| March 2006 |
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Human Toll Compels Drive With Care Initiative Where There’s Speed, Death Follows March Conference First Step in Driving Initiative A Long, Healthy Life Cut Short on the Street Moving Region Toward Healthy Streets Minorities Bear Heaviest Share of Injury, Death |
Minorities Bear Heaviest Share of Injury, Death Chicago’s poorest citizens bear the heaviest burden of injury
and death resulting from reckless driving. In poor and minority neighborhoods, 49 youths per 100,000 annually are hospitalized as pedestrian or bicycle casualties, as compared to 18.7 in suburban Cook County. In Chicago, the highest rates for children and adolescent bicycle and pedestrian hospitalizations all occur in African-American neighborhoods: East and West Garfield Park, Washington Park, Englewood, Woodlawn, North Lawndale, Austin and the Near West Side. According to a 2003 study by the Surface Transportation Policy Project, the reason may be that Latinos and African-Americans are less likely to own a car and more likely to walk, bike and ride public transportation, resulting in greater exposure to the dangers of the street. An analysis of the 2001 National Household Travel Survey confirms that racial and ethnic minorities are much more likely than whites to walk to destinations. While whites made only 8.6 percent of trips on foot in 2001, African-Americans made 12.6 percent of trips on foot, and Latinos walked for 11.8 percent of trips.
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