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Since changes related to the COVID-19 pandemic started this year, our members, media, and law enforcement across the state have noted that a small percentage of drivers are driving at far faster speeds than in previous years.

It is still only a small percentage of overall drivers, but the percentage of very fast speeders is both noticeably larger than in previous years typical speeds seem to be faster.  Law enforcement and safety leaders are very concerned about this trend, because it has led to noticeably higher injuries and fatalities on the state's roads--including injuries and fatalities for vulnerable road users, like those who walk, run, bicycle, and use various assistive devices to move around our communities and neighborhoods.

The Missouri Coalition for Roadway Safety is working in cooperation with law enforcement agencies from all across Missouri to change this dynamic. 

Below is the announcement for their Fall 2020 speed enforcement campaign. 

During the peak of the COVID shutdown, many drivers became used to driving very fast on mostly-empty roads.  Now that traffic patterns have returned closer to normal, a certain group of drivers seem to be continuing their fast-driving habits.

Unfortunately, fast driving has disastrous consequences when the fast-moving car meets a pedestrian, a bicyclist, or another vehicle.

Here is a research summary from ProPublica that shows just exactly how much difference it makes when a motor vehicle is traveling just 10 or 20mph faster:

Once cars reach a certain speed (just above 20 mph), they rapidly become more deadly. According to Tefft's data, a person is about 70 percent more likely to be killed if they’re struck by a vehicle traveling at 30 mph versus 25 mph.

 

In a rare bipartisan move this congressional session, Congress has approved a landmark $9 billion public lands act, the "Great American Outdoors Act," that restores and increases funding for the National Park Service, National Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Indian Education.

The bill helps reduce a massive backlog in deferred maintenance on all these federal lands.  It will have the major impact on western states, where there are vast amounts of federal lands--and you'll likely notice a difference in coming years if you hike, bike, walk, or vacation in National Parks, Forests, or BLM lands out west.

But the funding could have major impacts here in Missouri as well, where long-underfunded National Park Service assets include:

In the U.S., traffic accidents claim a hundred lives per day, along with thousands of serious injuries.  If any other industry had a death toll like that, it would be shut down immediately.

Mobility is a basic human right. No one should have to risk their life to get to work or to go shopping, or to go out with a friend. 

This is the premise of Vision Zero, a family of safety programs based on principles of systematic safety.

This video is an explanation of the principle of 'sustainable safety' or "systematic safety" by Professor Peter Furth of the Northeastern University of Boston.

Taking a systems approach to improving road safety for all users is one of the fundamental principles of Vision Zero.