Safe Routes for All

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department in California, Traffic Safe Communities Network (TSCN), and the Santa Clara County Safe Routes to School Providers Group published this “Safe Routes for All” video showing various people in the South Bay expressing their support for Safe Routes.

The Santa Clara County Public Health Department (SCCPHD) works to protect and improve the health of communities through education, promotion of healthy lifestyles, disease and injury prevention, and the promotion of sound health policy. In the 1990s, this agency formed the Traffic Safe Communities Network (TCSN) with representatives from public health, injury prevention, emergency medical services, law enforcement, engineering, education, city and county government, bicycle and pedestrian advocacy, and the judicial system.

Traffic Safe Communities Network

SCCPHD works with these groups to improve safety for those who use active transportation. The recently adopted Health Element of the Santa Clara County General Plan includes a chapter on the transportation impacts on health, including the negative, externalized effects of motorized transportation such as respiratory disease and injuries caused by kinetic impacts by large, fast vehicles.

K=(mv^2)/2 was proven multiple times this past week in the city of San Jose alone, with three pedestrian fatalities in two days. According to the San Jose Mercury News, nine people have lost their lives in traffic collisions since December 7, including these three pedestrians and and bicyclist Rosamaria Ruminski, who list her life on a dead-end road on December 14.

I appreciate the efforts of Silicon Valley’s Public Health Department working to raise the profile of traffic safety, especially for more vulnerable road users.

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