| February
2007 |
|
City, Healthy Streets Campaign Target Crashes Alderman: 'People Have No Concern For Pedestrians' Social Pressure is Key to Making Drivers Careful |
City, Healthy Streets Campaign Target Crashes Next month the Healthy Streets Campaign rolls out a partnership
with the city of Chicago aimed at reducing automobile crashes by
50 percent in a 10-square mile swath of the city’s Northwest
Side. The Northwest Chicago Drive With Care initiative is a pilot designed to test and demonstrate an integrated approach to crash reduction, employing data to map out crashes and targeted enforcement and social marketing (see related story on page 2) to change motorist behavior. Inattentive, careless self-absorption has become the prevailing standard for motorist behavior, causing the deaths of 200 people and injuring about 32,000 in local traffic each year in Chicago. But we have the power to turn this problem around. Northwest Chicago Drive With Care includes a pledge that all residents of the Drive With Care zone will be asked to sign. It is a multi-part oath that basically says, as motorists, we have the power to protect others who use the street; we will not behave with disregard for others; and we will set a good example by the way we drive. After all, driving in the city is, literally, a matter of following one another. Northwest Chicago Drive With Care will be launched at the Healthy Streets Conference, 9 a.m. to noon March 1 at Kilbourn Park, 3501 N. Kilbourn Ave., Chicago. Government officials, community groups, health providers, law enforcement, planners and engineers from throughout the region are invited to participate in crafting aspects of the campaign, and to take home methods and tools they apply in their communities. Participants will learn how combining social marketing with cutting edge targeted enforcement technologies and modest improvements to crosswalk design can make our streets friendlier and safer.
|
