On December 3, 2014, a 7-year-old girl named Destiny Gonzalez was killed while crossing State Street in Springfield, Massachusetts.
What gets lost in the shocking statistics about the number of pedestrians who die each year in traffic crashes—4,884 in the U.S. in 2014, more than 6,700 in 2020—is that they aren’t “statistics” at all, or even “pedestrians” really, but people with names, who had hopes and dreams, and family and friends forever changed by the loss of their loved one. That was certainly the case with Destiny, who was killed while leaving the Central Library with her mother and cousin. She also left behind a father, siblings, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and friends.
Something else that gets lost in these discussions is how our streets got so unsafe to begin with. Our streets, roads, and stroads are designed according to values so embedded that traffic engineers themselves might not be constantly aware of them. That’s a problem because you can’t fix something you don’t even know exists. It’s also the topic this week on the Strong Towns Podcast.
In this episode, Chuck Marohn reads an excerpt from the first chapter of Confessions of a Recovering Engineer. Chuck describes why the high costs of the North American transportation system—costs in life and injury, as well as time and prosperity—are the byproduct of the values at the heart of traffic engineering. He also explains why the values of engineers, including traffic speed and traffic volume, aren’t the values most people would prioritize.
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer is available everywhere on Wednesday, though if you preorder now you can get immediate access to Chapter One (along with these other great bonuses).
What to Expect From Strong Towns: the Book
Greatest Hits #11: Economic Gardening With Chris Gibbons (2013)
Strongest Town Contest: Championship Round
Strongest Town Semifinals: Portsmouth, New Hampshire
Strongest Town Semifinals: Guthrie, Oklahoma
Strongest Town Semifinals: Pensacola, Florida
Strongest Town Semifinals: Safety Harbor, Florida
Greatest Hits #10: John Dominic Crossan (2013)
Greatest Hits #9: Can You Be an Engineer and Speak Out for Reform? (2015)
Greatest Hits #8: Gross Negligence (2015)
Greatest Hits #7: Talking Debt and Self-Sufficiency With Mr. Money Mustache (2016)
Ask Strong Towns #7
Greatest Hits #6: Time to End the Routine Traffic Stop (2016)
Greatest Hits #5: Approaching a Divided America With Open Eyes (2017)
Greatest Hits #4: Lots of Small Earthquakes: How a Place Becomes Antifragile (2015)
Ask Strong Towns: Celebrity Edition with Stacy Mitchell
Greatest Hits #3: Is a City More Like a Washing Machine or a Cat? (2015)
Greatest Hits #2: Steven Shultis on "Bad" Urban Schools (2015)
Greatest Hits #1: America Answers Forum on Infrastructure (2015)
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