Foolish Highways: dangerous for pedestrians & drivers alike

What’s going on here? Why do we accept the carnage on our roads as a fact of life?

It’s hard to imagine anything more tragic than a 64-year-old woman being struck and killed in a crosswalk on Elliot Avenue by a teen driver, but then just weeks later a young woman and her three young children were struck crossing Stony Point Road, resulting in the death of her 4-month-old child. The young woman and her two other children, 3 years old and almost 2 years old, remain in serious condition. Many were understandably horrified and heartbroken by such tragedies, and Charlottesville City Council got an earful at both their October 7 and November 4 meetings.

Belmont resident Chelsea Braun, an associate professor of medicine at UVA, called it a “public health issue” at the November meeting.

“I used to bike commute to work,” Braun said. But then her husband was hit on his bicycle in a crosswalk. “It became too stressful and too dangerous for me to ri…