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An advocate for pedestrian safety

Mar 24, 2017 | by Active Trans

When Amy Mendelsohn walks around Chicago, she can’t help but notice the number of motorists who don’t come to a complete stop when pedestrians are walking in crosswalks — a violation of Chicago’s traffic-safety laws. The flagrant violations are so frequent that she has stopped counting how many times motorists have failed to comply with the law.This issue is personal for Mendelsohn.After motorists hit her in two separate collisions while she was walking through crosswalks in the city, Mendelsohn is on a mission to help improve pedestrian safety and educate the public about pedestrian safety laws.Crossing the linesPedestrian safety issues began to take hold of the 41-year-old marketing and design consultant in 2008.As she was crossing the street at a...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Chicago Central, Chicago North Side, transit, Walking

Crash victim wants safer streets

Mar 23, 2017 | by Active Trans

Dee Palagi knows she has an uphill battle ahead in the next year. After being struck by a semi truck while bicycling, the 26-year-old West Town resident is still recovering from the severe injuries she sustained, including having her leg amputated.But she is ready to tackle the long and grueling recovery process with tenacity and optimism in order to walk and cycle again. She’s also speaking up with the hope of preventing horrible crashes like the one she endured.“I’m extremely strong, and I’ve always had a positive attitude about all of this,” says Palagi, a special education teacher. “I’m going to get through all of this and walk again and get my life back.”On Sept. 23, 2016, Palagi was bicycling...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, transit, Walking

14-year-old killed on the day she was to receive an award

Mar 23, 2017 | by Active Trans

Like her fellow eighth graders on the cusp of graduation, Kaylah Lentine was looking forward to her first formal dance, a class field trip to Great America and moving on to high school. But tragically, all of those plans were cut short when the 14-year-old student from Oak Lawn-Hometown Middle School was struck and killed by the driver of a pick-up truck.On that May morning in 2012, Kaylah was set to receive an award for her leadership in the Students Against Destructive Decisions, an organization that works to prevent young people from engaging in risky behavior, particularly drug and alcohol use, and impaired driving. After missing the bus, she elected to walk to school and was struck while attempting to...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, South Suburbs, transit, Walking

Study highlights safety benefits of Chicago’s red light cameras

Mar 20, 2017 | by Active Trans

A new study from the Northwestern University Transportation Center found Chicago’s red light camera program delivers significant safety benefits.Researchers found serious right-angle and turning crashes decreased by 19 percent at intersections with cameras, and injury-producing crashes dropped by 10 percent. They also found evidence of a “spillover effect” leading to safety benefits and crash reduction at intersections without cameras.The City of Chicago commissioned the study to evaluate its program and maximize the safety benefits.Active Trans has consistently highlighted photo enforcement as a critical piece of a comprehensive Vision Zero approach to traffic safety. The Federal Highway Administration first recognized the proven safety benefits of photo enforcement technology in 2005.In 2015 we were joined by physicians, traffic safety experts and victims...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Education, transit, Walking, zero vision

No accountability for driver who hit Active Trans staffer

Mar 10, 2017 | by Active Trans

Getting struck by a driver while she was in a crosswalk in West Suburban Maywood means that Cherrell Jackson now has trouble doing one of her favorite activities — walking.“I will be glad when I can finally walk my grandchildren to the park,” said Cherrell (pictured here). “Now I have to get into a car to go to the park. I’m a person who likes to walk, but now walking is really hard. Going more than a few blocks, the pain is too much.”Cherrell was hit in November of 2015 on her way home from her job working as Active Trans’ office manager. While she was crossing the street, a driver barreled through a stop sign and struck her, breaking...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, transit, Walking, West Suburbs

Redesigning our streets for people – not cars – saves lives

Dec 20, 2016 | by Active Trans

It’s been proven in Chicago and cities across the country that the fastest way to make streets safer is to redesign them and prioritize the movement of people – not cars.When the city established a Complete Streets policy in 2006, it committed to accommodating the safety and convenience of all road users in transportation and development projects. Then in 2013 the city’s Complete Streets Guidelines established a modal hierarchy that placed people walking at the top, follow by people riding transit, biking and driving cars.In recent years, we’ve seen the Chicago Department of Transportation (CDOT) follow through on these commitments with many exciting projects that include rightsizing vehicle travel lanes, adding protected bike lanes, and enhancing crossings with refuge islands and signal...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, transit, Walking, zero vision

Boosting safety with education campaigns

Dec 1, 2016 | by Active Trans

Education is always one of the most talked about topics in traffic safety, and Vision Zero is no different.There’s a perception that if we could just better educate users about how to share the road and travel responsibly, we’d see fewer traffic crashes, serious injuries and fatalities.The reality is public education alone will not solve the problem. The hallmark of a Vision Zero approach to traffic safety is pursuing policy changes in several areas, such as infrastructure, enforcement and commercial vehicle regulation.When done right, cities around the world have shown education can be a powerful tool in traffic safety. Massive public awareness campaigns are exorbitantly expensive and it can be difficult to evaluate their impact. Targeted campaigns that focus on...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Education, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

Limiting turns could save lives

Nov 8, 2016 | by Active Trans

It’s no secret that the majority of crashes that result in people walking and biking being killed involve turning vehicles. The question is what can be done about it.Recent Chicago crash analysis found 52 percent of pedestrian crashes at signalized intersections involved turning vehicles; 36 percent were left turns and 16 percent were right turns.People biking are more likely to be involved in “right hook” crashes where a person driving passes to the left of a person biking and then makes a right turn. Fifty-five percent of bicycle crashes occur at intersections.Sign our Vision Zero Call to Action to show your support for limiting turns.Twenty-three year-old Anastasia Kondrasheva was killed by the driver of a flatbed truck in a right-hook...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking

Slow down, Chicago!

Oct 26, 2016 | by Active Trans

In traffic safety, the fastest way to save lives, prevent serious injuries and achieve progress on Vision Zero is to get people driving to slow down.Speeding and reckless driving are rampant in Chicago, and excessive speed is the most common factor in serious and fatal crashes. Sign our Vision Zero Call to Action to tell city leaders we need to do more to reduce vehicle speeds.Too many Chicago streets are supersized and thereby encourage drivers to speed. Enforcement is lacking, which results in people frequently driving 10 miles per hour or more above the speed limit, endangering the lives of people inside and outside their vehicles.About 80 percent of the traffic fatalities and injuries in Metro Chicago are people in...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking, zero vision

Hit and run crashes should be a focus of Vision Zero

Oct 13, 2016 | by Active Trans

As Chicago develops an action plan to eliminate traffic crashes resulting in fatalities and serious injuries, one of the questions we need to tackle is why so many people involved in crashes flee the scene.Relative to peer cities, hit and run crashes occur more frequently in Chicago and they’re more likely to involve people walking and people biking. Sign our Vision Zero Call to Action to tell city leaders we need to do more to prevent hit and run crashes.The city’s 2011 pedestrian crash analysis report showed that over five years hit and run crashes accounted for 40 percent of fatal crashes in Chicago versus 20 percent nationally. A similar analysis of bicycle crashes in 2012 found 25 percent of...

Tags: Advocacy, Bicycling, Planning, transit, Walking

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