What were you searching for the last time you looked up Philly on Google Maps? Likely it was restaurants around you or better commute routes.
To remind you of the frailty of life, and of the need for action on street safety, the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia just released a Google Maps-powered visualization of every traffic casualty recorded this year.
The overall number is striking: there have been 57 traffic-related deaths so far in Philly, of which 27 have been pedestrians.
Seven of those killed were children. Let that number sink in for a second.
https://t.co/DIE9coFkt4 Serves as Philly Traffic Death Database https://t.co/As1GMcJuxS #bikePHL
— Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia (@bcgp) October 19, 2016
But the whole point of this project was to go beyond numbers and raise awareness of Philly’s traffic safety issues. That’s why the site — developed in partnership with D.C.-based dev shop Sononaco — took data from the Philadelphia Police Department and local media outlets to piece together detailed reports on each of casualties.
Consider the case of Jamal Morris, a 27-year-old cyclist who was run over by a motorist near the corner of 55th and Market on April 19. The driver fled the scene, and Morris eventually passed away from the injuries he sustained.
“We developed this website to put a face on the far too many victims of traffic crashes in Philadelphia,” said Sarah Clark Stuart, the Coalition’s executive director, in a press release. “We want the public to be more aware of this epidemic, to urge their leaders to take action, and we hope that in future years, PHLtrafficvictims.org will tell a different story.”
Here’s the map:
[googlemaps https://www.google.com/maps/d/embed?mid=1kgPecTup2NL0tEGAQNzJJb4woL8&w=300&h=150]
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