Making 'Complete Streets' More Complete

In my urban-suburban county in central Maryland, the latest "pedestrian struck by automobile" tragedy is all too frequently on the nightly news. Invariably, there are all sorts of concrete explanations: the road was too narrow, with limited sightlines and too many parked cars. The road was too wide, with uncontrolled pedestrian access, poorly marked crossings, and not enough parked cars. The pedestrian was not careful (wearing earphones, distracted, drunk). The driver was not careful (talking on a cell phone, distracted, drunk). There were not enough traffic lights. The lighting was poor. The road had no sidewalks. The pedestrian was not in the crosswalk. The pedestrian was in the crosswalk, but the driver was speeding. And so on.

What is often lost in all this sometimes conflicting information is the tragedy itself – that a mother of three, or an elderly grandfather, or a four year-old boy was killed because of one, or some combination, of these problems.