“We can all agree that too many pedestrians die on our streets, but a misplaced focus on distracted walking will hamper our efforts to save lives and improve safety for all users,” Rutgers public policy professor Kelcie Ralph said in the study.
Topic
pedestrian safety
What Will It Take to Eliminate Pedestrian and Bicycle Fatalities in NJ?
The New Jersey Department of Transportation adopted the Zero Deaths National Strategy with the vision of achieving zero fatalities on all public roads by the year 2050 by prioritizing safety for the most vulnerable road users such as pedestrians, bicyclists, and other users of wheeled and mobility transports. But how can this be accomplished?
Distracted Walking: A Critical Analysis of the Real Risks and Solutions
Dissecting the “Distracted Walking” Narrative Pedestrian deaths have risen by a staggering 35% between 2008 and 2017 in the United States. This alarming statistic has prompted widespread concern, with many attributing this to the rise of ‘distracted walking’. The...
Dr. Kelcie Ralph Interviewed on Freakonomics: Why Is the U.S. So Good at Killing Pedestrians?
Dr. Ralph was a guest on the podcast Freakonomics. The discussion centered around the fact that among the world’s high-income countries, the U.S. is particularly good at killing pedestrians — the death rate here is much higher than in places like northern and western Europe, Canada, and Japan. The question is, why?
Raising Kids Would Be So Much Better Without Cars
As Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says, we’re facing a crisis on our roadways. The death rate of children younger than 15 has more than doubled since 2018, from 5.8% to 11.9%, and that’s just for pedestrian deaths related to speeding, not for other scenarios,...
Routine Traffic Stops Too Often Turn Deadly, And Jayland Walker Is The Latest Victim
Police experts are still looking for ways to circumvent deadly chases and fatal traffic stops. One way, according to Kelcie Ralph, a transportation scholar at Rutgers University, are traffic cameras. Traffic stops are the most common interactions between police and...
Kelcie Ralph, PhD, named to Mobility Safety Advisory Group
The National Safety Council (NSC) set up a Mobility Safety Advisory Group (MSAG) of non-NSC people from the private sector, government, non-profit organizations and academia which will advise the NSC Roadway Safety Practice on tactics and strategies that can best...
Speed controls, redesigned intersections can save lives of walkers and cyclists, Rutgers professor says
Vehicles killed 7,342 pedestrians, the equivalent of 40 passenger jets falling from the sky and an increase from 4,092 a year earlier, but the jump in deaths isn't a one-year aberration. Kelcie Ralph, an associate professor at Rutgers University who studies...
Why Do So Many News Articles About Crashes Feel Like They Were Written by a Car?
News organizations need to relearn how to cover car collisions—especially when the victims are on foot. On the evening of Nov. 13, Roy Saravia Alvarez was walking home along the sidewalk of West Glebe Road in Alexandria, Virginia. At around 8 p.m., the driver of a...
Economic development in New Jersey — How COVID has expanded NJEDAs essential role
New programs and initiatives created by the New Jersey Economic Recovery Act are helping the state’s businesses quicken the pace and extent of economic improvement.
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