{"id":10731,"date":"2014-12-18T08:28:59","date_gmt":"2014-12-18T16:28:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wabikes.org\/?p=10731"},"modified":"2014-12-22T23:05:45","modified_gmt":"2014-12-23T07:05:45","slug":"representative-rick-larsen-champions-biking-walking-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wabikes.org\/index.php\/2014\/12\/18\/representative-rick-larsen-champions-biking-walking-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Representative Rick Larsen Champions Biking and Walking Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thanks to Representative Rick Larsen’s<\/a> leadership, we’re about to learn more about the trends and causes of collisions involving pedestrians and bicycles and to make recommendations about improving safety on our streets.<\/p>\n

\"Rep<\/a>While most transportation fatalities and serious injuries in Washington state have been on the decline, our most vulnerable road users — those who walk and bike — have not been enjoying this safety dividend. In some cases fatalities are up. From 2009-2011 15.5% of all transportation-related deaths<\/strong> and 16.7% of all transportation-related serious injuries<\/strong> in Washington state come from those who walk and bike.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “In WA 15.5% of transportation deaths, 16.7% transpo serious injuries=people who walk\/bike.”]<\/p>\n

As most who walk and bike can attest, many streets and roads can be unfriendly places. It’s a reason that new design guides<\/a> and innovative best practices<\/a> around street engineering are beginning to take hold. Still, the majority of new street and road designs in Washington state take a conventional engineering approach, which leads to unsafe vehicle speeds and numerous biking and walking safety and mobility problems.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “Time to change road designs to increase bike\/walk safety. Thx @RepRickLarsen for GAO study!”]<\/p>\n

To begin to get to the bottom of these issues, Washington Bikes thanks Representative Rick Larsen (2-Washington) for spearheading a letter<\/a> to the Government Accountability Office<\/a> (GAO) and supported by Representatives Norton (Washington DC) and DeFazio (4-Oregon).<\/p>\n

\u201cThe safety of everyone on the road should be our top priority. Thanks to coordinated efforts, motor vehicle accident deaths are declining. But the same is not true for the most vulnerable people on our roadways \u2013 pedestrians and bicyclists. The GAO can give us a better idea of the reasons behind why pedestrian and cyclist fatalities are going up. We want to know what more Congress can do to ensure the highest level of safety for all of those using our roads,\u201d said Larsen, DeFazio and Norton.<\/p>\n

[Tweet “”The safety of everyone on the road should be our top priority.” -@RepRickLarsen”]<\/p>\n

GAO will now conduct research to examine:<\/p>\n