“The truth that USDOT took the assembly within the first place is an indication of progress, although, and I believe all of us left with a way of guarded hope.”
– Michelle DuBarry, Households for Secure Streets
North Portland resident Michelle DuBarry is a part of the group nobody needs to be in. She’s a volunteer with Households for Secure Streets, a nationwide nonprofit with a chapter in Portland that’s supported by The Road Belief. She and the opposite courageous activists on this group share tales of grief and loss from site visitors crashes that killed their sons, brothers, sisters, daughters, mothers and dads.
Simply final month DuBarry and others within the group stood on a nook of SE 122nd Avenue as site visitors roared by to share how unsafe streets have impacted their lives. And final Friday, DuBarry discovered herself in a Zoom room speaking to essentially the most highly effective transportation chief in your entire nation; US Division of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
The net assembly was arrange by Assistant to the Secretary and Director of Public Affairs Dani Simons (who has a connection to Portland as a former director of communications for Encourage, the corporate that runs Biketown). Additionally available was US DOT Deputy Secretary Polly Trottenberg (who you may recall from our 2011 interview) and different high DOT brass. The occasion was seemingly a part of the DOT’s ongoing work across the Nationwide Roadway Security Technique, an effort funded by President Joe Biden’s not too long ago handed infrastructure regulation that took a step ahead again in October.
DOT launched no press assertion in regards to the occasion, however DuBarry shared a thread about it on Twitter over the weekend. Listed here are the 4 issues she and different bereaved dad and mom requested Buttigieg and different DOT employees to do:
1. Security rules for big vehicles and SUVs to guard individuals *outdoors* of the automotive (Clever Velocity Help, Automated Emergency Braking, & hood/bumper design requirements)
2. Obligatory aspect guards for big vehicles. The EU, Japan and lots of different nations have lengthy mandated aspect guards. Analysis exhibits these can scale back bicyclist fatalities by 50-74%
3. Change the way in which velocity limits are set. Do you know that present US velocity restrict setting apply is to boost the velocity restrict when greater than 15% of drivers are driving sooner than posted indicators?
4. Road design requirements that prioritize security of all highway customers (not simply drivers). So lots of our family members would nonetheless be with us if our roads had been designed higher, with narrower lanes, raised crosswalks, bodily boundaries between vehicles and pedestrians/bicycle riders and so on.
Requested to share extra in regards to the assembly, DuBarry instructed me she got here away with combined emotions. “It was devastatingly unhappy but additionally gratifying to be in an area with federal transportation policymakers,” she mentioned. “The truth that USDOT took the assembly within the first place is an indication of progress, although, and I believe all of us left with a way of guarded hope.”
And DuBarry and different members of Households for Secure Streets received’t allow them to neglect about it. They’re engaged on a follow-up letter that may define their requests.
With the highway demise disaster at an all-time excessive and with one of the crucial sympathetic and progressive slates of DOT employees we’ve ever seen, now could be the time to push ahead on these points. We’re fortunate these people are courageous sufficient to inform their tales to those highly effective policymakers. Now let’s hope change is coming so nobody else has to ever be a part of them.
You probably have questions or suggestions about this website or my work, be at liberty to contact me at @jonathan_maus on Twitter, through electronic mail at maus.jonathan@gmail.com, or telephone/textual content at 503-706-8804. Additionally, for those who learn and recognize this website, please develop into a supporter.
