num_pages: 248
description: The face of the pedestrian safety crisis looks a lot like Ignacio Duarte-Rodriguez. The 77-year old grandfather was struck in a hit-and-run crash while trying to cross a high-speed six-lane road without crosswalks near his sons home in Phoenix Arizona. He was one of the more than 6000 people killed while walking in America in 2018. In the last ten years there has been a 50 percent increase in pedestrian deaths.The tragedy of traffic violence has barely registered with the media and wider culture. Disproportionately the victims are like Duarte-Rodriguezimmigrants the poor and people of color. They have largely been blamed and forgotten.In Right of Way  journalist Angie Schmitt shows us that deaths like Duarte-Rodriguezs are not unavoidable accidents. They dont happen because of jaywalking or distracted walking. They are predictable occurring in stark geographic patterns that tell a story about systemic inequality. These deaths are the forgotten faces of an increasingly urgent public-health crisis that we have the tools but not the will to solve. Schmitt examines the possible causes of the increase in pedestrian deaths as well as programs and movements that are beginning to respond to the epidemic. Her investigation unveils why pedestrians are dyingand she demands action . Right of Way is a call to reframe the problem acknowledge the role of racism and classism in the public response to these deaths and energize advocacy around road safety. Ultimately Schmitt argues that we need improvements in infrastructure and changes to policy to save lives.Right of Way unveils a crisis that is rooted in both inequality and the undeterred reign of the automobile in our cities. It challenges us to imagine and demand safer and more equitable cities where no one is expendable.
language: English
title: Right of Way: Race, Class, and the Silent Epidemic of Pedestrian Deaths in America
publisher: Island Press