In NA, too? "Traffic Safety Advocates Taking Action Into Their Own Hands."

Last week we glanced in the direction of National Main Street, of which our local Develop New Albany is a part. NMS currently is "refreshing" its foundational "Four Points" to suit a changing world.

Main Streets will be encouraged to engage a wide range of local stakeholders in developing a vision of success for their downtown or neighborhood commercial districts. Main Streets will then be urged to develop cross-cutting Community Transformation Strategies that are connected to meaningful, longterm change. Progress will be measured in a variety of ways, including through economic metrics and qualitative assessment.

Speaking of transformation, here's an example of a group seeking it, in the real world, on the ground. Meanwhile, conditions for cyclists and pedestrians continue to worsen in New Albany, with neither DNA nor the city itself having much at all to say about it.

As ever, we're trying to cook omelettes without breaking eggs. It might be time for "similar guerrilla actions," eh?

Traffic Safety Advocates Taking Action Into Their Own Hands, by James Brasuell (Planetizen)

The San Francisco Transformation Agency is tired of watching cyclists and pedestrians die while the city promises more Vision Zero improvements.

A group of safety activists came together to implement a DIY safety improvement project at Sixth and Mission in San Francisco "after the deaths of two bicyclists, Heather Miller and Kate Slattery, who were killed the evening of June 22 after being struck by hit-and-run motorists," according to Bryan Goebel.

The action involved placing cones along the street to create a bump-out at a notoriously busy intersection, where pedestrian infrastructure is deteriorating and often ignored by drivers.

The so-called San Francisco Transformation Agency, or SFMTrA, takes inspiration from "similar guerrilla actions in Seattle, Portland and New York," writes Goebel, in moving beyond the Vision Zero efforts of the city. "They point out that despite the city’s Vision Zero effort, which has a goal of ending all traffic deaths by 2024, 26 people have died in traffic collisions so far in 2016," adds Goebel.