The Pedestrian Safety Crisis in America

Location: King Liberty Center

Chinatown, 99 N. King Street, at the corner of Maunakea Street

About this event:

Traffic crashes have long been a leading American killer, but during the pandemic and post-pandemic years we’ve seen an alarming increase in deaths and injuries.

More than 7,000 pedestrians are getting killed every year on American streets, representing an enormous 70 percent increase since 2011. In Hawaii, 94 people died in traffic crashes last year, 30 of which were pedestrians and cyclists.

Due to their frequency, traffic crashes have traditionally treated as low-stakes and routine in media reporting.

Increasingly, however, these incidents are being seen as part of a public health crisis, and one that has disproportionate impact on disadvantaged groups. This seminar will help media professionals learn to frame traffic deaths and injuries sensitively, identify the structural causes and produce compelling reporting with an eye toward actionable solutions.

Angie Schmitt, the author of the new book Right of Way: Race, Class and the Silent Crisis of Pedestrian Deaths in America will talk about the social trends that are putting people at risk. And why fundamentally, it is a problem of systematic, structural inequality. Angie is a writer with a background in planning and newspaper reporting. She was the long-time national editor at Streetsblog and her writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic, Bicycling, GOOD, Landscape Architecture Magazine, and a number of other publications.

Participants will learn:

-How to write talking points that avoid harmful terms or conventions

-The profile of a typical victim and how it can produce narrative imbalance

-How to tie individual incidents to local and national trends and patterns

-How to use and write holding statements that avoid premature assignation of blame

To support our efforts to promote clean transportation choices, we encourage our meeting guests to walk, bus (The Bus), bike (biki information) and roll. Parking is available at the Blaisdell Center for a fee.

Parking:

Municipal Public Parking in the Marin Tower, enter on Smith Street from Nimitz

Municipal Public Parking in Kekaulike Courtyards, enter on Maunakea Street

Agenda:

5:30 p.m. Arrival and light refreshments

6:15 p.m. Angie Schmitt, author

7:30 p.m. Pau

Please make 30 tickets available. (each org will get 30 tickets each).

Cost:

$20 Non-member

$15 Member

$10 Students

Ticket sales from the event will go to benefit Hawaii Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

Host or Publisher SPJ- Hawaii