Henry James and Vision Zero

Leah Shahum

Heather Knight last month on the Slow Streets project:

San Francisco finally has some European-style outdoor plazas, like the shuttered blocks of Valencia Street and some roadways where kids can safely learn how to ride their bikes, skateboarders can do tricks, and families can walk their dogs right up the middle.

Right. Those Europeans are much smarter than we are here in the vulgar United States. 

We often get the same dose of implied anti-Americanism from supporters of California's dumb high-speed rail project. Europeans and the Chinese can do it, why can't we? Proposed answer: Because it's ruinously expensive, and we don't really need it.

I think of Henry James, who wrote about Americans in Europe when I read stuff like this. If he was writing today, Daisy Miller would go to Europe to learn about Vision Zero, like the Bicycle Coalition's Leah Shahum did five years ago: Vision Zero, the MTA, and Leah Shahum's new career.

Vision Zero originated in Sweden, which itself is still a long way from zero traffic fatalities.

Riding a bike is the most dangerous thing children do regardless of where you teach them to do it.