What If We Treated Car Crash Sites Like Disaster Zones? (Kevin Krizek and Tina Duhaime)

What If We Treated Car Crash Sites Like Disaster Zones? (Kevin Krizek and Tina Duhaime)

Author: StreetsblogUSA August 6, 2024 Duration: 22:06

When a fatal car crash happens, authorities act fast to stablize the victims, clear the road, and get traffic moving again like nothing ever happened. But what if, instead, they treated those streets as the site of a catastrophic transportation failure — and took immediate action to prevent the worst from happening again?

On this episode of The Brake, we spoke to Kevin Krizek and Tila Duhaime, who are hoping U.S. cities will try a radical new approach to post-crash response they're calling "Emergency Streets." The idea, in essence, is that transportation officials will act fast to slash local speed limits and to install temporary, modular traffic-calming infrastructure within a half-mile radius of the spot where someone just lost their life, and keep those changes for at least two weeks — or until the community can have a serious conversation about how to make roads safer permanently. And in the process, Krizek and Duhaime hope that cities can not just save lives without more police enforcement, but also change collective attitudes about who's responsible for stopping traffic violence in the first place. 

Listen in, and if you'd like to chat with the advocates about their idea more, reach out at kjkrizek@gmail.com and tilatila2@gmail.com.


You hear a lot about electric cars and futuristic transit, but what about the fundamental shift required to build cities where driving isn't a daily necessity? That's the terrain explored on The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast. Hosted by the team at StreetsblogUSA, this series moves beyond the headlines to engage with the activists, planners, writers, and community members who are actively reimagining American streets. Each conversation digs into the real-world work of dismantling car dependency, examining the policy choices, cultural norms, and historical decisions that got us here. The discussions are grounded in the intersecting categories of society, commentary, culture, and news, offering a nuanced lens on everything from bike lane debates and public transit equity to the subtle ways our built environment shapes daily life. This isn't just a technical talk about infrastructure; it's about the human stories and the political movement fighting for safer, more connected, and less congested communities. Tune in for a podcast that acts as a vital pit stop for understanding the complex, often frustrating, but ultimately hopeful push to take our foot off the gas and build a different future.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 89

The Brake: A Streetsblog Podcast
Podcast Episodes
How a 'Universal Basic Neighborhood' Can Help Americans Live Longer [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 22:24
The idea of providing a "universal basic income" to ensure every U.S. resident can afford the fundamentals is gaining traction with the rise of AI. But even that much-needed money might not guarantee much of a life to pe…
How to Tell the Story of a Highway Teardown (Ian Coss) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 20:59
Highway teardowns are messy, multi-decade projects that spark countless debates and competing narratives — even among livable streets advocates who broadly agree that replacing autocentric infrastructure is a good idea.…
What It Takes To Map Every Sidewalk In Your State (Dr. Anat Caspi) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:43
Washington State is on the brink of completing America's first comprehensive, statewide inventory of every single sidewalk and pedestrian path — and along with it, a collection of tools that make it easy for transportati…
Five 'Supercool' Transportation Founders to Watch in 2026 [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 25:19
How can transportation start-ups help fight climate change, and who are the leaders pushing them forward? We sat down with Josh Dorfman, host of the podcast 'Supercool', to talk about what he's learned from interviewing…
How to Be a Better Transportation Advocate (Carter Lavin) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:59
There's a big difference between knowing what is best of your city's transportation system, and knowing how to fight the often fierce political battles you need to win in order to make it real. Fortunately, one author ha…
Is a 'Life After Cars' Really Possible? (Sarah Goodyear) [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 24:59
What will it take to wake more of the world up to the dangers of mass automobility — and could a book be help Americans imagine a future beyond car dominance? That's what Sarah Goodyear and her co-authors are hoping as t…