Austin Texas, Like Chicago, Struggles With Pedestrian Safety
By Daniel Tucker
Austin Texas, Like Chicago, Struggles With Pedestrian Safety
By Daniel TuckerChicago recently marked one year since it launched a so-called Vision Zero campaign to reduce traffic fatalities and pedestrian and cyclist deaths.
As the Chicago Tribune reported, the results have been mixed: Pedestrian deaths in the first five months of 2018 were up 31 percent over the average from those months between 2012 and 2016, thought motorists deaths still accounted for the largest number of deaths overall.
“Pedestrians and bicyclists are the most vulnerable,” said Rebekah Scheinfeld, commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation, Tuesday on the Morning Shift.
Scheinfeld called the deaths of motorists, pedestrians and cyclists a “public health crisis.”
Chicago is one of ten American big cities chosen to model Vision Zero practices in the United States.
Another one of those cities is Austin, Texas, which last month wrapped up two years of Vision Zero, and like Chicago, Austin has been struggling to make progress toward its goals so far.
Morning Shift explores the dynamics of the situation in Austin with an eye for challenges we share here in Chicago.
GUEST: Audrey McGlinchy, City Hall reporter for public radio station KUT in Austin, Texas
LEARN MORE: Two Years After Vision Zero, When Will Austin Street Be Safer For Pedestrians (KUT 5/16/18)