Pedestrian safety: road safety project in NJ Vision Zero need to be considered more
Pedestrian safety has been a hot issue for many years in the worldwide. Each year, more than 270 000 pedestrians lose their lives on the world’s roads (WHO, 2017). Globally, pedestrians constitute 22% of all road traffic fatalities, and in some countries this proportion is as high as two thirds of all road traffic deaths.
There have been three lethal crashes in Jersey City this year, including a pair of wrecks on Jan.23 and Jan.27 that claimed two lives (NJ.com). Jersey City averages about 300 traffic crashes involving pedestrians each year. On average, nine people are killed each year in Jersey City on local, state and county roads. After making an announcement of starting Vision Zero NJ program, Jersey City opened six pop-up workshops to get feedback from pedestrian. Nearly 300 survey responses were received across various platforms that allowed citizens to provide input on issues and opportunities for improving the pedestrian environment.
From my perspective, NJ Vision Zero tries to find a unique aspect to define what is pedestrian safety. With pedestrian surveys, the NJ government can capture the potentially dangerous roads and make adjustments. Data analyzing can be a more efficient way to help figure out the dangerous roads and crossing points. Form a database with data of accidents and combine the data with maps will be straighter forward. And then, NJ government can set more sensors or radars based on map data to limit car speed on walking roads with high injury rate. In a nutshell, pedestrians will get benefits from the program most, but they also need to engage in the program and help do surveys or road improvement.
