[sustran] Re: [carfree_network] Mapping Carfree Casualties

[Todd Edelman, Green Idea Factory]

Colin Leath wrote:
> I've put together a demo site <http://carfreecasualties.blogspot.com/> 
> about how we might be able to easily keep a map/ construct a memorial 
> of people hit by motor vehicles.
>
> I doubt the way I've set things up there is the best way to do it. But 
> I think this is something that needs to happen. Imagine if all the 
> worldwide fatalities and injuries were mapped and labelled and just 
> kept piling up--and if you could zoom in on any area and find the 
> stories about the people killed or injured there.
>
> The casualty reported on the biketour list 
> <http://carfreecasualties.blogspot.com/2008/02/fwd-biketour-cyclist-traveller-died-in.html> 
> -- in addition to happening to walk by two hit pedestrians laying in 
> the street in two days -- a year of reading about pedestrian deaths in 
> the local paper and doing nothing about them -- and the violence we 
> all live in being near car drivers -- and being hit myself -- pushed 
> me to do this.
>
> Please help me figure out something more workable than the current 
> approach.
>
> Peace,
> Colin
>
> -- 
> Contribute to the blog, calendar, & maps at
> SD/TJ Design, Plant, Harvest:
> nourishing our shared space, caring for the commons.
> http://sdtjdph.blogspot.com/

Global Ghost Bike (and "Ghost Shoes") is a great idea, and perhaps the 
Automobile-Advertising Industrial Googolplex 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Googolplex> should pay for it. After all, 
they actually TALK about road safety more than carfree people do. It is 
a safety thing, rather than - directly at least - a carfree thing. The 
AAIG kills more people via emissions, doesn't it? Maybe so, but specific 
places where people die of diseases related to emissions seems like a 
difficult thing to mark.

On the other hand - as I understand it - most developed countries - at 
least - have casualty maps for urban and perhaps all areas. (These are 
of course about all deaths and injuries, on foot or a bike, in cars or 
trucks....and I think that even when a driver is at fault, a death is a 
death is a death) So the data is there. But can we get it? Is it always 
public and ideally also easily importable to a user-friendly website or...

... I think that a key element in where the information is posted. For a 
long time now in many countries there are permanent memorials - candles, 
plaques and such - to show where people died in road crashes (whether or 
not they were in the car) though of course I realise that ghost bikes 
are specifically about bikes.

Having these and ghost bikes/shoes everywhere is great, but some other 
suggestions are:

* On highways on signs that generally show traffic conditions ahead. 
Some huge automobile companies - I am not naming names - have some 
stated goal of zero deaths (as does Sweden, I think) so why not 
something like the following in ALL countries:

----------------------
"Deaths on the Roads"
Today's Count: 2,345*
Year to Date: 985,254*
sponsored by (------) which has a goal of zero deaths"
* estimated
----------------------

ONE signal would go to all these signs, all around the world, but of 
course the problem is that some, many or most developing countries do 
not collect the data, don't have enough people online to distribute the 
count or mapping that way - of course newspapers or magazines are just 
as good, will SAY they don't have the resources to support it... and of 
course will be reluctant to show any of it.

How to overcome that last point in regards to governments? I am not 
sure. But for private companies their refusal to support a project like 
this could be turned into very bad publicity for them, non?

(This sign could also be used for something more "positive" like info 
about passenger throughput on various adjacent traffic lanes or 
corridors... e.g. BRT/buses/light-rail and private automobiles in order 
to show everyone how much more efficient the former are at 
throughputting people)

* Getting a wee bit further away from the main point, as head-up 
displays 
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Head-up_display#Automotive_applications> 
are starting to... appear in automobiles, how about if these display 
images of "road-crashed people" who died nearby - displayed while the 
car is not moving? And - if the car is also "GPS'd" - how about if every 
time the car goes over the speed limit an image is projected of their 
child or mother shaming them?

* Perhaps advertising companies should be required to display this info 
along with the automobile ads? Should ads post fuel consumption, carbon 
production AND something like "About 3,000 people die on the roads each 
day. Please slow down and buckle up."

* Finally, I also suggested to someone from a World Carfree Network 
organisation... that the automobile producers which sponsor some of 
their projects - or which they cooperate with in image-making - should 
have a bell at each manufacturing facility, which they will rrring every 
time someone dies on the roads (3,000 times a day could create a noise 
problem, ja?) or at least every time someone dies in or because of a 
product made there. This will remind the owners, managers, workers and 
some nearby townspeople of their complicity. A variant would be that the 
Minister of Transport (or King/Queen if a monarchy) does this in the 
capital.

Enough. The sun is shining. Time to go out with the dogs... let's see if 
we can make it across the street.

- T

-- 
--------------------------------------------

Todd Edelman
Director
Green Idea Factory

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CAR is over. If you WANT it.