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When to take the keys away? Driver evaluation takes burden off caregivers to decide

Scott Scanlon

March 11, 2022 |

The Buffalo News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Michigan

The Erie County Medical Center’s Driver Rehabilitation Program tests drivers' physical and cognitive abilities, to recommend whether or not they should remain behind the wheel.

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Utah bucked alcohol industry with its tougher DUI law. A new study shows it made roads safer.

Michael Laris

February 19, 2022 |

The Washington Post |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Utah

In an attempt to reduce fatal car crashes, Utah lowered the legal blood alcohol content limit to .05% and saw a dramatic decrease in fatal crashes. The state’s fatal crash rate dropped 19.8% from 2016 to 2019 and in 2019 deaths on the road fell to 248, compared to 281 in 2016.

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How America Broke the Speed Limit

Henry Grabar

December 15, 2021 |

Slate |

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Over 3000 Words

Response Location: United States

Lowering speed limits and aggressive traffic enforcement by police patrols have not succeeded at erasing America's exceptionally high traffic death rate. The 1974-95 mandate for a national 55-mph limit coincided with a steep drop in highway deaths. But its repeal did not reverse the trend, with deaths hitting a 40-year low in 2014. Speed remains a factor in about a quarter of highway deaths, which remain high by world standards. Speed cameras and automated ticketing for violations have worked in their limited use, just as they have in broader use in Europe. But they remain politically unpopular in the U.S.

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These Americans Are Just Going Around in Circles. It Helps the Climate.

Cara Buckley

November 20, 2021 |

The New York Times |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Carmel, Indiana

America's capital of the traffic roundabout is Carmel, Indiana, a city of 102,000 people and 140 roundabouts. The city boasts exceptionally low rates of traffic deaths and injury crashes. Studies of roundabout use elsewhere show benefits as well in pedestrian and bicycle safety, and in cutting environmentally harmful emissions because traditional intersections cause much longer idling times. Not all drivers like them, but Carmel long ago overcame initial qualms when the longtime mayor put into practice the traffic idea he admired when he was a university student in England.

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Preventing road deaths through safe system design

Gary Humphreys

November 01, 2021 |

Bulletin of the World Health Organization |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

Safe System design is a public health framework for preventing traffic accidents and death. The system adapts and transforms roads as part of a broader system of reforms. In Bogotá, in addition to a city-wide speed limit, high-risk corridors were identified using geo-referenced collision data and modeling. Multiple locations were transformed into pedestrian friendly streets that encourage lower traffic speeds by using speed bumps, bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks, benches, and planters. Officials note that the change has led to a decline in fatalities.

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Police face a 'crisis of trust' with Black motorists. One state's surprising policy may help.

Simone Weichselbaum Emily R. Siegel Andrew Blankstein

October 07, 2021 |

NBC News |

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1500-3000 Words

Response Location: United States, Virginia

A new Virginia law restricts when the police can stop motorists, limiting the chances for inequitable law enforcement. Barred from stopping vehicles based on minor infractions like a broken taillight, police in the first four months under the new law sharply reduced their stops of Black motorists. Police say such stops are a key tactic for getting guns, drugs, and dangerous people off the streets. But they also can be racially motivated, disproportionately punish people of color, and lead to violent confrontations. Many states and cities are considering dialing back traffic enforcement for these reasons.

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'A Beautiful Feeling': Refugee Women In Germany Learn The Joy Of Riding Bikes

Deborah Amos

August 22, 2021 |

NPR |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: Germany

The nonprofit, Bikeygees, teaches refugee women how to ride and repair bikes. Many of the women come from countries where they weren’t allowed to ride bikes, which are a staple mode of transportation in Germany. Volunteers in 15 locations have taught 1,100 women how to ride a bike, and many more have learned to fix bikes. Bikeygees has distributed 400 ‘bike kits’ that include a bike, helmet, lock, and tools to women who learn how to ride a bike, how to fix a bike, and the German rules of the road. These skills help the women to integrate into German society and feel a sense of freedom and self-sufficiency.

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The Car Crashes That Go Undetected

Laura Bliss

July 15, 2021 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Washington, District of Columbia

The Vision Zero program many cities use to reduce traffic deaths depends on data to inform where to target safety measures like redesigned streets and speed limits. But, when significant numbers of crashes, particularly involving pedestrians and bicycles, go missing in the data, the interventions miss the problems. Racial disparities in unreported crashes or unresponsive police mean that the problems are compounded in under-served areas. Data improvements in D.C., San Francisco, and other cities aim to fill the gaps so that the benefits of Vision Zero can extend to places where they're needed most.

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How HAWK beacons save pedestrians' lives

Melissa Blasius

July 09, 2021 |

KNXV-TV |

Broadcast TV News |

Under 3 Minutes

Response Location: United States, Phoenix, Arizona

Pedestrian-activated traffic signals that flash red to allow people to cross busy streets midblock have saved lives in one of the nation's most dangerous cities for pedestrians. On one stretch of Phoenix highway where three people were killed within one month, there have been no deaths in the three years since a HAWK beacon was installed. The city has installed 66 of the lights, supplemented by pedestrian education and traffic enforcement. Since 2018, pedestrian fatalities – which make up half of Phoenix's fatal accidents – have fallen by one-third.

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Get There Fast or Safe? A Crowdsourced Map Gives You the Option

Chandni Doulatramani

June 29, 2021 |

Reasons to be Cheerful |

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800-1500 Words

Response Location: India, Gurgaon

In 71 cities around the world, users of the My Safetipin mobile app can decide whether to visit a particular neighborhood or plan a travel route based on how safe others deem those places. While the 100,000 or so users, more than half in India, constitute too small a user base to make the mapping app truly universal, its crowdsourced data already have prompted the Delhi and Bogota governments to improve street lighting on streets deemed unsafe because they are not well lit. The app's primary goal is to make the streets safer for women.

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