DC announced three new Vision Zero grants this week.
Ward 7 Business Partnership - $87,000
Residents and businesses in the Deanwood neighborhood will launch “Walkable Ward 7,” a year-long safety program and campaign that will use tactical urbanism and smart cities technology to implement demonstration projects. The project will leverage significant community engagement and existing data to identify problematic locations, and generate new data using sensors and computer vision to measure and evaluate the effect of interventions. The project will explore improving signage, pedestrian crossings, pick-up drop-off zones, and neighborhood festivals with tactical urbanism techniques.
Gearin’ Up Bicycles - $108,000
Gearin’ Up Bicycles is a non-profit full-service bicycle shop, located in Ward 5, that focuses on career development for youth from underserved communities. Gearin’ Up’s Vision Zero grant will support “Bike Force,” a series of mobile bicycle pop-up shops staffed by youth mechanics that provide free bicycle maintenance, repairs, and education. Gearin’ Up will serve more than 1,200 District residents at 50 pop-up events, with special emphasis on locations East of the Anacostia River, where no bicycle shops exist. Gearin’ Up will continue to align its programming with District of Columbia Public Libraries (DCPL), District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS), and Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) events.
Safe Routes to School National Partnership - $117,000
The Safe Routes to School National Partnership will create “Safe Routes for Youth,” a program for teens in Wards 7 and 8 to support a youth-led Vision Zero agenda, develop youth leadership, and to implement activities that promote a culture of injury-free, healthy active transportation. The Vision Zero grant will support the goal of reducing collisions and fatalities over the medium to long-term by positioning youth in Wards 7 and 8 as community leaders who can engage their peers and District agencies on transportation safety and establish a youth-centered, culturally responsive transportation agenda. The program will prioritize approaches and design strategies that increase transportation safety for youth and conduct youth-led traffic safety education for young people. It will also seek to build understanding around safety issues affecting youth in Wards 7 and 8, including traffic injuries, street harassment, and street violence.
It's hard to be against them, and I'm a big fan of Gearin' Up, but some of them have a tenuous connection to Vision Zero. I guess the point is to innovate and see what works, so maybe I should judge these two harshly, but I'm skeptical these will do much for safety. They seem like good programs I would support anyway, so I'm not too bothered by it.
When I look at the ideas here, some are better than others. Improved pedestrian crossings, youth-led traffic safety education for young people and pretty easy to connect to vision zero. Pop-up bike shops, neighborhood festivals and building leaders (all of which I love, I'll note) are a little harder.
I'm not sure how these were chosen or by whom either. I hope it's not slush-fundy.
Maybe, I'm just grumpy. Bah humbug.
I don't know about "youth-led traffic safety education." My kids' elementary school had traffic safety education, it was student crossing guards sponsored by AAA. The education boiled down to "get the fuck out of the way of cars." It really grated on me when I'd walk the kids to school and the crossing guards would be waving cars through the stop sign by the school.
Maybe I'm just being Contrarian.
Posted by: contrarian | December 15, 2018 at 06:16 PM