Tuesday April 8
12:00 Noon until 1:00 P.M.
6th and Lamar
Expose Pedestrian Safety Issues!

We held a somewhat impromtu demonstration which corresponded with the release of the Pedestrian Safety Report entitled "Mean Streets: Pedestrian Safety and Reform of the Nation's Transportation Law" which was made public Tuesday morning April 8th at 10:00 A.M. This national study was put out by the Environmental Working Group and the Surface Transportation Policy Project, both national non profit organizations based in Washington D.C. The report contains a complete analysis of information compiled from U.S. Dept. of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration data. It spans 1986-1995 in data about pedestrian fatalities nation-wide, per-state, county and 326 large metropolitan areas. It also presents spending data of federal funds on transportation, general safety and specific pedestrian safety projects from 1992 thru 1996. The report is be available on the web site of the Environmental Working Group (www.ewg.org).

We had the participation of just a few "demonstrators" with signs at the corner of 6th and Lamar. We got what seemed like mostly friendly responses from the passing cars. The event drew a good amount of attention from the local media who used our small protest as a local "hook" to the story of the release of the report. Channels 7, 24 and 42 were present at the demonstration. Channels 7 and 36 walked with Marilyn and Steve Rogers around their neighborhood. The TV news media, as a whole, did a fairly good job of presenting relevant facts from the report with only one unmentioned "mysterious" statistic being reported. A top story front page article in the Austin American Statesman followed on Wednesday morning. This was a very well written and balanced story by Debbie Hiott of the American Statesman staff. We were referenced again on Thursday in letters to the editor. We understand (second hand) that pictures were also present in the Daily Texan which is the University of Texas campus daily newspaper. Also KVET radio had some taped inteview moments with Marilyn from the demonstration. All in all it was a success at getting these facts out in front of the public. Thanks to the true blue WALK Austin members Dick Kallerman, Reuben Leslie Jr., Elizabeth Willis, Phillip Kinney, Richard Aleksander, Marilyn Rogers and Steve Rogers for doing the dirty work!!

Some Safety Statistics from "Mean Streets"

15% of all traffic fatalities in Texas are pedestrians	486 pedestrians are killed by automobiles in Texas each year	Every 3 days 4 pedestrians are killed by automobiles in Texas
16% of all traffic fatalities in the Austin area are pedestrians	19 pedestrians are killed by automobiles in the Austin area each year	A pedestrian is killed by an automobile every 3 weeks in the Austin Area
6000 pedestrians are killed by autos each year in the U.S.	Pedstrian deaths in the U.S are equivalent to a commerial airline crash with no survivors occurring every 2 weeks.	More than 110,000 pedestrians are injured each year in the U.S
Pedestrians are 1.9 times more likely to be killed by a stranger in a car than by a stranger with a gun	Senior citizens are twice as likely to be killed by automobiles than the general population	Half of pedestrian fatalities occur on neighborhood streets
The Highway Capacity Manual defines pedestrians as "flow interruptions"	Pedestrian safety is treated as low priority	One in seven people killed in car crashes are pedestrians
Pedestrian Safety is a Major Public Health and Safety Problem	Increasing auto speeds dramatically increase risks for pedestrians	$0.00 of federal safety funds are spent on pedestrians in Texas