How approaching transportation planning through a public health lens can reduce traffic deaths.

In an interview with Streetsblog for The Brake podcast, outgoing head of Washington state’s Department of Transportation Roger Millar describes why he believes including public health in Vision Zero discussions is key to saving more lives and making U.S. streets and roads safer and healthier for the people who use and live around them.
Discussing Washington’s “safe systems” framework — an approach that prioritizes road design that minimizes the potential harm caused by inevitable human error — Millar notes his focus on “safe land use.” In this view, “What all car crashes have in common is cars. And if you have a threat to public health, the public health community says the first thing you do is, you separate people from the threat.”
For Millar, “if we can create spaces, communities, neighborhoods, centers that are built around mobility or access that does not involve an automobile, or that minimizes the use of automobile, we would be safer. We have to have this safer land use component to the safe systems.”
FULL STORY: What’s Missing From the Safe Systems Approach

Manufactured Crisis: Losing the Nation’s Largest Source of Unsubsidized Affordable Housing
Manufactured housing communities have long been an affordable housing option for millions of people living in the U.S., but that affordability is disappearing rapidly. How did we get here?

Americans May Be Stuck — But Why?
Americans are moving a lot less than they once did, and that is a problem. While Yoni Applebaum, in his highly-publicized article Stuck, gets the reasons badly wrong, it's still important to ask: why are we moving so much less than before?

Using Old Oil and Gas Wells for Green Energy Storage
Penn State researchers have found that repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells for geothermal-assisted compressed-air energy storage can boost efficiency, reduce environmental risks, and support clean energy and job transitions.

San Antonio Remains Affordable as City Grows
The city’s active efforts to keep housing costs down through housing reforms and coordinated efforts among city agencies and developers have kept it one of the most affordable in the nation despite its rapid population growth.

What Forest Service Cuts Mean for Cities
U.S. Forest Service employees work on projects that have impacts far beyond remote, rural wilderness areas.

North Texas Transit Leaders Tout Benefits of TOD for Growing Region
At a summit focused on transit-oriented development, policymakers discussed how North Texas’ expanded light rail system can serve as a tool for economic growth.
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