Tag: VISION ZERO

Vision Zero Invasion of the Car Itself

This post first appeared as the NMA E-Newsletter #532 in March 2019. In three years, all new cars and light-trucks purchased in EU countries will be required to include standard price-increasing features that will change how motorists drive. Members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Internal Market and Consumer Protection voted in February to approve […]

Political Interference in Setting Speed Limits Shouldn’t Happen

From guest writer Ian Tootill, who is co-founder of the grassroots British Columbia motorists advocacy group SENSE BC (or Safety by Education and Not Speed Enforcement). SENSE BC and the NMA are kindred spirits, with SENSE advocating for sensible driving standards for more than 23 years and the NMA for over 36. The issues facing drivers in […]

An Appropriate Balance for Whom? – NMA Readers Respond: NMA E-Newsletter #553

In “An Appropriate Balance for Whom?” (NMA E-Newsletter #552), we discussed HB 3663, a recently introduced bill to Congress that would require each state to fund its own program to prioritize walking and bicycle riding over vehicular traffic when designing new or upgrading existing roads. Data from the 2016 U.S. Census showed that more than […]

Are Cyclists Vision Zero Zealots?

Eric Berg is an NMA director and life member since the Citizens Coalition for Rational Traffic Law days. Eric is an avid sport bicyclist as well as staunch defender of motorists’ rights. He is well positioned to provide observations from both vantage points.  This thinkpiece first appeared in January 2019 as NMA E-Newsletter #524. One […]

An Appropriate Balance for Whom?: NMA E-Newsletter #552

Eight members of the U.S. House of Representatives introduced House Bill 3663 in mid-July. The proposed piece of legislation is titled, “Complete Streets Act of 2019.” It is no less than a mandate that all states implement policies to address “critical gaps in pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit infrastructure.” The Complete Streets protocol would prioritize […]

All Traffic is Local: A Look at Force-Fed Road Diets

This post originally appeared as the cover story for the NMA Foundation’s Driving Freedoms Magazine Spring 2019. Driving can sometimes be a daily grind. But when cities reconfigure the streets you take every day—presumably, to make them safer—that daily grind often seems much worse. The war on cars, for many drivers, is no longer an […]

Hurtful words

If you call an accident a crash, does it hurt more? According to Denver police the answer is yes. The number of fatal “crashes” in 2018 was higher than the number of fatal “accidents” in any of the previous 12 years. To the surprise of police, politicians, and federal bureacrats, changing the name did not […]

The Not-So-Hidden Cost of Vision Zero

Originally posted on August 12, 2018, this NMA newsletter is #500. The implementation of Vision Zero programs, with the goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities through various means including reducing vehicle speed and movement, is spreading to many U.S. cities seemingly without concern for cost. If Vision Zero had a goal of minimizing road deaths […]