I imagine a lot of safe streets advocates around the country feel shaken in the wake of two safe mobility champions recently hit and killed within weeks of each other. In two different cities, each was doing the thing that they had committed their professional lives to – working to improve safe everyday mobility for people – when their own lives were cut short in preventable crashes.
Honoring Louisa Gag, Boston Safe Streets Champion:
Photo of Louisa Gag, courtesy of Livable Streets Alliance
On July 9th, Louisa Gag was biking in Boston, where she has worked wholeheartedly to improve the safety of people walking, biking, riding transit and driving. She was hit and killed by a driver of a truck. She was 36 years old.
I was fortunate enough to know Louisa during her time shaping policy and leading Vision Zero work as a staff member of the nonprofit LivableStreets Alliance. I have distinct memories of witnessing her passion, energy, commitment – and her smile. She partnered with our organization in 2017 to develop these Guidelines for an Effective Vision Zero Action Plan. I’m grateful to Louisa for this important work, which has influenced so many communities across the country. More recently, Louisa had worked as a planner with the City of Boston’s Transportation Department.
I encourage people to learn more about Louisa’s life and work in this LivableStreets Alliance piece and this Streetsblog USA article.
Honoring Riley O’Neil, Chicago Safe Streets Champion:
Photo of Riley O’Neil, courtesy of Chicago Dept. of Transportation
Just a few weeks earlier, on June 5th, Riley O’Neil, a planner with the Chicago Department of Transportation, was killed while biking in the city where he worked every day to advance safe streets for people in his community. We understand that Riley was swerving to avoid a car door opened in his path of travel, sending him under a truck.
Riley led Chicago’s bike parking program and helped with school zone safety work and bus priority projects, among other things. He is described as someone who “cared deeply about making biking, rolling, walking, and riding better for everyone.” He was 35 years old.
I encourage people to learn more about Riley’s life and work and his love for bikes, transit, and public service in this Streetsblog Chicago article and this NACTO remembrance.
Honoring Kemberli Sargent, Atlanta Safe Streets Champion:
Kemberli Sargent, Atlanta’s first Vision Zero Manager, was hit and killed in 2021 while crossing the street on foot at a transportation planning conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
And I recall the recent loss of another person who dedicated her professional life to safe streets. In 2021, Kemberli Sargent, the City of Atlanta’s first Vision Zero Manager, was hit and killed while at a transportation planning conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The driver was under the influence when she hit Kemberli, who was crossing the street on foot with others. Kemberli was 33 years old.
Kemberli was known for bringing passion to her transportation safety work, and she was highly respected for her leadership of Vision Zero in Atlanta. Before working for the City, she focused on safety at PEDS, an Atlanta-based nonprofit that later merged with the Atlanta Bicycle Coalition to create Propel ATL.
I encourage people to learn more about Kemberli’s life and work in this Propel ATL article and this Saporta Report
What Next?
On behalf of Vision Zero Network, our hearts go out to the family, friends and colleagues of Louisa, Riley and Kemberli.
And we commit to work for change – to push unabashedly for the positive, life-saving changes that Louisa, Riley, and Kemberli all worked for in their communities.
To local elected leaders and other policymakers, I say: Step up! The most important responsibility you have is to prioritize the public safety of the people you serve. Traffic crashes such as the ones that ended the lives of Louisa, Riley, and Kemberli are preventable and a leading cause of death in your communities.
How to prevent fatal and severe injury crashes is not a mystery. And it is absolutely within the pay grades of our electeds. It is their responsibility to empower those who report to them to choose safety over speed when they design (or redesign) roads and set speed limits and outfit fleet vehicles; when they prioritize how to spend public funds; when they set policies and designate space for safe, healthy, equitable use of public space; and all types of decisionmaking that involve life and death. And where they do not have direct control – for example, on the outsized dangers of state-owned roads and the deadly super-sizing of motor vehicles – use your bully pulpit and influence to fight for change at state and federal levels.
Kudos to the leaders (and advocates) showing what progress looks like on their streets. They remind us that we do know what works to prioritize safety over speed. But even this work remains too slow and fragmented. The key to advancing Vision Zero lies in scaling up what works with greater speed and breadth across communities – even in the face of those who resist change.
As one advocate shared after the recent tragedies in Chicago and Boston: “Safety continues to be up for debate when it comes to roadway design. Instead of the best practice design being the floor, time and again strong design proposals get watered down due to 'community concerns' over parking impacts or concerns about congestion. You know the familiar litany.”
We call on leaders to flip this script by investing in projects, policies, funding and robust staffing to prioritize safety over speed. Step into the power you hold to prevent more tragedies on our streets.
To safe streets champions in advocacy organizations, public agencies, and working independently: Thank you for what you do. We need your continued leadership too.
Let’s support each other in advocating more strongly, passionately and persuasively in honor of Louisa, Riley, and Kemberli – and more than 100 people killed daily in preventable crashes in this country. We owe it to them to continue to call out failed leadership at every level when we see it (including this frustrating example) and help people recognize that we have the power and potential to change the status quo. Let’s work for the future that these safety champions worked for, which we know is possible, and which we all deserve.