Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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In light of Wednesday’s deeply troubling traffic crash that resulted in one man’s death and three people seriously injured, it is worth noting that the City of Lawrence has recently begun efforts to create a Vision Zero Action Plan.
Vision Zero is an international movement to eliminate all traffic-related deaths and serious injuries in communities. Traffic-related deaths and serious injuries are preventable, as demonstrated by the success of Vision Zero strategies in many parts of the world.
The most important way to achieve Vision Zero is to make our streets safer. Lawrence’s high-speed, wide arterial roads, like 31st Street, are lethal zones that encourage speeding, distracted driving and other dangerous behavior. City engineers all over the United States have designed roads like 31st Street for the past 75-plus years to move cars as quickly as possible. If Lawrence is serious about achieving zero road deaths and making streets safer for all road users, then our engineering road design standards must change to center safety over faster throughput for cars.
This is a question of our city’s moral and ethical choices. The silent car-crash epidemic must be treated as an urgent public health crisis in Douglas County, one that demands structural changes from city staff and political action from our city commissioners.
— Hilary Carter (she/her), Lawrence
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More Community Voices:
Letter to the Times: City should create oversight committee to guide pool renovation project, rebuild trust
”Our petition’s 1,764 signatures, our supporters’ 75 letters, and our research into the extensive flaws in the (pool renovation) community engagement process all indicate that the previously proposed plan did not reflect public opinion,” Holly Krebs writes in this letter to the Times.
Shawn Alexander: Say his name – Fred Harvey Smith (Column)
”Racial violence has been omnipresent in American history, and in far too many of the incidents, the perpetrators of the crime are acquitted or not even brought up on charges. When I think of such cases I am often haunted by the heinous murder of Fred Harvey Smith here in the land of John Brown in May 1936,” Shawn Alexander writes in this column.
Letter to the Times: Are veterans’ sacrifices for democracy worthless?
”My father (Navy), mother (Army), and many other family members served our country in World War II. … They gave of themselves, in countless ways, to stop the spread of authoritarianism, suppression of freedoms and tyranny of the many by the few,” Sandy Sanders writes in this letter to the Times.
