OUR VIEW: The lesson of Victoria Rose's hit-and-run
If we have learned anything as a community from Victoria Rose Peterson's death, it should be this: We must change the cars-only culture of Bakersfield's streets. Impossible as that may seem, it's doable over time. We know this because other cities have done it.
Peterson, a 16-year-old high school student who was struck and killed by a hit-and-run driver as she walked to school on Feb. 1, 2011, is one of more than a dozen pedestrians who've been killed on Bakersfield-area streets since Jan. 1 of last year. If Peterson's case -- which hasn't been solved -- were rare, that would be one thing. It's not. Bakersfield streets are dangerous.
Transportation for America's "Dangerous by Design 2011," a study of pedestrian safety in the United States over the past decade, reported that Bakersfield had 2.5 pedestrian traffic deaths per 100,000 -- a number that, if Bakersfield were listed among the 52 largest metropolitan areas in the nation, would be tied for fifth most dangerous in the nation. The Bakersfield metro area's 183 pedestrian fatalities between 2000 and 2009 exceed the raw-number totals of three of the nation's 20 most dangerous major metros, according to the study.
The answer isn't to put fewer pedestrians on the sidewalk, but more. Four of the safest U.S. cities for pedestrians -- Boston, New York, Seattle and San Francisco -- have the nation's highest percentages of pedestrian commuters. Those cities protect their walkers with wider sidewalks, enhanced crosswalks and slower traffic speeds. Less convenient for drivers? Sometimes. But the reward is a safer, healthier, slimmer population.
That commitment must start at City Hall.
