#VisionZero #BlackLivesMatter

#WalkBikePlaces

Leveraging Vision Zero & Black Lives

Matter to Develop Outcomes-Based

Performance Measures and Achieve

Safety & Equity Goals

Amanda Leahy, AICP | Senior Planner | Kittelson & Associates, Inc.

Leveraging Vision Zero & Black Lives Matter to Develop Outcomes-Based Performance Measures and Achieve Safety & Equity Goals

Pecha Kucha delivered by Amanda Leahy at Pro Walk | Pro Bike | Pro Place in Vancouver, BC (September 15, 2016)

# Topic Speaker Notes

1 Leveraging Vision Zero & Black

Lives Matter to Develop Outcomes-

Based Performance Measures and

Achieve Safety & Equity Goals

Hello everyone. Thanks for joining me today and inspiring me all week.

Since submitting this abstract, Vision Zero and Black Lives Matter have grown considerably and the connection between them

made increasingly clear, as has the potential power of leveraging the movements to achieve transportation safety and equity

outcomes.

2 Vision Zero Supporter As a transportation planner and engineer, I feel a moral imperative to take action to address road safety.

I join Families for Safe Streets and more than 50% of Americans who knows someone that has been killed or severely injured

in a crash. We know that "traffic safety is no accident".

3 Black Lives Matter Ally As a white, upper middle class, cis-gender female, I acknowledge my privilege and rebel against white supremacy by breaking

my silence and showing up for racial justice.

White lives are not more important than black lives.

4 Waking Up I won't say I'm "woke" but I am waking up. Increasingly aware of the institutional racism and social injustice that exists in our

world.

Demonstrations like the 4-hour shutdown of Interstate-880 in July in Oakland, where I work, disrupt transportation to bring

this truth to a national stage.

5 Vision Zero Similarly sparked by the predictable and preventable loss of life, this smaller scale demonstration for street safety in Portland,

OR united community members to bring awareness of dangerous driving after the death of 15-yr old, Fallon Smart at SE

Hawthorne and 43rd, one month ago.

6 Traffic Fatalities in U.S The US has the highest reported fatality rate of developed countries with 10.3 deaths per 100k people, in 2013 -- about twice

that of Canada.

Recently released data shows fatalities on the rise, increasing 9% in the first six months of 2016.

7 Disproportionate Impact This analysis of crash location coordinates for 22k pedestrian deaths shows that low-income neighborhoods which statistically

are shown to include the most vulnerable road users – people of color, seniors, youth – are, each year, an increasingly larger

proportion of traffic fatalities.

8 Components of Commitment The disparity in transportation safety outcomes and police enforcement are two reasons that the Vision Zero Network has

made equity a core pillar of their work.

The success of Vision Zero depends on an inclusive and representative process that amplilfies the voices and concerns of

traditionally underserved communities.

9 Black Lives Matter This is where the intersection with Black Lives Matter and the broader civil rights movement becomes evident.

Black Lives Matter, born from Alicia Garza's eponymous hashtag created in response to Trayvon Martin's death and George

Zimmerman's acquittal in 2013 has since become nationally recognized for street demonstrations.

10 Transportation - Civil

Rights/BLM

...and transportation has long been central to civil rights -- this racial dot map of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania illustrates the lines

of segregation engineered into the environment by transportation infrastructure.

The inset map shows where urban freeways could have scarred and separated Vancouver's downtown.

11 Driving While Black It is not only the built environment that reinforces the systemic and institutionalized racism that exists today, but also

"broken windows policing" and racial bias which manifest in many ways.

One study conducted in Portland, OR found that drivers were 50% less likely to yield to black people at a crosswalk than they

were to white people.

12 Campaign Zero Campaign Zero is a police reform campaign initiated about a year ago by activists associated with Black Lives Matter.

The campaign is aimed at policy solutions leading to transformational police reform and aligns with Vision Zero's push for data

driven equitable enforcement.

13 Trajectory of Safety Inequity This diagram adapted from the Prevention Institute and public health realm, illustrate how structural drivers, such as the

inequitable distribution of power (and policing), opportunity (and access), and wealth (and resources), are major

determinants of transportation safety inequity.

Improving these determinants requires understanding of the socio-cultural context to avoid unintended inequitable outcomes

of safety interventions.

14 Measuring Transportation

Safety Equity

For example, when we talk about increasing traffic enforcement we need to think about what that means in terms of the lived

experience, particularly for people of color in low-income communities.

Because while Vision Zero has the potential to improve safety outcomes for all, "it can also be a threat to a more equitable

society"

15 Safety; Investment We need to frame our approach to transportation safety by targeting equitable outcomes, such as eliminating racial disparity

in fatal and injury collisions and making transportation investments that benefit communities of color and reverse the adverse

effects of centuries of disinvestment.

16 Access;

Gentrification/Displacement

These measures are important not only as indicators of transportation safety inequity but also for clarifying sources of

inequity, fostering understanding of solutions, and informing intervention efforts focused on communities of color to provide

access to opportunity and prevent displacement.

17 Enforcement Equitable enforcement requires rethinking how we bring justice to a situation. Equity strategist Naomi Doerner suggests, and I

agree, we should look to abandoning punitive measures for minor infractions and incorporate principles of restorative justice

to drive behavior change.

18 Mainstreaming Safety & Equity Mainstreaming a transportation safety paradigm with a racial equity lens is of paramount importance.

As Noel Mickelberry notes - "We can't work on Vision Zero without prioritizing the intersection between the transportation

justice movement and the social and environmental justice movements".

19 Achieving Safety & Equity Goals To be most effective in our efforts, we need to take a systematic and integrated approach to initiatives targeting traffic safety

and social justice. Thoughtful, holistic, and coordinated techniques are needed across all levels of the Spectrum of Prevention

to achieve these radical, revolutionary transportation safety and equity goals.

20 Closing Slide It is a big challenge that we face but by leveraging the strength and interconnectedness of these movements our capacity for

change increases.

and in the words of "punk poet laureate" Patti Smith - People Have the Power, (The Power to Dream, To Rule, To Wrestle the

Earth From Fool's.) We Have the Power, We Can Turn the World Around.

THANK YOU!

Vision Zero SupporterImage Credit: Yana Paskova, New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/02/nyregion/number-of-traffic-deaths-in-new-york-falls-for-a-second-year-in-a-row.html?_r=0

Black Lives Matter AllyImage Credit: Adam Bettcher / Reuters. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/16-photos-of-white-allies-protesting-alongside-black-lives-matter_us_5783b1a0e4b0c590f7ea1ed0

Waking UpImage Credits: Amanda Leahy; BlackLivesMatter.com http://blacklivesmatter.com/macklemores-white-privilege-and-the-role-of-white-allies/

Image Credit: Twitter, @BikePortland, 8/20/16.

90 deaths per day10.3

5.6 5.4 5.14.5

4.0 3.6 3.32.8 2.7

Crash Rate (2013)

>32,000 per year

31% due to alcohol

29% due to speeding

Traffic Fatalities in the U.S.

“Traffic deaths +9% with 1.6 trillion miles driven … 19k lives and counting”

– Janette Sadik Khan, Principal with Bloomberg Associates

Source: Center for Disease Control, Vital Signs, Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention, July 2016

“Vision Zero is about saving lives and protecting the most vulnerable people in our communities.”

- Yvette Fang, San Francisco resident

and disability community advocateData Source: Governing.com; Quote: San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

3.8

5.5

7

8.3

9.9

11.2

12.6

Crash Rate, Deaths per 100k (2008-12)

≤5%

5–10%

10–15%

>15–20%

>20–25%

>20–25%

>30%

Census Tract

Poverty Rate

1. Political Commitment

2. Multi-Disciplinary Leadership

3. Action Plan

4. Equity

5. Cooperation & Collaboration

6. Systems Based Approach

7. Data-Driven

8. Community Engagement

9. Transparency

Components of Commitment

Source: Vision Zero Network. http://visionzeronetwork.org/project/9-components-of-a-strong-vision-zero-commitment/.

Black Lives Matter

Image Credit: Amanda Leahy

“Transportation, has long been central to the black civil rights movement, with the Selma march, the Freedom Rides, and Rosa Parks' appeal to equal rights on public buses.”

- Emily Badger, Washington Post Wonkblog

Data Source: Governing Magazine. The Washington Post. U-Va. Cooper Center analysis of 2010 Census Data; Twitter @BrentToderian 8/27/16

“Driving While Black”

20% zero vehicle HH

+73% crash fatality rate

-50% motorist yield rate

2-3x more traffic stops

transportation cost burden

Campaign Zero

Trajectory of Safety Inequity

Transportation

Safety

Inequity

Structural Drivers

Socio-Cultural,

Economic, &

Built

Environment

Exposures &

BehaviorsTransportation

Conditions

Source: Diagram adapted from Prevention Institute’s Health Disparities Trajectory in “Toward Health Equity: A Prevention Framework For Reducing Health Disparities..

Measuring Transportation Safety Equity

“…Vision Zero can also be a threat to a more equitable society.”- Leah Shahum, Founder of the Vision Zero Network

Dec ‘13

Source: SFGov Scorecards: http://sfgov.org/scorecards/percentage-citations-top-five-causes-collisions

Jun ‘15 Jun ‘16

SFPD % “Focus on the Five” Citations

Outcomes-Based Measures

Outcome Measure

Eliminate racial

disparity in fatal/injury

crashes

• Crash rate & risk

Equitable

transportation

investment

• Per capita investment

Outcomes-Based Measures

Outcome Measure

Increase relative

destination

accessibility

• Jobs-access by mode

• Transit access

• Ped/bike network connectivity

• Mode choice

Prevent

gentrification &

displacement

• (H+T®) Housing + Transportation

Affordability Index

• Location Affordability Index (LAI)

Outcomes-Based Measures

Outcome Measure

Equitable

enforcement

• Representative of community

• Enforcement priorities

• Use of force policies

• Body camera implementation

Mainstreaming Safety & Equity

“We can’t work on Vision Zero without prioritizing the intersection between the transportation justice movement and the social and environmental justice movements.”

- Noel Mickelberry, Executive Director of Oregon Walks

Portland, OR Vision Zero Task Force memberImage Credit: Twitter, @NYPD33Pct, 8/18/16

Achieving Safety & Equity Goals

Source: Larry Cohen, Contra Costa Heath Services Prevention Program

Spectrum of Prevention

Amanda Leahy, AICP | aleahy@kittelson.com | @_amandaleahy

#VisionZero #BlackLivesMatter

#WalkBikePlaces

Thank You