, cruel and irrational to blame those who can’t afford, aren’t physically able, or choose not to drive a car. If we want healthy communities, build people-centered neighborhoods where the needs of each of us is within reach, literally.

Next time your city council is debating urban villages, affordable housing, less parking, narrower streets, and a built environment that facilitates human interaction, say yes. Say YES!