Decatur cyclist Ben Gerhardstein was hit by a car running a red light in downtown Decatur two weeks ago.  The car was traveling around 30 mph.

“Lucky to survive”, Gerhardstein wrote an opinion piece in yesterday’s AJC detailing the experience and insisting that we – as a society – should accept nothing less than zero traffic fatalities.  Sound like an impossible goal?   Gerhardstein makes an interesting point…

Zero traffic deaths may sound unrealistic. But, consider our approach to air travel. We do not tolerate aviation fatalities and when a plane wreck occurs, we expect government investigations and changes in laws. Further, to ensure aviation safety we accept long security screening lines.

In contrast, when we are behind the wheel, we expect lenient traffic law enforcement and no delays. Too often, the unintended consequence of our lax attitude toward road safety is an injury or death of an unprotected road user.

He goes on to RIGHTLY point out that pedestrians, cyclists and drivers all make mistakes – something I continuously try to bring up in the ongoing DM debates between transport-parties – and goes on to assert that our energies should instead be focused on investing in safe road environments that “account for our human propensity for error.”

Implementing Georgia’s 2010 Bicycle and Pedestrian Safety Action Plan is just one step, according to Gerhardstein, but he’d also like to see reduction of speed limits in “high pedestrian and bicycle areas” and a further separation between bicycles and cars and pedestrians.

Quite a well-reasoned op-ed from a guy who was almost killed by a car a couple weeks ago.

h/t: Lain Shakespeare (via Twitter)