Families Demand Vision Zero for Every City, Every County
Vigil to be held on World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims,
November 17, 2019
Wooldridge Square – Austin
AUSTIN, TX – In honor of the victims of traffic violence, Central Texas Families for Safe Streets (CTFSS) is co-hosting a vigil with affected families, nonprofit groups, and community members. The World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims event is this Sunday, November 17. Attendees will honor those lost and hurt by traffic violence with a ceremony, featuring affected families, advocates and local officials, including Austin Mayor Steve Adler. At the event, safety advocates will publicly call for swift implementation of safety measures across Texas.
On average, 10 people are killed on Texas roads every day due to traffic violence and another 50 sustain life-altering serious injuries. The annual event in Austin is held by a coalition of nonprofit and community groups including Central Texas Families for Safe Streets, Vision Zero Texas (a project of Farm&City), Bike Austin, Walk Austin, Rehumanize Mobility, and Vision Zero ATX.
The ever-increasing number of community members, families, and nonprofits championing the issue of traffic violence has not gone unnoticed. In response to community cries and grief, the Texas Department of Transportation (TXDOT) and the Texas Transportation Commission (TTC) have taken unprecedented steps this year to make streets safer, including establishing a zero fatality goal, adopting a system safety approach that includes engaging leadership from across the agency in solving this crisis, and dedicating an additional $600 million to safety over a two-year budget period. But much more is needed. Street safety advocates call on every elected official in Texas to take responsibility for their role in ending the epidemic of traffic violence. From every Texas mayor and county judge to the President of the United States, a group of nonprofits and community organizations believes leaders at every level of government need to adopt goals and action plans to end traffic deaths.
Along with the need for local governments to adopt Vision Zero, activists are demanding the Texas Senate and House help achieve the new TxDOT/TTC statewide goal. Legislative leaders recently opened a path for developing meaningful proposals to save lives. The 2019 Senate interim charges include roadway safety as a highest priority. https://worlddayofremembrance.org/about/
Agenda
DATE: Sunday, November 19, 2019
LOCATION: Wooldridge Square Park, 900 Guadalupe St, Austin, TX 78701
TIME: Full program 5 – 7pm
4:00 pm — Participants may arrive early to paint objects of remembrance.
5:00 pm — Opening remarks
5:30 pm — Memorial walk passes Capital, TXDOT headquarters, and Governor’s Mansion.
6:00 – 7:00pm — Main vigil, including family members, Austin Mayor Steve Adler, leaders of Vision Zero Texas, Central Texas Families for Safe Streets, Austin Pedestrian Advisory Council, and more.
For more information contact: Kathy Sokolic, Chair, Central Texas Families for Safe Streets, kathy@ctfss.org 512-809-3497 — Anna Bauereis, Member, CTFSS, anna@bauereis.org 512-784-5056 — Jay Blazek Crossley, Director, Vision Zero Texas, jay@farmandcity.org 713-244-4746 — Adam Greenfied, Chair, Austin Pedestrian Advisory Council, adam@agreenfield.com 415-731-1139
Texas is one of the worse states in the country for traffic violence. As of today, there are already over 50 deaths in
Commissioners Jeff Travillion, Brigid Shea and City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan (photo by Joe Van Wyk)
Austin alone, and over 3,000 across the state, and this number continues to grow.
What can we do to reverse this trend and achieve the objective of Vision Zero, which seeks to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries and the pain that comes with these losses?
In the name of all those who have been affected by traffic violence on the streets of the Lone Star State, we will hold a Vigil on the World Day of Remembrance for road traffic victims in Texas.
The Vigil was held on Sunday November 18, 2018 at the Texas Capitol in Austin. Attendees met in the plaza at Austin City Hall and heard from Travis County Commissioner Jeff Travillion and Austin City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan before the Memorial walk to the Vigil at the South Steps of the Texas Capitol. At the Capitol the group heard from Texas Representative Celia Israel, Jay Blazek Crossley with Vision Zero Texas, Katie Deolloz with BikeAustin and Kathy Sokolic with Central Texas Families for Safe Streets
We owe it to the victims and their families to ask for change and have safe streets for all users of this public space. 2019 is a legislative year in Texas, where significant changes could contribute to addressing this issue.
PRESS RELEASE: November 13, 2018
Contact: Jay Blazek Crossley, Executive Director, Farm&City — 713-244-4746
— jay@farmandcity.org
Group Calls for an End to Traffic Deaths and Injuries Across Texas
Local vigil this Sunday for World Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Traffic Violence moving from Austin City Hall to the steps of the State Capitol — AUSTIN, TX
The streak of traffic deaths is a lot worse than just a death on Texas roadways every single day for the last eighteen years. On an average day, ten people die across Texas using our freeways, streets, and roads. Most people who die are riding in cars and trucks, but the state is also particularly dangerous for walking and biking.
“Every kid in every neighborhood should have residential streets designed for safe speeds for kids walking, biking, and playing,” says Kathy Sokolic, Chair of Vision Zero ATX. A growing group of nonprofit organizations and community groups believes that we can end traffic deaths in Texas. The coalition is gathering this Sunday, November 18, 2018, for the local edition of the World Day of 
Remembrance for the Victims of Traffic Violence.
“City, county, and state agency staff do heroic work every day to fix our dangerous roads and streets, but we need leadership from the legislature to give TXDOT and others the tools and funding they need to save lives,” said Jay Blazek Crossley, Executive Director of Farm&City.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler issued a proclamation naming November 18, 2018 as World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in Austin.
Vision Zero is an international movement for governments at all levels to set a goal of zero traffic deaths or severe injuries and a commitment to a fundamental shift in how we design and use our transportation systems to prioritize the preservation and quality of human life. The coalition is advocating for four major components in the next legislative session: safe neighborhood streets, a consistent statewide hands free law, stop for pedestrians law, and an overall target to end traffic deaths in Texas.
“I was appalled to learn that in Texas more than 600 people per year die in traffic while walking. An average of two Texans per day loose their lives simply doing what humans have done throughout history. Walking is the most basic, healthy, and inexpensive transportation option we have and should not be a potentially deadly activity. All Texans deserve a safe place to walk,” said Heyden Black Walker, of Reconnect Austin.
**** The World Day of Remembrance for the Victims of Traffic Violence in Austin, Texas is a collaboration of :
Farm&City, Vision Zero ATX, Reconnect Austin, WalkAustin, BikeAustin, and Central Texas Families for Safe Streets.
More information:
http://www.VisionZeroTexas.org — Includes information on the vigil, the Vision Zero Texas legislative agenda, and how to get involved in this movement. — Farm&City is a 501(c)(3) charitable nonprofit dedicated to high quality urban and rural human habitat in Texas in perpetuity. The small, startup think and do tank is currently focused on four major projects, including Vision Zero Texas.
Partners:
www.FarmAndCity.org
www.ReconnectAustin.org
www.WalkAustinTX.org
www.BikeAustin.org
2018 Vigil: Dozens gather to remember victims of traffic incidents
(Photo by Joe Van Wyk)
Nov. 18, 2018 – Austin Statesman – Nationally known cyclist Andrew Tilin left home on a Saturday morning in February for a 50-mile bike ride with a group with whom he often pedaled through scenic parts of western Travis County. It was the last time his partner, Shellie Oroshiba, saw him. “I wouldn’t be here if he was still alive,” she said Sunday evening with her 16-year-old son, Ethan, at her side. “I’m here tonight to tell his story.”
The two were among about three dozen people who participated in a vigil outside Austin City Hall, followed by a walk to the Capitol, to remember victims of traffic deaths in the past year. The event was part of an effort by the nonprofit Vision Zero Texas to remember people who have died in traffic incidents in Austin this year and to call on the government to do more to avoid such deaths.
The organization aims to end all traffic deaths and advocates for major efforts in the upcoming Legislative session, including a statewide hands-free law and another one requiring motorists to stop — not yield — for pedestrians. The vigil was held in observance of World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, an international event to honor victims of highway crashes and other roadway deaths.
Several local elected leaders, including Austin City Council Member Jimmy Flannigan and Travis County Commissioners Brigid Shea and Jeff Travillion, attended.
Travillion said he knows of parts of the county that have been heavily developed over the years, though they still lack sidewalks and other safety measures to keep pedestrians from being hurt. “We have to work together to solve problems that we see on the ground,” he said.
Austin has had 67 traffic fatalities so far this year, compared to 60 at this time last year, according to data from Austin police.
Ten families lose a loved one every day on Texas roads, and 50 people suffer life-altering injuries each day across the state, according to Vision Zero Texas. The organization says most of those people who have died were riding in cars and trucks, but victims also are hurt or killed while walking or riding motorcycles or bicycles.
Tilin died after he was hit by a car while changing a flat along RM 620 near Lake Travis. Before the event started Sunday night, well-wishers who already knew Tilin’s story stopped to offer words of support to Oroshiba and her son.
2016 Vigil held to remember 81 victims of traffic deaths this year
September 2016 – Austin Statesman – While holding 81 candles at the City Hall Plaza in downtown, local officials, police and family members remembered those who have lost their lives in Austin roads this year. LaTiya Smith and her mother were among the family members who attended the candlelight vigil Wednesday evening. Her sister, 20-year-old Maleeca Smith, a child development major at the University of Texas in San Antonio, died April 12 when a car ran a red light and struck Maleeca Smith’s car in North Austin.
“She had come home for the weekend,” LaTiya Smith said. “She just wanted to help people.” Katie Dailey called for more education, awareness and stricter measures to prevent more deadly crashes. Her sister, 26-year-old Natalie Dailey, was a Child Protective Services investigator who died in August in a motorcycle crash in downtown Austin. “Within minutes of leaving for a ride around the block, my sister was no longer a carefree brave soul, she was a victim,” Katie Dailey said.
“In place of recognizing this traffic milestone, I look forward to the day we can return to this plaza and celebrate not even one,” said Nic Moe, representative with Vision Zero. As of Wednesday, 81 people have died in 2015 from crashes. In comparison, 46 had died in deadly crashes at this point last year, according to police. The report showed that a high percentage of pedestrian fatalities could have been prevented, with 95 percent of deaths occurring a road where pedestrian crossings were prohibited and 82 percent of incidents involving a pedestrian that was crossing a highway or high-speed roadway. The area’s homeless also accounted for a disproportionate amount of deaths this year, making up 43 percent of pedestrian deaths.
Police also believe intoxication played a part in a sizable number of fatal crashes. Impairment was involved in 41 percent of pedestrian deaths, 36 percent of motorcyclist deaths and 55 percent of fatal motor vehicle crashes, the report said.
