Sign Our Petition And Join Our Demand For Safe Streets For All

Nearly 43,000 people were killed on U.S. roads in 2021, the most since 2005. That’s tens of thousands of lives lost each year to car crashes – crashes that could be prevented, lives that could be saved, if only we took action. If only we designed our roads for slower driving speeds. If only we set our speed limits lower. If only we slowed the cars down. Then we could reduce the harm and injury caused by car crashes.

Why do slower driving speeds matter so much in our fight against traffic fatalities and injuries?

Between 2016 and 2020, 30% of traffic deaths involved speeding. But speeds are not only dangerous when they involve speeding, more than 90% of people biking and walking killed by drivers in the United States are killed by drivers obeying the speed limit on roads with speed limits set faster than the speed limit recommended for mixed traffic by the World Health Organization, which is 20 miles per hour. Put simply, state and local governments are building roads that encourage drivers to go faster than they need to be and it’s costing our lives.

For people hit by a car or truck while biking or walking, the consequences of unsafe speeds are deadly. Lacking the protection of a metal box and airbags a motor vehicle provides, people biking and walking face serious injury or death when hit by drivers going over safe, context-appropriate speeds. Helmets, while very important, are typically only tested for crashes at speeds of less than 20 mph. Slower speeds, and separated infrastructure at higher speeds, is how we reduce the potential force of a crash and increase crash survivability, leading to fewer serious injuries and deaths.

Slowing down is a matter of life and death: the faster our roads, the higher the risks. That’s why you need to sign the Safe Streets for All petition! Help us show how many people are willing to slow down to save lives.

Changing speed limits is just the start. As a first step, lower speed limits can have a broad impact on how we plan for and design our transportation system as a whole. A lower speed limit on a road can be the impetus for new road configurations that fit the lower speed limit.

That’s what we hope to accomplish through this petition – real change in how we use our roads thanks to street designs where people voluntarily drive at safe speeds because the design of the road encourages a “20 mph is plenty” pace.

Designing and signing our roads for slower driving speeds WILL save lives. Too many roads that bisect our communities or cut through our neighborhoods were designed only for cars traveling at faster-than-survivable speeds. Streets feel hostile to people walking to the store, using a wheelchair to access public transit, or biking to school.

Download our toolkit to share the petition far and wide on social media and in your networks! 

Our roads should be more pleasant, comfortable places for people – whether they are driving, biking, walking, using a wheelchair or riding public transit – and they ALL should be able to safely and comfortably get where they need to go. Changing speed limits, changing road design standards, and building separated infrastructure for people outside of cars are the next steps to reclaiming our streets as truly being for everyone.

Please sign our Safe Streets for All petition and together, we’ll take action to save and better lives by designing and signing our roads for slower driving speeds.