Advanced filters

Search Results

You searched for:  -

There are 79 results  for your search.  View and Refine Your Search Terms

  • These Americans Are Just Going Around in Circles. It Helps the Climate.

    November 20, 2021 |

    The New York Times |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Carmel, Indiana

    America's capital of the traffic roundabout is Carmel, Indiana, a city of 102,000 people and 140 roundabouts. The city boasts exceptionally low rates of traffic deaths and injury crashes. Studies of roundabout use elsewhere show benefits as well in pedestrian and bicycle safety, and in cutting environmentally harmful emissions because traditional intersections cause much longer idling times. Not all drivers like them, but Carmel long ago overcame initial qualms when the longtime mayor put into practice the traffic idea he admired when he was a university student in England.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Preventing road deaths through safe system design

    November 01, 2021 |

    Bulletin of the World Health Organization |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Colombia, Bogotá

    Safe System design is a public health framework for preventing traffic accidents and death. The system adapts and transforms roads as part of a broader system of reforms. In Bogotá, in addition to a city-wide speed limit, high-risk corridors were identified using geo-referenced collision data and modeling. Multiple locations were transformed into pedestrian friendly streets that encourage lower traffic speeds by using speed bumps, bicycle lanes, wide sidewalks, benches, and planters. Officials note that the change has led to a decline in fatalities.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Police face a 'crisis of trust' with Black motorists. One state's surprising policy may help.

    October 07, 2021 |

    NBC News |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Virginia

    A new Virginia law restricts when the police can stop motorists, limiting the chances for inequitable law enforcement. Barred from stopping vehicles based on minor infractions like a broken taillight, police in the first four months under the new law sharply reduced their stops of Black motorists. Police say such stops are a key tactic for getting guns, drugs, and dangerous people off the streets. But they also can be racially motivated, disproportionately punish people of color, and lead to violent confrontations. Many states and cities are considering dialing back traffic enforcement for these reasons.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Las Vegas's Traffic School for Pedestrians

    April 16, 2021 |

    Next City |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States, Las Vegas, Nevada

    In Las Vegas, pedestrians and drivers ticketed for unsafe behavior can get their fines voided by taking a three-hour class called PedSAFE. More than 2,800 people have taken the class and, say its sponsors from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, graduate with a better understanding of how to keep pedestrians safe on Las Vegas' wide, pedestrian-unfriendly streets. While helpful, the program does not address more long-lasting fixes, such as ending racially inequitable jaywalking enforcement and designing safer streets.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Taking cops out of traffic stops: Would it make a difference? North Carolina examples offer a clue

    March 22, 2021 |

    Burlington Times News |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, Fayetteville, North Carolina

    For four years, Fayetteville, N.C., police virtually banned their officers from making traffic stops for petty violations having nothing to do with traffic safety, but increased their enforcement of speeding, red-light, and drunken driving violations. During that time, traffic fatalities decreased. So did the use of force by police, complaints about the police, and injuries to drivers and police. About half as many Black drivers' cars were searched. Unnecessary traffic stops can strain police-community relations and show bias against non-white drivers.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Norway's Electric Car Triumph Started With an '80s Pop Star

    February 08, 2021 |

    Reasons to be Cheerful |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: Norway

    After Norwegian pop band A-ha made headlines for using an electric vehicle in 1989, the government began implementing incentives for people to drive the cars. These perks made electric vehicles so popular in the Scandinavian country that they had to start scaling some of them back. Still, by the end of 2020, nearly 90 percent of all cars sold were rechargeable.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • SC law enforcement agencies are supposed to report info on traffic stops, but most are not

    January 28, 2021 |

    The Greenville News |

    Text |

    1500-3000 Words

    Response Location: United States, South Carolina

    After the South Carolina legislature in 2005 began requiring police to enforce a seat-belt law with traffic stops, it imposed on all police departments a duty to track and report traffic-stop data on drivers' race. The law was meant as a way to prevent biased policing, through public disclosure of disparities. But only about one-third of the state's law enforcement agencies have consistently complied with the law, and some never have. Some blame ignorance of how the system should work. But another explanation is the state has done little or nothing to enforce the law.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • The U.S. Could Make New Cars a Lot Less Deadly

    January 06, 2021 |

    Bloomberg CityLab |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United States

    American cars made since the early 1980s have carried ratings from the federal New Car Assessment Program, showing how risky they are to human life in a crash. NCAP ratings motivated a host of safety enhancements by manufacturers. Since the 1990s, similar programs in the European Union, China, Australia, Korea, and Japan have also rated vehicles' risks to pedestrians and bicyclists, and their fatalities have dropped. Not so in the U.S., where industry resistance has stalled expansion of NCAP ratings. Advocates hope the Biden Transportation Department will finally expand the program.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • Stopped: Profiling the Police Town Hall

    November 19, 2020 |

    KCPT |

    Broadcast TV News |

    Over 15 Minutes

    Response Location: United States, Kansas City, Missouri

    Missouri requires police to record the race of drivers from every traffic stop, a response meant to expose and ultimately reduce racial profiling in law enforcement. But, 20 years after that law took effect, Black drivers are 95% more likely to be stopped by police than white drivers, the biggest gap since the state started collecting the data. The policy was rendered meaningless because the data are collected inconsistently, high rates of noncompliance with the policy go unpunished, and individual officers' records go uncounted. As a result, there's no accountability for racist traffic enforcement.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

  • A pollution solution where the rubber meets the road

    November 09, 2020 |

    The Christian Science Monitor |

    Text |

    800-1500 Words

    Response Location: United Kingdom, London

    The Tyre Collective, a project by four recent graduate students in London, is seeking to capture vehicle tire pollution, the microplastics that go into the air from the friction of tires. They have been developing a device that attaches to the bottom of a car and uses electrostatic charges and airflow to collect up to 60 percent of tire particles as the car is driven. To reduce the amount of tire pollution, tire companies are seeking to balance safety requirements, tire durability, and making them out of more sustainable materials.

    Read More


    Go to Original Story

Solutions In Focus

Discover curated content about themes that matter to you, exclusively from the Solutions Story Tracker. Explore collections, resources and more.


Go to All Solutions in Focus