User submitted issues on the Allegheny County Vision Zero Planning website

A sad day for Allegheny County pedestrians and bicyclists

Yesterday, we found out about two vulnerable road users who were struck and killed by drivers in Allegheny County.

First, in McKeesport, a driver struck a woman riding her bike on Eden Park Blvd, a county-owned road that includes a popular park, a middle/high school and a Penn State Campus. There is very little information about the crash, but the county police reported that she was “riding erratically.” While we have no proof yet of what happened, reporting about details of a crash during an active investigation, especially when we cannot hear the victim’s side of the story, is not best practices or policy. As of now, she remains unnamed.

Later in the day, we learned of Indipile Shea who was struck and killed on McKnight Rd on her way to a bus stop. McKnight Rd is a notoriously deadly road for vulnerable road users, many of whom depend on public transit to access the jobs and opportunities along the business corridor. There are sections where people need to hop a highway median and cross several lanes of fast moving traffic in order to access a bus stop. Needless to say, the engineers and planners who designed McKnight Rd did not consider anybody outside of a motor vehicle in their work. This was no “accident,” especially when the problem is so well documented.

Both of these fatalities were preventable.

And how the incidents are responded to, everything from post-crash care to police communications to design improvements can follow best practices with better coordinated policy.

These incidents highlight the need for a county-wide Vision Zero policy and program, one of which is currently in the process of being developed.

According to the project website, “Vision Zero is based on the Safe System Approach, which follows several guiding principles to provide a holistic safety approach for all forms of transportation. Vision Zero incorporates proactive, preventative improvements to roadway design and focuses on enhancing safety for all road users.”

You can contribute to this plan by using the interactive tools on the project website.