My petition on the White House website asking President Obama to appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman did not get the necessary 100,000 signatures within 30 days. It was archived yesterday.
So now the White House will not have to tell me why they will not do this thing — appoint a Traffic Safety Ombudsman — which could help to end senseless road tragedies.
Traffic Safety Ombudsman Petition calls for a Visible, Vigilant Voice for Vulnerable Road Users (Us)
After posting today on facebook about another terrible truck crash tragedy, this website is getting a lot of views. I wish this were behind us and I didn’t have reason to keep writing and fighting for safer roads. But here I am reminding myself that, yes, a Traffic Safety Ombudsman would be a good thing.
But who will listen? What should I do next? Who will work with me?
I have not heard one word from Washington, D.C., about our 20,000 Vision Zero Petition signatures. That’s a problem. Either they think they are already doing what that Petition requests (with which I would disagree) OR they don’t think that it is important enough to do anything about. That is something which we should all rise up about.
In fact, how I envision it is that the Traffic Safety Ombudsman would be the person to implement the requests of the Vision Zero Petition. Small businesses have a National Ombudsman. Why not do the same for the victims of tragic, preventable traffic crashes?
What are we waiting for?! This would be the perfect complement to our Vision Zero Petition requests for a National Vision Zero Goal, a White House Vision Zero Task Force, and a Vision Zero Executive Order. In fact, the Traffic Safety Ombuds(man) (Advocate) would fit in extremely well with this plan and, now that I think about it, is actually probably the missing piece of the puzzle for making Vision Zero a viable goal:
- The Traffic Safety Ombuds would develop, refine, and monitor the pursuit of a National Vision Zero Goal.
- The Traffic Safety Ombuds would oversee the White House Vision Zero Task Force.
- The Traffic Safety Ombuds would be the watchdog to make sure that the Vision Zero Executive Order and Vision Zero rulemaking were carried out appropriately on behalf of travelers on the road.
Makes sense to me. Because, really, who would be given the responsibility and authority to oversee these things otherwise?!
