More Highways Becoming Pedestrian Deathtraps (Video)

by Brian Merchant, Brooklyn, New York on 07.28.10
CARS & TRANSPORTATION

There are plenty of reasons that America's transportation infrastructure needs retooling -- one of them is that highways are increasingly seeing a wide range of problems, from congestion to falling into disrepair. But there are even more blunt problems with highways -- they're killing pedestrians, often at higher rates than ever before. This great video details how Atlanta's Buford highway has become more and more deadly as more of the surrounding residents have increasingly relied on walking as a form of transportation.

This is a good example of how communities nestled in urban sprawl, which were haphazardly designed with cars in mind as the sole mode of transportation, are facing new challenges in an era wracked by foreclosures, falling home prices, and residents who no longer use the car as a primary means of transportation. It's further testament to the unsustainability and folly of urban sprawl, which is especially unforgiving to the poor, who are both harder hit by fuel costs and rely more heavily on the shoddy public transportation (if it's even there at all).

As Lloyd points out today in a great post In With the Old, we need to be doing more to promote sustainable practices in not only buildings but entire communities that already exist -- like incorporating into citywide plans walking and biking as modes of transportation. Stoplights, sidewalks, and better public transportation would go lengths towards encouraging more sustainable growth in the future in de-gentrifying suburbs like those around Buford.

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