If you’re looking for inspiration on how advocates can bring communities and policymakers together to cultivate safe streets, look to the work of Zoe Scott. As Advocacy Director of Bike Walk Knoxville, Zoe leads Vision Zero advocacy efforts, including serving on the City of Knoxville’s Vision Zero Task Force. She also organizes neighborhood walking and biking tours with elected officials – giving them a firsthand look at local conditions – building critical partnerships to make Knoxville safe and more accessible for everyone, regardless of age, ability, or background.
Vision Zero Network: Could you share how your journey to bike/walk advocacy began? What inspired you to pursue this work?
ZS: I was lucky to grow up in a very walkable, bikeable neighborhood in Huntsville, Alabama. While I didn’t fully understand it at the time, I did develop a deep appreciation for the freedom and connectivity that style of community offers - I was never more than a short walk away from a friend’s house or a quick bike ride from a park. In my adulthood, I look back on those experiences and treasure the way I was able to safely explore and engage with my neighborhood.
Experiences like that from my youth sparked a lifelong passion for sustainability, and my undergraduate education focused on political science and environmental studies. Following graduation, I completed a year of service with AmeriCorps (serving with Bike Walk Knoxville) and have been dedicated to improving our built environment ever since!
VZN: Can you share your experience organizing and leading walks with local elected officials? What impact is there on their understanding – or support of – Bike Walk Knoxville’s advocacy goals?
ZS: Tours with elected officials are one of the strongest tools we have to create change on our streets. Through these events, local elected officials walk or bike parts of our community alongside neighbors and other important stakeholders. They experience firsthand the discomfort of being passed too closely by a driver going too fast, or the frustrations of a crosswalk with insufficient pedestrian signal timing. Oftentimes, this helps improve understanding of concepts that may be abstract when presented in a document. For example, the impact of turning radii means nothing to most people, until they’re at an intersection where they have to navigate vehicular traffic that doesn’t slow down or has a hard time even seeing pedestrian activity.
These experiences are paired with discussion. Staff fromBike Walk Knoxville and City Engineering and other valuable stakeholders share context as to why these places feel this way and what we can do to improve them. It gives us an opportunity to explain why, in the intersection example, adding curb bumpouts can slow vehicular traffic and increase safety for pedestrians.
We also celebrate the places in our community where it is joyous to get around and highlight the ways we can create more of these opportunities. This ensures that the event is a positive experience, with a focus on enjoying active transportation and deepening community connections.
Zoe Scott (center) pictured with community members, local officials, and more on a neighborhood walk.
VZN: What advice would you give other advocates who want to organize similar walks in their communities? Are there any strategies that worked particularly well or things you'd avoid?
ZS: Organizing a tour with elected officials starts with exploring your own community and taking note of where you feel comfortable, safe and empowered to get around outside of a car versus where you don’t. Take these experiences and organize a route. It doesn’t need to be long or complicated. Find an easy place for folks to gather to start and end, and plan to walk for a mile or less, stopping along the way to emphasize certain locations, infrastructure or other relevant elements to discuss. From there, pick a date, send out invitations and you’re off to the races!
At the event itself, foreground the lived experiences of folks getting around in your location and back these up with data. For example, if neighbors constantly complain about scarily fast vehicular traffic on a street, give them an opportunity to share these concerns! Then, follow it up by highlighting the aspects of the roadway design that might be encouraging high speeds and conclude with what could be done to slow drivers down and keep neighbors safe and happy!
VZN: What do you see as missed opportunities for better collaboration or engagement between advocates and local transportation agencies?
I love to see local transportation agencies lean on community knowledge. Yes, expert knowledge is important when looking at crash data and safety countermeasures. However, it doesn’t take hiring a contractor to conduct a study to say “Hey, this intersection isn’t safe. If we gave people more time to cross, it would be better!” A neighbor who navigates that intersection every day can do that. Listening to the people who walk, bike and live in these areas provides valuable insight that can be easily transformed into meaningful safety projects with just some conversation, a few bollards and some paint.
VZN: You’ve been involved in organizing events for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims (WDoR). Could you share a any advice for advocates who are new to organizing for World Day of Remembrance?
ZS: Bike Walk Knoxville’s World Day of Remembrance events have been impactful in bringing awareness to the tragedy of traffic violence in our community, as well as giving folks who have lost loved ones in crashes an opportunity to call for needed change on our streets. We hosted our first event in 2023 and are building our efforts each year. At these events, we focus on storytelling - sharing the hard truth about lives lost to crashes that could have been prevented. We humanize the issue, reminding our audience that this is more than just data. These are mothers, fathers, neighbors and friends who deserved to make it to their destination safely. Our community can and must do better.
We also make sure to acknowledge that not everyone can, or wants to, share their story. These experiences are traumatic and painful, and while many folks find fulfillment in advocacy, not everyone will. That’s okay. We are here to raise the voices of those who need a megaphone and be a safe space for anyone seeking solidarity, comfort and shared experience.
If I had to give one piece of advice, it would be to approach these events with a clear ask in mind. Maybe in your community, that’s making the commitment to a Vision Zero goal. Maybe it’s implementing a certain number of quick build improvement projects on dangerous roadways. Maybe it’s something as simple as encouraging people to be thoughtful and intentional when they talk about traffic violence. Regardless of what your ask is, make sure the request is clear and consistent throughout the event!
Learn more about Bike Walk Knoxville’s work and Knoxville’s Vision Zero plan Get involved in World Day of Remembrance (November 16, 2025). You can also stay updated on the latest Vision Zero advocacy news and opportunities by signing up here.