Two Minnesota Cities May have Road Safety Ideas

It is always great when education and innovation help in making people safer on the road. That is one of the main topics here at the Injuryboard, as all of us have made suggestions on how to make the roads safer. Sometimes, it is tragedies that teach the most heartfelt lessons. Other times, it's looking at the places that safety seems to be working.

Men's Health reported that St Paul has the safest drivers in the country.

The magazine looked at accidents related to speeding, alcohol or hit-and-runs in the country's 100 largest cities. (Other factors included in the ranking were seat belt use and laws restricting talking or texting while driving.)

St. Paul was the only city to grab an A-plus rating, besting Lincoln, Neb. and Boston, which received A-minuses. Minneapolis drivers, apparently overconfident on its easier-to-navigate streets, barely cracked the Top 20

The question is what can we learn from this information?

-The city was proactive in calming traffic

– The Paint the Pavement program was created where volunteers paint murals on some streets in residential neighborhoods.

-A median on busy Snelling Avenue.

Another Minnesota city showing positive signs is Coon Rapids. They reported a decline of 422 accidents in 2011. (From 2,008 accidents in 2010 to 1,586 in 2011)

Again, we have to ask why?

The suggestions are:

– Educate more drivers to leave their cars at the bar if they have been drinking.

– Increased law enforcement.

– Writing more tickets for speeding.

Anytime we see dramatic drops in accidents, we need to make sure we look at the reasons. It would be great to see neighboring cities seeing the same type of decrees.