|
S U R F A C E T R A
N S P O R T A T I O N P
O L I C Y P R O J E C 1001
Marquette Ave. NW
Albuquerque, NM 87102
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE
February 11, 2003
CONTACT:
DeAnza Valencia (505) 243-8666
Full
Report Available at: www.transact.org
ADVOCATES
RALLY IN SUPPORT
OF SAFE
ROUTES TO SCHOOLS LEGISLATION
Santa
Fe, NM – Today State Senator Linda Lopez (D-Albuquerque) and
State Representative Richard Vigil (D-Las Vegas) were joined at
the State Capitol by a crowd of activists in support of their
“Safe Routes to Schools” bill (SB 556) that would establish a
program to fund engineering improvements that would create safe
places for New Mexico’s children to bike and walk to school.
Since
New Mexico had the highest pedestrian fatality rate in the nation
for 2000 and 2001 -
New Mexico’s “mean streets” have become an important
political issue. New
Mexico’s fatality rate for children is above the national
average. In New
Mexico, pedestrian
injury remains the second leading cause of unintentional
injury-related death among children ages 5-14.
Senator
Lopez stated, “Many New Mexico communities lack sidewalks, bike
paths, street crossings, and other elements necessary to provide
safe walking environments – especially for children.
This bill will provide the critical funding to help
alleviate this problem.”
A
broad range of activists including representatives from the
Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico, the New Mexico Conference of
Churches, the New Mexico Coalition for a Livable Future, and
members of the medical and education communities called for
support of the “Safe Routes to Schools” bill.
The bill would provide funding for engineering
changes such as crosswalks, sidewalks, curb cuts, bus shelters and
traffic lights to fix traffic hazards that make school zones
unsafe for kids to walk or bike.
“New
Mexico should be doing much more to protect our children walking
to school, our seniors walking to the store and everyone else who
walks,” says DeAnza Valencia, the Director of the New Mexico
office of the Surface Transportation Policy Project.
“Our state and federal investment in pedestrian safety
should match the percentage of pedestrian traffic deaths.”
Gail
Ryba, President of the Bicycle Coalition of New Mexico added,
"We've engineered the life out of our cities and towns by
making roads that are unfriendly to bicycles and pedestrians.
I look forward to the day my daughter can bike and walk to school
like I did.”
The
advocates also called on the New Mexico State Highway and
Transportation Department to use their federal transportation
hazard elimination funds to make it safer for kids to walk and
bike to school. Currently these funds are used mostly for
"improving" intersections for cars, which typically
means widening them. Wide, high-speed streets without
sidewalks and few crossing points increase the dangers faced by
walkers.
“Making
our community safer for kids walking should be a higher
priority," added State Representative Richard Vigil.
The
Surface Transportation Policy Project is a national broad
coalition with a proven track record in shifting transportation
policy toward better outcomes and bringing the community into
transportation decision-making
###
|
