Parkland and Park Slope

On February 14 this year, Nikolas Cruz entered Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida and started shooting his classmates with AR-15 rifle. He killed 17, injuring 16 more. It was yet another of hundreds of mass shootings in the last decade in United States and one of many this year, even though 2018 has just barely started.

But one thing turned out to be very different this time. Students spoke and started a nationwide outrage, much more pronounced that during any previous shootings. As a result, the debate over smart gun control laws is back in Congress, several major firearm retailers changed their rules of how and to whom they sell guns and many companies ceased their discount programs for NRA members. We have never seen that level of change in such a quick time before Parkland shooting and everyone hoped that perhaps the youngest generation will trigger Congress to act smart this time.

America has a long history of deadly mass shootings due to our undisputed love of the Second Amendment, lack of any serious background checks and regulations and inability to treat mentally unstable citizens. Not to mention - military-grade weapons are seen as "toys for boys" that apparently you have a right to own. Even if you are mentally ill.

As such, tens of thousands of Americans are killed by firearms every year, but at least we, as a nation see it as a problem, even though some of us aren't willing to offer more than just "thoughts and prayers". There is however another cause of death in America that gets virtually no media coverage, even though it results in higher death numbers year by year. I would call it - murder by car.

Our roads are dangerous to everyone outside of the reinforced metal box, our cars became in the last decades. Long years of road design that focuses on drivers and speed, not those vulnerable users - pedestrians and cyclists, lead to over 33,000 dead every year. On top of that is the American licensing system with its very lenient rules and general inability to exclude dangerous drivers from being part of the traffic.

The most recent tragic example came from New York City, where 2 children were killed and a pregnant woman severely injured when driver ran them over in a crosswalk, ignoring the red light. The driver, 44-year old Dorothy Bruns was not arrested (as this seems to be a norm in such situations, especially in New York), but her license was revoked (unfortunately, much too late) after a massive outcry following this collision, once it was discovered her car had 12 traffic violations on record, including speeding and running red lights. On top of that, she was found to have a history of seizures, multiple sclerosis and heart failures - conditions that should not allow her to drive in the first place.

Such traffic collisions happen every day on American roads. And every day police usually dismisses the case, doesn't arrest the driver nor even issue a citation and media quickly call it yet another "accident". Next, we move on, forgetting about victims and not even trying to pause for a moment and think - why are these deaths so frequent? What causes them? Where is the source of the problem? What can we do to stop it?

Similarly to gun ownership, driving is such a well-established part of our life that we generally tend to accept any collateral damage it causes, no matter how tragic it would be. Seeing all this you may think, it's good that cars were invented over 100 years after foundation of the United States of America. Otherwise, our Founding Fathers would probably add "a right to drive" to the Constitution.

Unfortunately, any change will be a difficult one. Not everyone owns guns yet everyone understands danger they pose, which is why it's easier to petition for gun control laws. But, at least here in America, nearly everyone drives and therefore, it's so much harder to impose any restrictions on what most us see as our "right" and a seemingly safe activity. That makes solutions such as congestion pricing be extremely unpopular as that would affect every one of us, not just some remote "guy with a gun" somewhere in Montana.

It became clear that we need to change our streets, making them safer, slower and more friendly for pedestrians and bicyclists. It's clear that we need to end our reliance on cars and built efficient transit systems. It's clear that we need to revise our licensing system to keep people who should not be allowed on roads, not to drive. And finally, it's pretty clear that we need to reform our police and ask them to truly "serve and protect", not to catch people on e-bikes or ticket jaywalkers. Probably the best summary of the problem was given by one of the NYC citizens who confronted Mayor de Blasio the day after the event:

“I don’t want drivers pulled over for speeding. I want them not to be able to speed in the first place. Because the minute they are speeding is the minute they can hit somebody. I want streets where a driver looks at it and says, ‘I’m the guest here.’” https://t.co/IZl8PwfHRO

— Alissa Walker (@awalkerinLA) March 6, 2018

Basically, we need another #NeverAgain campaign (hashtag used by Parkland shooting survivors to promote their call for change) and it shouldn't be the #VisionZero. In fact, there is no need to reinvent the wheel - the Dutch did that for us back in the 70's. Their "Stop de Kindermoord" seems very appropriate. Now it's time to implement it here in America and stop #murderbycar.

re Park Slope, worth noting that the Dutch went with Stop de Kindermoord (literally "the murder of children") instead of some generic corporate-consultant-speak like "vision zero"

— Whet Moser (@whet) March 6, 2018