A Plan for Traffic Justice
After the cycling deaths this year due to reckless driving, there's a new emphasis on cycling safety as it meets politics, and new readiness to take action. I know a couple people who have been thinking about this issue for a year or two, and I thought I'd sketch my current thoughts.
GOAL
Drivers of motor vehicles operate them like the dangerous heavy machinery they are. Cars are guests on our streets, not the dominant form of life on planet earth. They should not be able to use "Mad Bomber" tactics to pressure others, and drivers who don't meet minimum standards of competence should face societal and social pressure to improve or quit.
The problem is we're losing the narrative battle. The cops actively promote "it was just a tragic accident", and the press repeat it. We know drivers take chances with others' lives to save themselves 10 seconds, which is an irresponsible way to gamble other people's lives. We need to make our message heard.
IDEA #1
Get something on the law books that makes it actually illegal to splat people, that can be put into the media narrative the same night as the crash. "The driver was cited for careless driving" would be a start. The fine is not too important. The point is to tell the public who screwed up, and not leave it to them to figure it out on their own, because they always blame the cyclist for being "on a busy road".
IDEA #2
the MADD model. Mothers against Drunk Driving "criminalized drunk driving". Before MADD showed up, drunk driving was "just an accident", just like the careless and reckless driving we see every day. After MADD got done with a systematic pressuring of the prosecutors and police departments, suddenly drunk driving is a crime. This was not a small feat, nor was it something that got solved in one summer or by one person. Nevertheless, they got their issue taken care of. Too bad for us they picked the wrong scapegoat (drinking alchohol, instead of bad driving). They were too wedded to cars, IMO.
IDEA #3
We need to get to the press by deadline, and cultivate contacts with them so that they adopt our reference frame of "poor driving is a wasteful killer". Get this meme in their heads before the police get their "just an accident" meme instead. To their credit, I know others work on this. I'm suggesting kicking it up a notch. Figuring out which reporters are likely to cover these incidents, getting them contact info lists, and getting them prepped in advance to ask the right questions and adopt our frame.
IDEA #3b
Use the internet. We don't need direct involvement of the
press to make our point. Go to any Courier-Journal article about a
cyclist traffic death. There will be dozens of posts that are just
inflamatory, without facts. Things like "no bicycles should ride on
Bardstown Road". There will be the occassional adult, but there are
just too many idiots, and no clean organization for the forces of
rationality. We lose our voice. For example these bozos can't even
decide if Outer Loop is legal for bicycles:
http://www.freerepublic.com/
With some combination of these three ideas, I think we could change our city's culture within 5-10 years to make people take driving more seriously here. It would require a concerted campaign with a lot of people willing to drop what they're doing and go into crisis mode. But we could do it!
[Crossposted at Utilitybike Mailing List - Louisville's Transportation Bicycling Community]
Comments
MADD
I believe one of MADD's most effective technique was to have court observers at every drunk driving trial, and to publicize the decisions of the judges. The possible penalties were seldom given. Cyclists don't even have the law on their side!
View from the driver's seat
Drivers don't plan to be careless. Bicycling for transportation is still a new and unusual concept in this country. The roads were paved to accomodate cars, and we drivers have been thinking the roads were ours since we turned 16. We are shocked that a slow vehicle even attempts to go where the speed limit is 35 and up. Few drivers know that cyclists have the same rights as cars, and they're not trying to be arrogant--they're doing what they've been taught to do. As the mother of cyclists, I have a new awareness--and a new fear for them. For all the statistics, there don't seem to be any good outcomes for cyclists touched by cars. I don't consider myself a speed maniac, but I habitually speed; and I think most people do. My personal goal is to become more aware of the speed limits and to abide by them; to focus my attention; to scan side to side (all from the AARP course for older drivers, see the AAA site for information.) I have noticed that few cyclists "take the lane," and their staying to the right definitely invites cars to pass where they shouldn't. Another note: I have learned from my navigator that my own driving speed, averaged out with stops, is 15mph in town--the speed of a bike. I was amazed.
The driver mindset, repeated
The driver mindset, repeated ad-naseum, is that stuff that isn't going the speed limit in the road is "dangerous". In fact, there is, has always been, and always will be, stuff in the road that is not going the speed limit. Children. Deer. Stuff falling out of pickup trucks. Overturned Tractor-Trailers. Slow moving farm equipment. Amish buggies. Rock slides. Dogs. The list is endless, and you don't want to hit any of it. So either they give up their notion that "stuff in the road travels at the speed limit in the direction I'm going, or its not my fault", or they continue to hammer stuff. The car driver doesn't always walk away from that, either...
the death of Rep. Larry Belcher, D-Shepherdsville (AP Photo/Daily News, Joe Imel)
It is not the stuff in the road which is dangerous. It is the drivers themselves, who assume the roads are the sole domain of fast-moving and heavy projectiles, that are dangerous. The month of 9/11 american drivers slaughtered more Americans than the 19 suicide terrorists. The terrorists have since mostly stopped killing Americans. American drivers have kept up the same pace throughout.
Drivers need to reprogram themselves to expect the unexpected. If one can't see the road in time to stop, they must slow down until they can. It is not enough to "go with the flow" with fingers crossed. We need to get the word out and overturn the conventional wisdom of car's owning the road. It has been done before.