Most drivers will ignore the fact that Louisville has gotten a pedestrian safety grant.

It does not require the re-animation of Albert Einstein to grasp that if walkability is an aim, something must be attempted to address the hegemony of automobiles on streets originally designed to accommodate all users, but now given over to the internal combustion erection.

The reigning obliviousness of urban drivers is a given; if they cannot be re-educated overnight, as the Department of Transportation grant suggests a couple dozen of them per million dollars expended just might be able to achieve, then redesigning the streets seems the most cost effective and promising course.

Naturally, local politicians and appointed time-servers must want to do something, as opposed to nothing.

U.S. Department of Transportation Announces Winners of Pedestrian Safety Grants

Louisville, New York City and Philadelphia to Receive Funding to Raise Awareness, Provide Education, Increase Enforcement

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) today announced that Louisville, Philadelphia and New York City will receive grants totaling approximately $1.6 million for public education and enforcement initiatives to improve pedestrian safety. The new grants are part of the Department's Everyone Is a Pedestrian campaign to help communities combat the rising number of pedestrian deaths and injuries that have occurred from 2009 through 2012 ...

... Louisville was awarded $307,000 and will use the funds to create a pedestrian education program for school-aged children and create safe walking routes for senior citizens. In addition, the funds will be used to conduct law enforcement training and crosswalk enforcement activities. In Louisville, a total of six pedestrians were killed in motor vehicle crashes during 2012, representing 10 percent of the city's total traffic fatalities.