It’s one thing when the Mobility Labs, Streetsblogs, and CityLabs of the world complain about drivers so often being held blameless when they hit people on foot and bike.
It’s another when the Columbia Journalism Review tells reporters to stop writing such one-sided rundowns.
There’s a tendency to blame the victim. It’s just one way the media fails to properly cover traffic collisions, according to a new report from MacEwan University.
When nearly 5,000 Americans are killed every year in traffic while walking, and another 800 on bike, it makes you wonder what’s really happening on our streets and how we, as journalists, can better communicate those stories to our readers. The words we choose matter, and so do the ways we examine the actions of drivers, and the infrastructure and policy decisions of our cities and towns.
The report additionally notes:
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