Monday, November 2, 2015

Artist Expected to Help Reduce L.A. Traffic Deaths

At our last SRTC Board meeting, Spokane City Councilmember Jon Snyder said that there has been 17 fatal collisions (whether auto, bike or pedestrian-related) in the City already this year. That's a big jump from most years. And a major problem.

A lot of cities have similar problems apparently, including Los Angeles. And while there is a lot of effort being put into trying to prevent fatal collisions (safety projects, education campaigns, adding bike lanes, etc.), L.A.'s mayor is taking a different approach. The Los Angeles Times reports he's hiring an artist to address the problem. Yes, an artist.

The mayor is taking applications right now for an artist who will join a team of transportation planners and engineers to work on a project called Vision Zero, which calls for eliminating traffic fatalities by the year 2025. It's not really clear at this point though exactly what the artist's role will be, except that he or she will be expected to have "constructive ideas that non-artists might not have through of themselves." It should be interesting to see what they come up. 

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About SRTC

SRTC is the federally designated Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) for Spokane County. Urbanized areas with populations exceeding 50,000 people are required to have an MPO. SRTC was formed to address the county's transportation planning needs. It provides coordination in planning between the public, cities, small towns, the county, the state, transit providers, and tribes.

SRTC offers services including transportation monitoring, transportation modeling, census information analysis, travel demand forecasting, historical traffic count analysis, geographic information systems, and trip generation rates.