A Round and a Roundy: Federal ‘Pedestrian Safety Month’ is a Joke

This week, our cartoonist Bill Roundy goes national!

After Streetsblog USA published not one, but two, stories about the sham of the federal government’s first-ever “Pedestrian Safety Month,” our rapier-thrusting editorial draftsman cranked out a comic that captures his — and our — visceral reaction to the nation’s ongoing lack of concern about the deaths of thousands of pedestrians every year.

Pedestrian safety month is just a Trump Administration press release. What’s really needed, as Streetsblog’s Kea Wilson pointed out in her stories, is five pragmatic improvements:

• Require the installation of pedestrian detection systems, automatic emergency braking, and other automated driver assistance technology on all new cars;
• Require the installation of systems that onboard alcohol sensors or other technologies that detect erratic driving behavior from drunk motorists on all new cars;
• Require automakers to redesign hoods and bumpers to make cars more forgiving in crashes involving pedestrians and bicyclists, using better crumple zone technology;
• Enhance headlight visibility standards for new cars to help prevent the 76 percent of pedestrians crashes that happen at night;
• And last but not least, finally join the rest of the planet in requiring automakers to test how safe their vehicles are for vulnerable road users in the event of a crash, rather than just the people inside vehicles. 

Notice that none of the above even asks for the obvious: sustained prosecutorial action to get repeat reckless drivers off the road (a driver’s license is a privilege, not a right) and redesigning our cities so that roadways actively discourage speeding. You don’t need cops for either of those things.

All of Bill Roundy’s editorial cartoons are archived here.