After putting out the call far and wide for pictures of streets designed for speeding traffic at the expense of safe travel by people on foot or bike, we’ve been getting some great — and by great, we mean frightening and terrible — photos of inconvenient, poorly-planned, dangerous and downright hostile conditions for pedestrians. Here [...]

Many of you were shocked by the story of Raquel Nelson, the single mom in Atlanta charged with vehicular homicide when her son was killed while crossing an unsafe street with her. While shocking, head-scratching stories like hers are thankfully rare, it’s emblematic of the road design in many places that we live, and we want to make sure that Congress gets that picture loud and clear. We want to show them that roads like Austell Road by Raquel Nelson’s apartment — 4 lane speedways with few considerations for pedestrians — are far too common. So send us your photos of dangerous, unsafe and poorly planned streets out there across America.

Updated 7/25: This petition at Change.org for Raquel Nelson has a lot of momentum. Sign it if you haven’t already. It will be delivered to the judge in the case before sentencing tomorrow. The response to our post on the Atlanta mother who was charged with vehicular homicide when her child was struck by a hit-and-run [...]

In last month’s Dangerous by Design 2011 report, we documented the 47,000 preventable pedestrian deaths between 2000 and 2009, along with the 688,000 injured. This is equivalent to one American being struck by a car or truck every 7 minutes for the past ten years. The majority of these deaths occur on roadways that are dangerous by design — engineered for speeding traffic with little to no consideration for people walking, biking or using public transit. None of us should have to deal with losing a child, friend or loved one simply because they were walking in the wrong place at the wrong time.

With the echo of the latest pedestrian fatality figures still ringing, a city in the deep South became the latest, albeit unlikely, place to adopt a Complete Streets policy. To paraphrase the song: if it can happen there, it can happen anywhere. When people think of “infrastructure,” images of roadways and grids tend to come [...]

Jackson, Mississippi Credit: Dr. Scott Crawford. This week’s release of Dangerous by Design has prompted several newspapers to editorialize in favor of tough pedestrian safety measures that address the urgency of the 47,000 killed and 688,000 injured on unsafe streets between 2000 and 2009. The report generated ample coverage in Florida, home to the nation’s four [...]

Tuesday’s release of Dangerous by Design outlining the 47,700 deaths and 688,000 injuries to people while walking on unsafe streets has renewed Congress’ focus on pedestrian safety in the next transportation bill. But what substantial steps the House and Senate will take to promote safer streets and improve conditions for walking remains very much in [...]

Walking in the ditch Originally uploaded by Transportation for America to Flickr. If this woman got hit by car, it’s probably her fault, right? Photograph by Stephen Lee Davis/Transportation for America. We noted on Twitter this morning a story in the USA Today about pedestrian deaths increasing in 2010, halting a decline that had been [...]

Transportation for America was proud to co-author and circulate a letter thanking Secretary Ray LaHood for USDOT’s policy statement elevating walking and biking in national policy. Last Friday, several of us at T4 cycled with a handful of national partners to DOT Headquarters across town to thank the Secretary in person.

Sec. LaHood issued a new directive yesterday that officially shows DOT’s support for improving safety for walking and bicycling — treating them as equal modes of transportation. Last fall we released a report chronicling the 76,000 preventable pedestrian deaths over the last 15 years on streets unsafe for walkers or bikers. Today, DOT made some progress on the issue.