I was listening about this on Lester Holt's NBC Nightly news .They were showing Youtube videos of people walking into buses driving by texting and falling down walking into light poles and everything else. I think people need to not be texting while walking down the street. It's a good way to get hurt or be maimed or even die. What else could happen to you while you are walking texting? Mugged. Raped. Shot while you are texting?
Pedestrian Fatalities Increase 11 Percent In A Year : NPR
https://www.npr.org/2017/03/30/.../2016-saw-a-record-increase-in-pedestrian-deaths
Mar 30, 2017 - It's the oldest and most
basic form of transportation — walking — and more people are doing more
of it to get fit or stay healthy. But there's new evidence today that
even walking across the street is getting more dangerous. A report
released today by the Governors Highway Safety Association shows that
the ...begin quote from:
Pedestrian deaths surge in L.A., overall traffic fatalities down slightly
www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-vision-zero-20180227-story.html
Missing: texting
Pedestrian deaths surge in L.A., overall traffic fatalities down slightly
Motorists
sit in traffic on Venice Boulevard in September, when outrage over
traffic safety measures led to a bid to recall Los Angeles Councilman
Mike Bonin, who represents the Westside. (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles
Times)
Pedestrian
deaths in Los Angeles have surged more than 80% in the first two years
of a high-profile initiative launched by Mayor Eric Garcetti to
eliminate traffic fatalities, new data show.
In
2015, 74 people on foot were killed by drivers in Los Angeles. That
figure rose to 134 in 2017, the highest number in more than 15 years.
Overall,
the number of bicyclists, pedestrians, motorcyclists and drivers killed
in collisions on city streets fell last year by 6%, to 244, according
to preliminary police data released by the city Transportation
Department.
(Laura J. Nelson / Los Angeles Times)
In 2015, Garcetti signed an executive order
creating the Vision Zero initiative, which set the ambitious goal of
eliminating traffic deaths on city streets by 2025. It called for
reductions of 20% by 2017 and 50% by 2020.
The
6% decline in 2017 falls well short of that goal, and the city's slow
progress suggests reducing fatalities by half in the next three years
will be difficult.
"Every
life is important and we must keep pushing to do better," Garcetti said
Tuesday in a statement to The Times, saying he was proud the city had
reduced deaths overall in 2017. "Safety is our top priority, and we will
continue to set bold goals."
The
2017 statistics were included in a report scheduled to be discussed
Wednesday at a City Council transportation committee hearing.
The
L.A. data are on par with national trends, which show that more
pedestrians are dying, and drivers are more distracted, Transportation
Department spokesman Oliver Hou said in an email.
Figures
on traffic deaths across the country are not yet available for 2017,
but in the previous year, pedestrian deaths rose 9% nationally and 42% in Los Angeles.
Los
Angeles officials spent more than a year studying collision data to
pinpoint the city's most dangerous streets for pedestrians and cyclists,
and worked in 2017 to make changes along 40 of those corridors. Many
are broad thoroughfares, including North Broadway in Chinatown, 3rd
Street in Koreatown and Sepulveda Boulevard in the San Fernando Valley.
Officials
have focused on those areas because pedestrians and cyclists represent
an outsize number of the city's traffic fatalities. From 2012 to 2016,
people on foot were involved in 8% of the traffic collisions in L.A. but
represented 44% of the deaths, the Transportation Department said.
Last
year, the city made 1,120 changes to streets and intersections, Hou
said. Hundreds of crosswalks were modified, including four that now
allow pedestrians to cross all directions at once, and 144 digital signs
were installed that tell drivers their speeds.
Speed
is often the determining factor in whether someone survives a car
crash. When struck by a car moving at 20 mph, a pedestrian has a 90%
chance of survival, but when hit by a vehicle going 40 mph, the chance
of survival falls to 20%, according to a federal study of crash data.
The
city also changed the timing on 67 traffic lights to give pedestrians
the walk signal several seconds before drivers receive a green light.
That change — known as a "leading pedestrian interval" — is designed to
cut down on drivers hitting pedestrians in crosswalks.
The
increase in pedestrian deaths isn't surprising for anyone who walks in
Los Angeles and has had a near miss with a speeding driver, said Emilia
Crotty, executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a pedestrian advocacy
organization.
Projects
that have been shown to reduce pedestrian injuries, including so-called
"scramble crosswalks" that allow people to cross in all directions,
should not be delayed by concerns about commute times from local
officials, Crotty said.
The
most high-profile street safety project in 2017, along a handful of
streets on L.A.'s Westside, sparked a wave of protests from residents
and commuters, two lawsuits and an effort to recall Councilman Mike
Bonin, who represents the area. Eventually, the city reversed most of the improvements.
The
advocates who fought the Playa del Rey project said they were
interested in helping other local groups fight street changes that would
affect commute times in other parts of the city. Street safety
advocates worried that the backlash could set the Vision Zero effort
back by several years.
The
city "learned some very hard lessons" last year, Crotty said. "We need
our City Council members to champion this issue like the life-and-death
situation that it is. Whatever negative pushback there is — perhaps from
some drivers — this is what we need to protect the most vulnerable
people in our neighborhoods."
Twitter: @laura_nelson
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