In the US we are nearing four million road deaths since we began counting them in 1899. The numbers are getting worse in recent years, yet we continue to accept these deaths as part of doing business. There has been no examination of why we engineer roads that are literally killing us.
Fixing the carnage on our roadways requires a change in mindset and a dramatic transformation of transportation. This goes for traffic engineers in particular because they are still the ones in charge of our streets.
In
Killed by a Traffic Engineer, civil engineering professor Wes Marshall shines a spotlight on how little science there is behind the way that our streets are engineered, which leaves safety as an afterthought. While traffic engineers are not trying to cause deliberate harm to anyone, he explains, they are guilty of creating a transportation system whose designs remain largely based on plausible, but unproven, conjecture.
Thoroughly researched and compellingly written,
Killed by a Traffic Engineer shows how traffic engineering "research" is outdated and unexamined (at its best) and often steered by an industry and culture considering only how to get from point A to B the fastest way possible, to the detriment of safety, quality of life, equality, and planetary health. Marshall examines our need for speed and how traffic engineers disconnected it from safety, the focus on capacity and how it influences design, blaming human error, relying on faulty data, how liability drives reporting, measuring road safety outcomes, and the education (and reeducation) of traffic engineers.
Killed by a Traffic Engineer is ultimately hopeful about what is possible once we shift our thinking and demand streets engineered for the safety of people, both outside and inside of cars. It will make you look at your city and streets-and traffic engineers- in a new light and inspire you to take action.
在美國，自1899年開始統計以來，我們的道路死亡人數已接近四百萬。近年來，這個數字變得更糟，但我們仍然接受這些死亡作為商業運作的一部分。至今尚未對我們為何設計出實際上在殺死我們的道路進行檢討。
要修復我們道路上的慘劇，需要改變心態並徹底轉變交通運輸系統。這尤其適用於交通工程師，因為他們仍然是我們街道的負責人。
在《被交通工程師殺死》中，土木工程教授Wes Marshall聚焦於我們的街道設計背後科學的缺乏，這使得安全成為事後考量。雖然交通工程師並不是故意要對任何人造成傷害，但他解釋說，他們的確有責任創造一個其設計主要基於合理但未經證實的推測的交通系統。
《被交通工程師殺死》經過徹底研究且引人入勝，展示了交通工程的“研究”是多麼過時且未經檢視（在最佳情況下），而且往往受到一個只考慮如何以最快方式從A點到B點的行業和文化的驅動，這對安全、生活品質、平等和地球健康造成了損害。Marshall檢視了我們對速度的需求，以及交通工程師如何將其與安全脫節，專注於容量及其如何影響設計，將責任歸咎於人為錯誤，依賴錯誤數據，如何影響報告的責任，測量道路安全結果，以及交通工程師的教育（和再教育）。
《被交通工程師殺死》最終對於一旦我們轉變思維並要求為人們的安全（無論是在車外還是車內）設計的街道所能實現的可能性持樂觀態度。這本書將使你以全新的視角看待你的城市和街道，以及交通工程師，並激勵你採取行動。
Wes Marshall, PhD, PE, is professor of Civil Engineering with a joint appointment in Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Colorado Denver. He is also the director of the CU Denver Transportation Research Center and co-director of the Active Communities/Transportation (ACT) research group. He received his Professional Engineering license in 2003 and focuses on transportation teaching and research dedicated to creating a more sustainable and resilient world, particularly in terms of road safety. Having spent time in the private sector, Wes has been working on these issues for more than 25 years. With over 80 peer-reviewed publications, Wes was also the winner of the Campus-wide University of Colorado Denver Outstanding Faculty in Research Award.
韋斯·馬歇爾（Wes Marshall），博士，專業工程師（PE），是科羅拉多大學丹佛分校土木工程系的教授，並兼任城市與區域規劃系的職位。他也是科羅拉多大學丹佛分校交通研究中心的主任，以及活躍社區/交通（Active Communities/Transportation, ACT）研究小組的共同主任。他於2003年獲得專業工程師執照，專注於交通教學和研究，致力於創造一個更可持續和更具韌性的世界，特別是在道路安全方面。韋斯在私營部門工作過，已經在這些問題上工作了超過25年。擁有超過80篇經過同行評審的出版物，韋斯還獲得了科羅拉多大學丹佛分校校園範圍內的傑出研究教職員獎。
