Bike and pedestrian danger: How the media, language, and poor policy shift blame and make accidents more likely

<p><a href="https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/shapiro">Stuart Shapiro</a> welcomes Assistant Professor <a href="https://bloustein.rutgers.edu/ralph">Kelcie Ralph</a> from Bloustein's highly ranked Urban Planning Program to this week's EJB Talks to discuss her research on pedestrian and bike safety. Professor Ralph reveals that her personal experience traveling--sans automobile--made her determined to focus on safety in her research. She discusses how the use of certain language, and the shift to victim-blaming by the media when reporting crashes, changes the dynamic from a public health issue to a personal issue. Professor Ralph also explains the origins of the language the media uses in reporting bike/ped accidents, how simple but changeable safety aspects such as speed limits are developed, and how some localities have made positive policy changes to improve safety.</p> --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/ejbtalks/message