Recent Streetsblog CHICAGO posts about safety

Slow Roll's Bike Ride for Peace, hosted last July in partnership with BUILD Chicago. Photo: Daniel Perez, BUILD Chicago

More Talking Points From the Slow Roll Chicago Discussion of Vision Zero and Racial Justice

By John Greenfield | Sep 11, 2017 | 10 Comments

Cofounder Oboi Reed elaborates on Vision Zero rollout issues, and argues that if Black and Brown residents advocate for safer street designs, their aldermen will support them.

Ghost bike memorial for Anastasia Kondrasheva at Addison and Damen. Photo: John Greenfield

How Four Fatal Truck-Bike Crashes Helped Bring About Lifesaving Legislation

By John Greenfield | Aug 17, 2017 | 2 Comments

The new Chicago law requiring vehicle side guards and safety mirrors will help prevent future tragedies.

Bike riders line up at the light at Dearborn/Madison. Cutting in line is known as "shoaling." Photo: John Greenfield

Bad Biking Behavior, and the Best Ways to Prevent It

By John Greenfield | Aug 3, 2017 | 26 Comments

Better infrastructure and education "carrots," rather than enforcement "sticks," are key.

More than 112,500 people were killed in speeding-related crashes from 2005 to 2014 . Image: NTSB

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NTSB: Speed Kills, and We’re Not Doing Enough to Stop It

By Stephen Miller | Jul 27, 2017

More than 112,500 people lost their lives in speed-related crashes from 2005 to 2014, accounting for 31 percent of all traffic deaths in America over that period. In a draft report released earlier this week, the National Transportation Safety Board says excessive speed is a deadly problem in our nation's transportation system -- one that federal and state officials aren't doing enough to address.

Are Reckless Driving and Biking Morally Equivalent? An Ethicist Weighs In

By John Greenfield | Jul 6, 2017 | 41 Comments

Cars have exponentially more potential for death and destruction than bikes, but all road users are capable of harming others. How should these facts influence government policy, as well as personal conduct?

In cities like Copenhagen, with bicycle-friendly street design, mobility education, and traffic laws, few people wear helmets, but bike fatality rates are much lower than in U.S. cities. Photo: Wikipedia

A Bike Helmet Manifesto in Four Paragraphs

By John Greenfield | Mar 1, 2017 | 88 Comments

If lots of people are wearing bike helmets for moderate-paced commuting in your town, that’s probably a symptom of the fact that it’s a dangerous place to ride.

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Portland Wants to Rethink Speed Limits By Factoring in Walkers and Bikers

By Angie Schmitt | Aug 25, 2016

For cities trying to get a handle on traffic fatalities, dangerous motor vehicle speeds are an enormous problem. Once drivers exceed 20 mph, the chances that someone outside the vehicle will survive a collision plummet. But even on city streets where many people walk and bike, streets with 35 or 40 mph traffic are common. Cities looking […]

Advocates: Let’s Shift Focus From Pushing Bike Helmets to Preventing Crashes

By John Greenfield | Jun 6, 2016 | 35 Comments

[Last year the Chicago Reader launched a weekly transportation column written by Streetsblog Chicago editor John Greenfield. This partnership allows Streetsblog to extend the reach of our livable streets advocacy. We syndicate a portion of the column after it comes out online; you can read the remainder on the Reader’s website or in print. The paper hits the […]

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Retired Fire Chief: Make American Firetrucks Fit City Streets, Not Vice Versa

By Angie Schmitt | Mar 22, 2016

It’s a sad irony that fire departments, while essential to public safety, are often a major obstacle to safer streets in American cities. When cities try to redesign streets to reduce traffic injuries and get drivers to travel at safer speeds, the local fire department often steps in to prevent changes that it believes will hinder the movement of its enormous trucks. Fire departments […]

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You Won’t Soon Forget These Photos of Ghost Bikes. That’s Exactly the Point.

By Tanya Snyder | Sep 11, 2015

You’ve seen them, locked to signposts on the side of the road. Maybe you’ve helped install one. Maybe you’ve cried at the sight of them. Ghost bikes memorialize people who have been killed while riding bikes. The bikes don’t usually stay up for more than a few weeks or months before the city removes them […]

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The Appalling Rollback of Truck Safety Provisions in the DRIVE Act

By Tanya Snyder | Aug 28, 2015

A battle is brewing over the Senate transportation bill’s approach to truck safety. Though large trucks are involved crashes that kill nearly 4,000 people a year — a number that has grown by 17 percent over the past five years — the DRIVE Act actually rolls back what few protections exist. The bill would allow longer […]

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