AARP Praises Reps. Israel, Gibson, Reed and Katko for Significant Pedestrian Safety Measures in New Law

AARP today praised Representatives Steve Israel (NY-3), Chris Gibson (NY-19), Tom Reed (NY-23) and John Katko (NY-24) for successfully advocating that the new federal transportation law include a critical provision aimed at curtailing fatal pedestrian accidents.

Their leadership helped ensure the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act (FAST Act) addresses - for the first time - standards for the design of roads that safely and adequately accommodate all users, protecting pedestrians and cyclists in addition to providing funding for highways and transportation infrastructure.

The key provision calls on the federal Department of Transportation to encourage states to adopt such standards.

“This provision is intended to make streets in communities across the country safer and easier to navigate for people regardless of age or capability,” stated a letter to congressional transportation committee chairs that Representatives Israel, Gibson and Reed signed and that Representative Israel helped draft. “The basis for this policy is the persistently high level of pedestrian fatalities due to traffic crashes each year. While overall traffic fatalities have decreased in the last decade, pedestrian fatalities have hovered around 4,700 each year” nationally.

Across New York state, 3,097 pedestrians were killed from 2003 to 2012 - representing almost a quarter of fatal traffic accidents in the state. Nearly a third of those pedestrian fatalities – about 1,000 - were people age 65 and older, according to Dangerous by Design, a study by Smart Growth America.

The study found during that time there were nearly 700 pedestrian fatalities on Long Island, part of which Israel represents; 100 in the counties represented by Gibson (Sullivan, Ulster, Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie, Greene, Columbia Montgomery, Rensselaer and Dutchess), 80 in the counties represented by Reed (Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Chemung, Ontario, Schuyler, Seneca, Steuben, Tioga, Tompkins and Yates) and 91 in the counties represented by Katko (Onondaga, Cayuga, Oswego and Wayne).

The FAST Act will provide states and communities with the certainty they need to plan transportation projects that in many cases have been delayed or constrained.

This is the first long-term surface transportation legislation passed by Congress in a decade.

“AARP members across the country are grateful to Congressional champions who pushed for a robust safe streets measure,” said AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond. “These leaders recognize that designing roads that are safe for people of all ages and abilities makes them safe for everyone.” 

“Congressmen Israel, Gibson, Reed and Katko were leaders in recognizing how very important all-inclusive road design and planning are to ensure the safety of all New Yorkers,” said Beth Finkel, State Director of AARP in New York State. “We are so thankful that these four House members championed the inclusion of these provisions in the FAST Act, which will make our streets safer for pedestrians – and our state more age friendly.”

Some of the steps the bill takes toward further transportation safety include:

• The safe streets provision, which requires the Secretary of Transportation to encourage states and metropolitan planning organizations to adopt road design standards that take into account pedestrians and other vulnerable road users, as well as motor vehicles, through all phases of planning, development, and operation;
• Directing the Secretary to report on state progress toward implementation and to identify best practices in the states;
• Increasing funding for a program dedicated to pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure and programs;
• Creating a new pedestrian and bicycle safety education and enforcement program targeted to states with high pedestrian fatality rates;
• Requiring state departments of transportation to consider access for other modes for National Highway System projects;
• Allowing use of a design manual that contains up-to-date designs for safer pedestrian and bicycle travel;
• Creating a pilot program for innovative coordinated access and mobility to improve the coordination of transportation services and nonemergency medical transportation services.

AARP has also pushed for further action following the bill including:

• Calling for state departments of transportation to heed the bill’s explicit appeal for safer road design. Sadly, new data shows that pedestrian fatalities rose three percent in 2014 over the previous year. Preliminary indications are that the number of deaths in 2015 will be even higher, continuing a disturbing trend;
• Urging Congress to pass the pedestrian safety protections in H.R. 2071, the Safe Streets Act, sponsored by Representatives Doris Matsui (D-CA) and David Joyce (R-OH); and,
• Calling on the Interagency Transportation Coordinating Council on Access and Mobility to publish a strategic plan including a cost-sharing policy. One in five older adults does not drive and specialized transportation is critical to meeting health, nutrition and other daily needs.

Contact: Erik Kriss, ekriss@aarp.org

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