It seems to be tolerated that large machines mow down unarmoured human beings

"In the case of a crash, SUVs and LTVs cause more severe injuries to pedestrians and cyclists than passenger cars. This effect is larger for fatalities than for KSIs, and the fatality effect is particularly large for children... The Injury severity, defined either as ‘fatal versus non-fatal injury’ or as ‘killed or seriously injured (KSI) versus slight injury’. Pedestrians and cyclists are about 44% more likely to be killed when hit by an SUV or light truck (e.g. a van or big ute) compared to a passenger car."
>>
https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/early/2025/04/11/ip-2024-045613

Stop the child murder/ Stop de Kindermoord
"The streets no longer belonged to the people who lived there, but to huge traffic flows... It took the intolerable toll of child traffic deaths – and fierce activism – to turn Amsterdam into the cycling nirvana of today."
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2015/may/05/amsterdam-bicycle-capital-world-transport-cycling-kindermoord
#cars #roads #SUVs #LTVs #pedestrians #cyclists #children #ChildTrafficDeaths #wildlife #RoadTrauma #MobilityDesign #AI

Image: Bellingen cars conquer the few footpaths

The road that will eat the grassland earless dragon's habitat

"The fight for the lizard has recently been drawn into the public's focus as environmentalists express concerns the construction of a new road at Canberra Airport cuts straight through the dragon's habitat."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-08/canberra-earless-grassland-earless-dragon-fight-for-survival/105265240
#biodiversity #reptiles #EndangeredSpecies #extinction #roads #MobilityDesign

Koala! Go fetch our data!

An underweight koala, with several high-tech monitoring devices attached to its body is lost in a bulldozed habitat. It is making way for cars and a highway. The endangered animal had " a collar with a VHF tracker around its neck, a pin stitched between its shoulder blades and a blue tag on its ear."
>>
https://au.news.yahoo.com/koala-wearing-mysterious-devices-on-busy-road-sparks-concern-whats-going-on-062151602.html
#biodiversity #koalas #wildlife #harassment #mobility #roads #cars #telemetry #ethics #science #monitoring #tracking #conservation #MobilityDesign #LogisticsWarehouse #VegetationClearing #machines

Where is the walking and cycling infrastructure ?
Let's redirect funding from roads to walking and cycling infrastructure.

"Australia spends $714 per person on roads every year – but just 90 cents goes to walking, wheeling and cycling. Unfortunately, that’s how much the Australian government has invested per person annually on walking, wheeling and cycling over the past 20 years."

"As a result of this over-investment in car road-building, Australia has the smallest number of walking trips of 15 comparable countries across Western Europe and North America. Many Australians are dependent on cars because they have no other choice in terms of transport options."

"Road use is inherently dangerous – in Australia last year, more than 1,300 people died on our roads, which is more than 25 people a week."

"The typical Australian household spends 17% of its income on transport – with car ownership making up 92.5% of that figure, compared to 7.5% on public transport."

"A major source of all emissions in Australia are from driving."

"Redirecting funding from the current road budget makes the most sense, because getting more people walking, wheeling and cycling eases pressure on the transport system (think of school holiday traffic). "

"When it comes to transport, the saying goes “we get what we build” – so if we build more roads, we get more people driving. If we build paths, we get more people walking and cycling short journeys and our roads are less congested."
>>
https://theconversation.com/australia-spends-714-per-person-on-roads-every-year-but-just-90-cents-goes-to-walking-wheeling-and-cycling-247902

The Australian and NSW governments are funding the $2,200,000,000 ($2.2 billion), 14-kilometre Coffs Harbour bypass project. Cars will save 12 minutes. Imagine the walking and cycling infrastructure...
https://www.pacifichighway.nsw.gov.au/sites/default/files/media/documents/2023/coffs_harbour_bypass_project_update_june_2023.pdf

Australia’s road toll hits 12-year high as pedestrian and cyclist fatalities rise
'Upgrades to nowhere'

"Government figures show 1,300 people died on the roads last year in a rate of increase not seen since the 1960s. Last year’s road toll was 18.5% higher than 2021, when a 10-year plan to halve road deaths was introduced. Pedestrian deaths rose from 156 in 2023 to 167 in 2024, a 7.1% increase, while cyclist deaths jumped from 34 in 2023 to 38 in 2024, an 11.8% increase."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/27/australia-road-toll-2024-1300-deaths-highest-in-more-than-a-decade
#cars #SUVs #roads #RoadToll #pedestrians #cycling #MobilityDesign #safety #failure #FossilFuels

"A cyclist has died after a group of riders and a car collided on Saturday afternoon near Armidale, NSW police said."
or
A cyclist was killed after a driver of a car crashed into a group of cyclists on Saturday afternoon near Armidale, Long Swamp Road, NSW >>
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/dec/14/armidale-nsw-cycling-car-crash-rider-dies-after-collision-with-group-of-riders-ntwnfb
#MobilityDesign #cars #violence #cycling #MSM #language

Koala deaths though road and highway crashes

“There were five koala deaths on this section of the Bruxner Highway in August alone and any protection measure we can take to reduce that toll is worth taking. A section of the highway between Lismore and Casino will have the speed reduced from 100km to 80km in a bid to reduce koala deaths...Members of the public regularly call us about koalas in roadside trees, which causes sleepless nights wondering if they will be the next ones hit that we have to pick up.”

There seems to be a lack of impact data on the 'dispersed' koalas of the 'upgraded' Gleniffer 'Highway' through the industrially logged forests of Bellingen/Gleniffer. The 50s mobility design has achieved its goal, more traffic is speeding now. Meanwhile, photos proliferate of 'koalas in roadside trees'.
>>
https://indynr.com/speed-zone-change-on-bruxner-highway-will-reduce-koala-deaths/
#koalas #wildlife #MobilityDesign #roads #cars #roadkill #DeathHotspots #speed #GlenifferRoad #speeding #BellingenLogging #Bellingen #Gleniffer #conservation #MembersOfThePublic

Urban sprawl is destroying wildlife habitats

The sub-urban package of houses, cars, roads and introduced pets drives Australian native animals out of their habitat. Their homes become eliminated or fragmented by roads which become extinction zones for wildlife. Unleashed cats and dogs maul the remaining homeless survivors.

The absolute priority is given to fossil fuel vehicles to fly from a to b at maximum speed. This entails a mobility design that declares any living body an obstacle on 'their path'. Some of the maimed crash survivors get scraped off the roads by volunteers. In some places wildlife admissions at the vet hospital had risen by 400 per cent in the last decade. It's a mono-cultural housing and infrastructure design where bio-diversity is non-existent in minds and policies.

"More wildlife was being forced into urban areas, leading to collisions with vehicles, attacks by domestic animals, and entanglements in fruit netting. Experts say behavioural changes need to be made and urban sprawl contained to reduce the harm to wildlife."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-24/werribee-zoo-injured-wildlife-urban-sprawl-melb-geelong/104614358
#sprawl #ecocide #cars #crashes #roads #BiodiversityCrisis #wildlife #coexist #extinction #SacrificeZone #harm #MobilityDesign #RescueService #volunteers #SettlerSociety #biodiversity

Massive SUVs/utes and pedestrian safety regulation

"The U.S. government’s road safety agency wants the auto industry to design new vehicles including increasingly large SUVs and pickup trucks so they reduce pedestrian deaths and injuries."

"The rule would cover all passenger vehicles weighing 10,000 pounds or less, but it’s is aimed largely at big SUVs and pickups, which have grown in size and hood height over the years, causing blind spots for drivers."

"NHTSA said pedestrian deaths increased 57% from 2013 to 2022, from 4,779 to 7,522. The agency says the rule would save 67 lives per year. Data show that nearly half of all pedestrian deaths when hit by the front of a vehicle are most common for SUVs and trucks."
>>
https://apnews.com/article/us-pedestrian-safety-rule-suvs-pickup-trucks-8ab66c3416dcb91484ec502d6e114ad1

Utes and SUVs make up entire top 10 in record year of new car sales in Australia
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/jan/04/australia-2023-new-car-sales-record-list-top-utes-suvs-ford-ranger-toyota-hilux
#Cars #SUVs #regulation #pedestrians #FootTraffic #violence #MobilityDesign

Funding for highways outpaces public transit - a ‘climate time bomb’ US/ AU

"Roads, roads and more roads.
The US is continuing to spend billions of dollars on expanding enormous highways rather than fund public transport, with a landmark infrastructure bill lauded by Joe Biden only further accelerating the dominance of cars at the expense, critics say, of communities and the climate."

“Nothing is fundamentally changing in terms of modes of transport. This much money going into highway expansion is, for one, a liability into the future, and two, it just doesn’t work. We’ve been expanding highways for decades on decades, and everyone consistently finds themselves stuck in traffic.”

"The US’s fixation with hulking roads – along with the growth of supersized cars that are responsible for about 40,000 deaths a year in accidents, a toll that has ticked up in recent years – has led to calls for a rethink. This month, around 200 climate, biking and walkability groups called for a national moratorium on highway expansions due to the ills they bring.
The highway system we have built in our country is unsustainable, both financially and environmentally, and disproportionately harms low-income and Black and brown communities,” an open letter from the coalition says."
>>
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/biden-spending-highways-public-transport-climate-crisis
#roads #cars #harm #expansion #HighwayUpgrades #ClimateChange #FossilFuels #MobilityDesign

Road deaths
"Australian road deaths rising to levels not seen in nearly a decade."

"Last year, 1,266 Australians died from road accidents involving at least one car and a driver, passenger, pedestrian or cyclist. The economic cost of Australian road trauma exceeds $27 billion each year. That's 1.8 per cent per cent of Australia's GDP."
"Vision Zero: no loss of life or serious injury on roads is acceptable.">>
https://theconversation.com/can-we-cut-road-deaths-to-zero-by-2050-current-trends-say-no-whats-going-wrong-220289

Car dependency in Australia is unquestioned. The 'road toll' is a sacrifice to private mobility in sprawling sub-urbia. The present 'mobility design' gives people no options to travel on (fossil fuel free) public transport, walk or cycle without fear of being maimed or squashed by a SUV.

The deadly system of automobile dependency

"Speed is still the major reason why people either get killed or seriously injured in crashes. We can't ignore the facts, and we are seeing a significant increase in death rates around the country. The cumulative effect of 100 dead every month, and 100 hospitalised every day — it's an epidemic. A tragic epidemic...Much of the safety focus is on fatalities, more than 60,000 Australians a year survive crashes on the roads. For many, recovery is a lifelong struggle."
>>
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-12-19/after-years-of-decline-australia-road-toll-is-rising-730/103230110

"Data released by the nation’s peak motoring body showed 2023 was the deadliest year on Australia’s roads in five and a half years, with the road death toll reaching 1,253 – the highest since 1,270 people were killed in the 12 months to March 2018....The most common killers on the road were all avoidable: speeding, drug use, drink-driving and inattention."
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2023/dec/20/nsw-crash-deaths-kamilaroi-highway-gunnedah-curlewis

"Road transportation is the most complex and deadly system that people must face on a daily basis.">
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10154805/
#cars #motorists #roads #transportation #speed #crashes #risks #mutilation #denial #RoadToll #sacrifice #IntegralAccident #MobilityDesign

We are reframing ecosystems as infrastructure

"Living landscapes are a form of infrastructure in the sense that forests, for example, clean our water and our air."

"...It is not enough simply to restore natural systems to their former condition. “There is no ‘pure nature’ that’s outside of us, untouched up there in the foothills somewhere...We’ve ‘made’ the world what it is already, so now we need to take a very, very strong hand in the remaking. … A big part of climate adaptation may simply be unbuilding what we’ve already built.”

"A big part of climate adaptation may simply be unbuilding what we’ve already built. Rather than thinking of design as something merely additive or “beautifying,” we need to think about undoing our environmental mistakes, like damming rivers, bulkheading our shorelines, and concretizing streams. We need to start making room for rivers and floods."

"What we are trying to do is integrate many local projects into a larger-scale systemic approach, into a larger-scale resilience plan."
>>
https://e360.yale.edu/features/kate-orff-interview
#extinction #biodiversity #nature #restore #depave #RegenerativeDesign #MobilityDesign #ReFraming #beautification #rivers #floods #NativeForests #transition #resilience #ClimateEmergency