| February
2007 |
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City, Healthy Streets Campaign Target Crashes Alderman: 'People Have No Concern For Pedestrians' Social Pressure is Key to Making Drivers Careful |
'People Have No Concern For Pedestrians' “It is insane,” says 30th Ward Ald. Ariel E. Reboyras when asked about driving conditions in the city, “I see it myself.” Reboyras is not without cause for concern. Local traffic routes in Illinois (i.e. roads and streets that are not state or federal routes) accounted for 52 percent of all state traffic fatalities in 2005, a 4 percent increase from the year before. To make these streets safer for bicyclists, pedestrians and motorists alike, the Healthy Streets Campaign, in association with Ald. Reboyras and 38th Ward Ald. Thomas Allen, introduce Northwest Chicago Drive With Care. Within the campaign service area, bounded by Kedzie to Austin and Montrose to Fullerton, the primary goal of the campaign is to reduce traffic crashes, injuries, and fatalities of all types by 50 percent by the end of 2008. In 2005, the area chosen to test the campaign witnessed 9,034 crashes, 10 fatalities, and 1,427 injuries. Just in case your calculator is not sitting next to you, that’s 25 crashes and 4 injuries per day. “I’m in the streets everyday,” said Reboyras, who also sits on the board of the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation. “People have no concern for pedestrians anymore.” The campaign plan includes a Safe Team that would follow up on all traffic fatalities and as many serious injury crashes as possible. The team, which includes members of the Chicago Police and Chicago Department of Transportation, will analyze each crash as soon as possible while considering the history of the crash location. Based on a similar campaign in New York City, the Safe Team will report to the Campaign Task Force (including both aldermen) and include their recommendations for design and enforcement. Reboyras has a simple hope for the future, safe passages for pedestrians. Similar to his ward’s anti-gang policies, he believes that “to take the streets back, we need to take them over.” To do this, Northwest Drive With Care will focus efforts on social marketing techniques such as car window stickers, public feedback and community pledging. In order to be optimally successful, each member of the community must commit to making the streets safer by looking at their own role in traffic problems. In addition, new signage and pavement markings will be implemented in high-risk areas and adjustments will be made to current signs and pedestrian timers. To Reboyras, however, the simplest solution is to start at community schools. He praises the outreach work of Chicagoland Bicycle Federation, and hopes that as street safety education is brought to children, children will bring the same education home to the adults in their lives. As for the future of the Drive With Care campaign, “I’ll do anything I can with the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation,” Reboyras says. Kaitlin Sullivan is communications intern for the Chicagoland Bicycle Federation
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