Note: This transcript was exported from the video version of this episode, and it has not been copyedited

00:00:00:13 - 00:00:28:00
Patty Avery
And I just wanted to say, you know, I lived outside the country for 15 years. I spent five years in the Netherlands, so I experienced the ability to get anywhere. I needed to go on public transportation. Lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Okay, not ideal public transportation, but I never owned a car there. As soon as I came back to the U.S., I moved to a community where I have no options but to use a vehicle.

00:00:28:02 - 00:00:37:00
Patty Avery
So we know it's possible. But helping reframe the conversation is the challenge.

00:00:37:02 - 00:01:03:14
Amy Cohen
You know, just very similar to that. You know, it is the reason that any kind of road design change that impacts the amount of parking spaces on a street gets so much pushback because people feel like they have no other option. And so a key piece of it is investing in transportation, supporting and advocating for those investments. You know, a lot of our members push for what's called daylighting at intersections in San Diego.

00:01:03:17 - 00:01:18:11
Amy Cohen
They had a big campaign called the affordable named the Fatal 15. They looked at the fifth. The data showed the 15 most deadly intersections in San Diego. And they advocated that the city council, you know, provide funding and commit to fixing them.

00:01:18:14 - 00:01:44:20
John Simmerman
Hey, everyone, welcome to the Active Towns Channel. My name is John Simmerman, and that is Amy Cohen and Patty Avery from the organization families for Safe Streets. And we're going to be talking about their volunteer movement to try to create safer streets for everyone, all ages and abilities, regardless of mode. But before we dive into all of that, I just wanted to say, if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an Active Towns Ambassador.

00:01:44:21 - 00:02:04:03
John Simmerman
Super easy to do. Just click on the join button here on YouTube or navigate over to Active towns.org. Click on the support tab at the top of the page, and there's several different options, including becoming a Patreon supporter. Okay, let's get right to it with Amy and Patty.

00:02:04:06 - 00:02:08:02
John Simmerman
Amy and Patty, thank you so much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast.

00:02:08:04 - 00:02:13:10
Amy Cohen
I'm Amy Cohen. I am the founder and president of families for Safe Streets.

00:02:13:13 - 00:02:20:06
Patty Avery
I'm Patty and I'm Patty Avery. I'm a volunteer with families through Safe Streets. I co-chair our policy and advocacy committee.

00:02:20:12 - 00:02:40:01
Amy Cohen
Patty and I would like to share a little bit about how we became members. I mean, at is the club. Nobody should ever have to die. And we all lost a family member or suffered a serious injury in a traffic crash. And I lost my 12 year old son. You can see a picture of me on our on the slide.

00:02:40:04 - 00:02:58:12
Amy Cohen
You know, he was in eighth grade. He was smart. He was street savvy. He knew how to get around New York. He was top of his class. He had come home from school and taken a little extra time to study, because he wanted to get into the specialized high school in New York, and he had to take a specialized test.

00:02:58:15 - 00:03:22:02
Amy Cohen
And then he went out to go to soccer practice for his captain of his team, just trying to cross the street in front of our apartment building. And it shouldn't be a deadly act. Right after he died, I had so much pain and I had to go somewhere. I started speaking out. I joined with others and we started families for Safe Streets in New York City, and it has now grown into a national movement.

00:03:22:02 - 00:03:29:07
Amy Cohen
I'll share more about that. But, as we have expanded, we've brought in members from across the country like Patty.

00:03:29:10 - 00:03:31:00
John Simmerman
Right, right.

00:03:31:02 - 00:03:32:03
Patty Avery
And,

00:03:32:05 - 00:03:33:29
John Simmerman
Yeah. Go ahead. Patty. Sure.

00:03:33:29 - 00:03:57:12
Patty Avery
And I'd love to introduce you to Bethany. And I thought the best way to introduce you to my daughter, Bethany Sklar, was to let her introduce herself, read with pictures that she posted on Facebook and Instagram. Bethany was 37 when she was killed by a speeding driver in Chattanooga, Tennessee. You can see in the bottom corner as she was a runner, that is her celebrating a ten mile run.

00:03:57:15 - 00:04:34:26
Patty Avery
And she said, am I ready for my, half marathon? No, but I'm doing it anyway, right? She was a dancer. She was a teacher. And, had most of all a two year old son that she adored. And less than a month before she was killed, she posted that end of year wrap up on, on Instagram saying, well, I guess it looks like the best of my year included dancing, becoming Jewish, making her classroom, where they had flexible seating and just and oh, and chopping off her hair.

00:04:35:02 - 00:04:41:28
Patty Avery
That was how she summed up what what she didn't know was the last year of her life.

00:04:42:00 - 00:04:43:29
John Simmerman
Right? Right. Wow.

00:04:44:01 - 00:04:45:11
Patty Avery
That is my Bethany.

00:04:45:13 - 00:05:18:27
John Simmerman
That is your Bethany. Yeah. And I'm smiling because, I can certainly relate to a lot of her, experiences that she's, you know, stating here as a lifelong runner and somebody who's, who's been out there, you know, having those events that you're training for and you're out there, and, and it it is interesting, too, because, you know, in both of your stories, it shouldn't be that hazardous to step outside of the door and be in awe built environment.

00:05:18:29 - 00:05:47:03
John Simmerman
You may have already noticed my my mud. This is streets are for people. It's like our streets, you know, have been around for thousands of years ever since we've had habitat and come together in village and in villages and places and towns and cities and the really the introduction of the automobile. I think I saw the very first death, by automobile was back in the late 1800s.

00:05:47:05 - 00:06:01:18
John Simmerman
And it shouldn't be the situation that our, our public realm, our largest public realm, our streets are so hazardous and dangerous. Amy, in your situation with your son, what year was that?

00:06:01:21 - 00:06:03:22
Amy Cohen
That was October 8th, 2000.

00:06:03:22 - 00:06:04:17
Patty Avery
And 13.

00:06:04:23 - 00:06:07:17
John Simmerman
2003. And yeah.

00:06:07:19 - 00:06:28:06
Amy Cohen
And, you know, it's it's 11 years and every day is still hard. Yeah. We share our stories to fight for change because we don't want anyone else to be in our shoes. And I will share. You know, like Bethany, my son was really determined and athletic. Just a few weeks before he died, he wrote, 100 mile Century ride.

00:06:28:08 - 00:06:48:07
Amy Cohen
He was the youngest person to complete the ride at mile 75. He was like, fairly sprawled out. And my husband called and said, oh, I think we're coming home a little early. You know, he heard that and he said, are you kidding? I am not a quitter. And, you know, one of our core values and families for safe streets is, is determination.

00:06:48:07 - 00:06:52:20
Amy Cohen
We don't give up. We persevere. And I do that by channeling my son.

00:06:52:23 - 00:06:57:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. And Patty, in your case, with Bethany, what year was that?

00:06:57:24 - 00:07:16:02
Patty Avery
It was 2019. The beginning of 2019. It was MLK day she was training for. She had gotten into the Chicago Marathon, and she was going out to driving to her favorite running spot to prep to run a half in Chicago that weekend.

00:07:16:05 - 00:07:38:11
John Simmerman
Yeah, I used to live right there on, the lakefront and the Chicago Marathon sandwiched, where my apartment was. It went on both sides. And so I would go out and cheer. I didn't run that particular marathon. I ran a couple other marathons in that area, during that era. That was in 1995 when I lived there.

00:07:38:13 - 00:08:02:16
John Simmerman
And one of the things that I talk about a lot and what really prompted my being able to or really prompted me to establish active towns and my nonprofit, advocates for Healthy Communities, was, across my 35 year career in this arena, I've been encouraging people to try to get outside, get out their door, and live a healthy, active lifestyle.

00:08:02:19 - 00:08:27:25
John Simmerman
But what we kept hearing back, and what some of my board members, you know, would hear back like, Doctor Eddie Herd, who's a pediatrician on my board of directors, he would prescribe exercise. He would prescribe activity for the children that were, showing signs of, unfitness and and putting on too much weight and encouraging families to be able to get out and get some activity in sport.

00:08:27:28 - 00:08:56:15
John Simmerman
And yet, part of the reason why in the what we would hear back is but it's not safe out there, our environment has become so hostile with really ceding over that space to the automobile. And you're right, Amy, you mentioned it in your very, very beginning. This is a club that no one should want to be a part of, but you all have taken it upon yourself to, establish families for safe streets.

00:08:56:15 - 00:09:03:11
John Simmerman
Amy, walk us through about the organization. What are your what's your mission? What are you trying to accomplish here?

00:09:03:13 - 00:09:30:07
Amy Cohen
Sure. Well, our mission is to confront the preventable epidemic of traffic violence through advocacy and support. And I actually, we chose that word confront very intentionally. There is so much complacency about this crisis. And I'll walk you through and show you some examples about how we do that and why we use that word confront. Because, you know, the, the, the things that people have been doing in their communities for so long were not working.

00:09:30:07 - 00:09:56:14
Amy Cohen
Right. People are trying to follow the, you know, advocate for the safe systems approach of safe speeds. Designing our roadways in a way that is safe, making our vehicles safer, safer, focusing on those who are most vulnerable, people who are walking and biking. Because if you make it safe for them, we make it safe for everyone. And you know, a key piece of our our work also is to make sure that after this happens, no one suffers alone.

00:09:56:14 - 00:10:21:10
Amy Cohen
So we do have a two part mission of fighting for change, but also supporting those who are personally impacted. We provide a lot of support services and I can share more about that later, but we do also focus on making it safe. As I said, for people who are walking on their bike, driving and passengers, you know, this movement is about eliminating all traffic deaths and achieving vision Zero.

00:10:21:12 - 00:10:28:20
Amy Cohen
And all of our members are like Patty and me. We've all lost somebody and we share our stories to fight for change.

00:10:28:23 - 00:10:42:12
John Simmerman
Can you expand upon I'm glad you spent it upon the using the terminology confront. Can you also address the the terminology that you've chosen to use of traffic violence?

00:10:42:15 - 00:11:07:03
Amy Cohen
Sure. I mean, you know, the term most people use are accidents. And if you pull up, I have a slide that shows how poorly the United States compares to nearly every other high income nation. You know, we we are, you know, five times as deadly as most of Europe. Yeah, Australia, you know, two and a half times as Canada.

00:11:07:06 - 00:11:34:02
Amy Cohen
And I think this slide in and of itself shows that there are solutions out there. We are just not our leaders are not putting them in place. And every change is taking way too long. You know, during the pandemic, traffic deaths soared in the United States and people thought that that was the norm around the world. All these other countries that are safer have put in place systematic changes around speed limits and roadway design, and vehicles.

00:11:34:02 - 00:12:00:06
Amy Cohen
We are, you know, decades behind many of these places. And as a result, we then have that stopgap measure for people who had all that pent up energy. We had big open roads with high speed limits, giant cars, SUVs and pickup trucks with none of that technology to, you know, prevent reckless driving. And as a result, our our traffic has soared during the pandemic and that was not the norm anywhere else.

00:12:00:09 - 00:12:21:08
Amy Cohen
So as we do these work, I, you know, we are very intentional that we don't just, you know, ask for changes. We really think about how are we going to bring about this? Let us legislative and policy change and what are the techniques that we're going to use to make sure it happens? You know, we love this quote from Elizabeth Dole, right?

00:12:21:08 - 00:12:46:20
Amy Cohen
That the best public policy is made when you're listening to people like us. Right. Who's paid the highest price for society's failure to act? You know that when we share our stories, we're very effective. And we do that to kind of put up some of the other pictures, you know, very intentionally. A little more about FSS. We do have 20 chapters and 1200 members in our network across the country.

00:12:46:23 - 00:13:13:11
Amy Cohen
As I said, we started in New York City, but we've really expanded, and have members from every state. And we provide the support. We fight for change and we share our stories. We have a community story map where people can go online and share their story, and then we elevate those voices. If and when people are ready to meet with legislators to engage in different activities.

00:13:13:14 - 00:13:26:05
Amy Cohen
But we're, you know, very, sharing their stories also on social media and other outlets. Because giving a face to the crisis really helps reframe the discussion.

00:13:26:07 - 00:13:49:28
John Simmerman
Right? Yeah. And and I think that's a that's an important part. Now, I, I would assume that story map is all out on your website. Is that correct? Fantastic. And, I do want to navigate over to the website so that we can, also direct people to that URL and, and be able to see that they can learn more about families for safe streets out here.

00:13:49:28 - 00:14:14:13
John Simmerman
Again, it's families for safe streets.org. And once you're there then you can navigate to information about the program, about the initiatives, the campaigns that you're working on. And we're going to dive into, some of the campaigns in a little bit. This morning, we'll be talking about in a little bit. But you'll also be able to access the those stories.

00:14:14:15 - 00:14:16:12
John Simmerman
That that is fantastic.

00:14:16:12 - 00:14:38:05
Amy Cohen
All right. Yeah, we have a lot of we've had press reach out for us saying we're doing a story on this issue. And I see you have people in our, you know, in our community. Can you put me in touch with them? So it's a really valuable tool to showcase the scale of the crisis, to memorialize those who are lost, but also to connect people to legislators.

00:14:38:07 - 00:15:06:01
Amy Cohen
And here you can see about our support services. We do offer a range of things because as Patty and I know all too well, this is, unimaginable, a painful experience. It can be very, very isolating. And it's really helpful to connect with others to know you are not alone. You know, just a week or two after Sammy died, a friend of a friend said, oh, I know somebody just two days before Sammy died who lost their three year old daughter.

00:15:06:01 - 00:15:31:00
Amy Cohen
Would you like to meet them? And, you know, that family is one of the founding members with me of families for Safe Streets, but I can't tell you how valuable it was to connect with others. So we offer, monthly support, community gatherings. We match people up who've had a loss or injury similar so that they can lean on somebody else, somebody who's farther along with somebody who's recently had a crash.

00:15:31:03 - 00:15:42:00
Amy Cohen
We provide logistical assistance, you know, and more can be such a nightmare afterwards to had after that navigate all those, you know, insurance place. And we're just a resource for that.

00:15:42:02 - 00:16:06:04
John Simmerman
Right. So a resource but you're also working on policy. Let's talk a little bit about the tactics that you employ in moving forward and working on change. Because that's what we're here for. We're here to try to, change the narrative, change the dialog, but also, more importantly, get some change.

00:16:06:07 - 00:16:27:25
Amy Cohen
Yeah. So we we engage in a variety of things, right? We go to public hearings and meetings and share our stories and our and our photos, and we're very visible. And, you know, this is an example, the previous slide was an example of a community hearing where literally we were just trying to have a complete street implemented and one of York's most dangerous streets.

00:16:27:25 - 00:16:48:00
Amy Cohen
And there was a lot of pushback. People were like, oh, you're going to take them out. My parking spot on the corner, right? And, you know, we would hold up our photos and be like, I'm sorry. My son's life was worse, a parking spot, a slight inconvenience. If there had been no parking at the corner when Sammy was crossing that street, he might still be here.

00:16:48:02 - 00:16:49:09
Amy Cohen
And so if we.

00:16:49:12 - 00:17:19:09
John Simmerman
If we pass on that for just one second, I mean, we laugh in frustration and exasperation on this because it when we say it out loud, it just sounds so incredibly silly. You know, a price is more important than a life. What? Yeah. It's just it's all is ludicrous that it has evolved into this situation where, in Professor Ian Walker calls it mode of normativity.

00:17:19:11 - 00:17:44:05
John Simmerman
It's like the brain has been so shaped in our society. Yes. And I use that plural, because this is happening globally is that we think that it's so normal that, yes, we drive everywhere for everything. And thus we need to cater to the convenience of drivers at all times, including the storage of our private property out in the public realm.

00:17:44:07 - 00:17:53:14
John Simmerman
This is it's really, really sad at the same time. And that's why it's it's both hilariously ludicrous and and sad at the same time.

00:17:53:16 - 00:18:15:01
Amy Cohen
And you know what? What's showing up like this did was really change the narrative. So there were a lot of community advocates with our, you know, parent organization, Transportation Alternatives, who'd been going to meetings like that. And and it wasn't until we showed up and really changed the conversation. So in addition to going to community meetings and hearings, we held vigils and public rallies.

00:18:15:03 - 00:18:33:13
Amy Cohen
We try to be very visible and have things that really show the scale of the crisis. You know, behind all these people, it's kind of hard to see in the picture. We probably had 50 FSS members with the photos of their loved ones. We were really trying to feature here. You know, the scale of people who are injured in this crisis.

00:18:33:13 - 00:19:01:08
Amy Cohen
We have members and families for safe streets who've lost limbs, who have traumatic brain injuries and are never able to work again, who are hospitalized for months and suffer from PTSD. And and yet they'll come and people will be like, oh, you're so lucky to be alive. I'm sorry. That's not how I define lucky. So this was a particular event where we're trying to show the scale of people who are injured in New York City, for example.

00:19:01:10 - 00:19:21:26
John Simmerman
I think that this is really important, too, if you wouldn't mind me just, interjecting here is that oftentimes fatalities is what gets the majority of the attention and probably rightly so. But the fact that there are also, you know, okay, so what are we talking about? We're talking about 40,000 plus fatalities out on our roadways, these days.

00:19:21:27 - 00:19:45:17
John Simmerman
Okay. It's it's risen back up to that level. And I say back up to that level is because we we used to be killing about 40,000, people, decades ago. And then it came down and then it's going back up again. But what's not is often talked about is the fact that there's millions of serious, life altering injuries that are also taking place in these crashes.

00:19:45:19 - 00:20:12:21
John Simmerman
And I love the verbiage that you're using here, is that 23,463 injuries so far is not an accident. And again, using that terminology in that language very intentionally, that these are not accidents. These are predict optimal outcomes in in NZ. Smith talks about this in her book as well is that this is something that is not an accident.

00:20:12:21 - 00:20:19:13
John Simmerman
This is something that is predictable and understandable. And we can change this.

00:20:19:15 - 00:20:44:29
Amy Cohen
Exactly. Right. And that's why we, you know, we do the usual things that people do, like have meetings and such, but we really go out in the street. We try to get media attention to the scale of this crisis and put pressure on our elected, who are very intentional on where we might have an event. You know, if there's a particular elected who is holding up a bill, you know, will go out to his community, we'll build partnerships.

00:20:44:29 - 00:20:59:12
Amy Cohen
This is an event we had in Queens because we were fighting for a bill actually named after my son, or that would give New York City control over its speed limit. And there was one legislator who was holding it up. And so we went out to that community, had a big march, and we have a video of it as well.

00:20:59:12 - 00:21:18:03
Amy Cohen
So at some point, if you want to show that, but you can see the bottom half of this flier where all the people who all the organizations and elected officials that signed on trying to give a message that this is not just families for safe streets and family members who are fighting for this, but really trying to push that.

00:21:18:05 - 00:21:23:25
Amy Cohen
You know, these for all the people in your community who may or may not vote for you. So we need you to get on board.

00:21:23:28 - 00:21:38:17
John Simmerman
Right. All right. And speaking of the video, let's go ahead and, play one of those videos here. We may not play the entire video, but, I think it's important to give a little bit of a voice here to the folks.

00:21:38:19 - 00:22:06:06
Video Clip Audio
Here in my squad. Evening, everyone. I want to give thanks to God Almighty for bringing us together. This is necessary. This is needed. This is critical. I want to thank my senator, all elected officials who are here today, those who have come and have left and those who would not be here, who are standing with us for a long, long time.

00:22:06:06 - 00:22:34:05
Video Clip Audio
And then morning, I lost my 21 Year-Old daughter to Nicole, standing on the sidewalk because of a reckless driver. Our elected officials need to stand with us and to stand with their colleagues who are standing with us to have our streets safer. We should not be here. Our children's lives have been cut short. Likewise, our lives, our future, our families are devastated.

00:22:34:07 - 00:23:03:06
Video Clip Audio
This is the worst position to be in, and I'm asking for each and every one, those who can, to reach out, get to connect to the freezers we need. Sandy's lights will be signed by everyone. It needs to be passed now. We need safe streets. Slash streets for everyone. Our children are parents or grandparents are aunts. Uncles, families should not be in the shoes that I am in.

00:23:03:09 - 00:23:06:26
John Simmerman
Yes. Powerful. Powerful.

00:23:06:28 - 00:23:29:19
Amy Cohen
Yeah. And we went from there too. I have a photo of it. You know, we did a march from from site to site of where three children nearby had been killed. And you know, that that event got a huge amount of press, and the reluctant legislator ultimately came around and the law was passed a month later.

00:23:29:21 - 00:23:32:13
John Simmerman
Wow. Excellent, excellent.

00:23:32:15 - 00:23:42:29
Amy Cohen
I have some other, you know, not just for this bill, but for events even in New York and across the country. I have a few other examples of things that we do. If you want to pull those back up.

00:23:43:01 - 00:23:45:24
John Simmerman
Yeah, let's let's pop on over here.

00:23:45:24 - 00:24:07:29
Amy Cohen
You know, just a couple a quick, you know, meeting with an elected official. Well, you know, we do go up to two state capitals across the country for lobby days, hold rallies at those state capitals, you know, with family members. This one we brought, a busload of schoolchildren. They had lost a student at that school.

00:24:08:02 - 00:24:17:10
Amy Cohen
They came up. It was really very moving. But, you know, having this many people in the state capitol sharing stories can be very, very impactful, right?

00:24:17:10 - 00:24:18:28
John Simmerman
Right. Yeah, absolutely.

00:24:18:28 - 00:24:45:26
Amy Cohen
And I have a a couple more when it gets crazy. We we've undertaken hunger strikes. One, I should say, went on for almost five days. Really should not that take that. But, you know, we we don't give up. We are persistent. And in previous campaigns we've even engaged in civil disobedience. People stood in the street and got arrested and have a couple pictures of that as well.

00:24:45:28 - 00:24:50:09
John Simmerman
Yeah. There we go.

00:24:50:12 - 00:24:51:03
Amy Cohen
Yeah. All right.

00:24:51:09 - 00:25:14:07
John Simmerman
So one of the campaigns that you all are working on, and I'm going to navigate over to the, the website again, because this is one of the campaigns that, you all have been working on. How long is this particular campaign been? Been part of the. Organization. Is that the right word? Yeah, the campaign is part of the organization.

00:25:14:14 - 00:25:17:29
John Simmerman
The the speeders.

00:25:18:01 - 00:25:50:11
Patty Avery
I think families through safe streets has always taken a position on speed because speed is deadly. We know that in our heads, right? We live in a world that's governed by physics and biology, and the chances that you'll be grievously injured or killed in a crash are directly related to speed. But in this last year or so, we have seen legislation pop up around the country on targeting the worst of the worst, on targeting super speeders.

00:25:50:11 - 00:26:27:25
Patty Avery
People who get not just one speeding ticket, but two, three, ten. How many, Amy? 200. In one case or more, that they are disproportionately responsible for crashes. 35% of deadly crashes are caused by fewer than 5% of drivers, the worst of the worst. And we've taken an approach that if you can limit their speed, just as with ignition interlock going after, people with repeat drunk driving offenses, they have to breathe into a breathalyzer.

00:26:27:26 - 00:27:01:25
Patty Avery
The car won't start. We say, okay, driving is a privilege, not a right. And the current approach of suspending people's licenses for this kind of behavior just isn't working, because we know that across the country, 75%, three quarters of drivers with suspended licenses drive anyway. So if they're going to be on the street, we say, then let's put a device in their car that will actually control the speed that they can go.

00:27:01:27 - 00:27:27:27
Patty Avery
And so we've seen around the country a number of bills pop up. Now, last year in California, they attempted to pass a law, and it actually passed both chambers of their assembly that all cars sold in California would have to have at least passive, intelligent speed assistance. You know, it's a well-developed technology, and there are several ways that it can be approached.

00:27:27:27 - 00:27:56:15
Patty Avery
It can be passive, where it just will say, flash at you or give you a signal on your steering wheel or on your pedal that you're exceeding the speed limit. But there's also active, active intelligent speed assistance that will throttle you down, just like when you set your cruise control and you, you know, in years and years starting to speed up, it will pull you back.

00:27:56:17 - 00:28:26:24
Patty Avery
And so we have seen bills around the country. The first that passed was in Washington DC, Virginia passed earlier this year, and Washington state has passed. And today, as of May 8th, is simply awaiting the governor's signature. The same in Georgia. That law targets, racing. So these bills are addressing, you know, repeat speed offenses, reckless driving, any type of reckless driving that includes speed.

00:28:26:27 - 00:28:59:22
Patty Avery
And we've seen this epidemic of racing around the country, stunt driving. So some of these bills, the Georgia bill in particular focuses on that. We made advocates, made a great attempt in Maryland and Arizona, but they're going to be coming back next year to work to get it across the finish line. And so at the time that this podcast will air, we'll be working actively around the country to help seed efforts to get this in front of other legislatures this winter when they go back into session.

00:28:59:24 - 00:29:00:13
John Simmerman
Right.

00:29:00:15 - 00:29:29:07
Amy Cohen
You know, just a little more history on that is New York City, as a result of our advocacy efforts, has the nation's largest automated speed safety camera program. And what we started to see is that it is, you know, the data was inconclusive. The cameras were working. The vast majority of people would get 1 or 2 tickets and change their behavior, you know, crashes, serious injuries, deaths around places where their cameras were down.

00:29:29:10 - 00:29:48:09
Amy Cohen
But there was a small segment of the population that we started to refer to as super speeders that just couldn't be stopped. They, you know, many were either. You know, just because you're rich doesn't mean you should be able to do this. They were paying their tickets and there was no other consequence, or there are a lot of people that weren't even paying.

00:29:48:09 - 00:30:07:23
Amy Cohen
And there was there was no additional way, no additional tool into the in the toolbox. So we approached, some champions in the New York State Legislature and proposed this idea. You know, what about the fact that we we take people who either get a lot of speeding tickets and they, you know, from police and get their license suspended.

00:30:07:23 - 00:30:28:13
Amy Cohen
And as Patty said, and they're driving anyway, according to a national statistic or people who were getting lots and lots of automated to speed camera tickets and are just their behavior is not being deterred. What if we applied this technology that's been around for decades, that was starting to all of a sudden get a lot of attention? Because we had it in the New York City fleet.

00:30:28:19 - 00:30:52:27
Amy Cohen
So a lot of government agencies are starting to also look at this technology and say, oh, if you're a government worker driving a government vehicle, why shouldn't you have to drive? The government set speed limit? And so New York City had done a big program with the city fleet. The data had started to come out. The Volpi Center did a study and was like, wow, this is really effective.

00:30:52:27 - 00:31:17:01
Amy Cohen
People are not only not speeding, but they're also not heartbreaking. You know, they're speeding up to the red light. So we got this are, you know, are some of our street safety champions in the New York State Legislature to work with us to, lay out and write up a bill. And they introduced it. And at the bill introduction press conference, we've gotten more press than we had at anything, and we've started to see that on this campaign.

00:31:17:01 - 00:31:44:26
Amy Cohen
Overall, we've had over 100 media stories in the last year, from many places outside of transportation safety that, you know, governing magazine, in automotive news, TMZ, you know, really breaking out of the usual transportation bubble to to really point out that these, these drivers are dangerous and this is a device that should is is a common sense measure.

00:31:44:29 - 00:32:14:11
John Simmerman
Yeah. In looking at this too. And this is some of the slide of, of the viral media coverage of the story and of this concept and of this, push to try to, stop these super speeders. One of the things that that comes to mind is how much we glorify in our society in, on TV and on movies and, and again, it goes back to Ian Walker's term of motor normativity.

00:32:14:13 - 00:32:42:05
John Simmerman
It becomes so normal that this is sort of like glorified, you know, whether it's like the the Fast and Furious franchise and all of these other things of that. That's cool. You talked about the, the, the racing scene. And I can hear it when they do a takeover or, from my house here in Austin when, when the group shows up on a weekend night and they, they're doing donuts in the middle of a very large intersection.

00:32:42:05 - 00:33:12:04
John Simmerman
And, and even here in the state of Texas, they're like, mobilizing to try to deal with this racing scene and the takeovers where they're doing donuts in the middle. It's there's this glorification of powerful vehicles and speed and the excessiveness of all of this. And so we're we're trying to it seems like we're trying to swim, swim upstream with, a flood of of this.

00:33:12:10 - 00:33:24:18
John Simmerman
Can you, can you tell us a little bit about that? Because we've got a little bit of a cultural clash here of saying, no, this isn't normal. This shouldn't be normal human behavior.

00:33:24:20 - 00:33:51:21
Patty Avery
No, it shouldn't, but part of the fact is that our roads are designed for us to go as quickly as possible, and we consider it our inalienable right to exceed the speed limit. You know, even if you just sneak in that two, three, four miles an hour over, somehow you feel like you're taking control. And, and then that suddenly becomes that seven and ten.

00:33:51:24 - 00:34:14:12
Patty Avery
In the case of the driver who killed Bethany, she was going 50 in a 35, and that basically doubled the impact of the crash. So speed and the weight of the vehicle combined to make the to to create what we call traffic violence. Bethany died a violent death.

00:34:14:14 - 00:34:36:09
John Simmerman
Right? Yeah. I'm glad you said it that way, Patty. I mean, it really does ultimately come down to the design, that very intersection that I'm talking about, where the takeovers happen. The reason why they do that is because it's a massive, massive strode connecting with another, street. And it's just like it's the size encourages the behavior that we're talking about.

00:34:36:11 - 00:35:19:11
John Simmerman
A zone that is, is, assigned at 35mph. In my perspective, in my position with active towns is there should be no streets within a city that, you know, have those sorts of lethal speeds encouraging motor vehicles to be traveling at speeds that guarantee certain death or a serious, serious injury has no place within an urban environment. And so it where, you know, if there's the possibility of interaction with more quote unquote vulnerable road users and I hate using that term, I would prefer to just say people outside of motor vehicles, you know, it shouldn't be that that situation.

00:35:19:16 - 00:35:47:10
John Simmerman
The reality is, is these are and we're we're trying to reframe that. And that's what I love about what you all are doing is you're telling these stories. You're you're trying to, you know, basically bring light, shed light on the fact that this is a problem. And I do think about, you know, I travel a lot around the world, you know, profiling what cities are doing successfully.

00:35:47:12 - 00:36:15:18
John Simmerman
And I can't ever I couldn't even imagine, you know, somebody speeding or doing donuts in an intersection in, in the historic city center in Utrecht or in Delft. It's just the built environment doesn't do that. Many of these vehicles are incredibly expensive vehicles. These are the car cultures such that they are very proud of these vehicles. The last thing in the world they want to do is cause damage to them.

00:36:15:20 - 00:36:34:13
John Simmerman
So if you had narrow streets and streets that were quote unquote unforgiving to them, drifting and going fast, etc., they're going to be very, very reluctant to it. So does I'm I'm glad you said it that way, Patty. It does come back to our street design. How are we designing them and encouraging that behavior?

00:36:34:15 - 00:36:57:28
Amy Cohen
Yeah, I mean, that is such a critical part of what we do. And just, you know, a couple things to build on. That is when you saw the things that we focused on safe streets, safe speed, safe vehicles, what you didn't see in there is education. And, you know, one of the reasons is I often say is, you know, if we that's what the United States has focused on is really just telling people to drive more carefully.

00:36:57:29 - 00:37:23:13
Amy Cohen
Right. And clearly it's not working. They aren't slowing down on the big wide roads set with high speed limits in their giant SUVs. Right. I, I often share that it's just telling people to drive more carefully was an effective tool for for culture change. Then everyone in my extended family would be the safest driver on the road, and I wouldn't have to remind them as such when I get in the car in their backseat.

00:37:23:15 - 00:37:52:04
Amy Cohen
And so we really did model this campaign after what Madd did with drunk driving, right? They said the worst. The worst. You know, drunk drivers have to get this technology. And not only has it led to a huge drop in drunk driving, but it's really changed the conversation around drunk driving. And it's no longer socially acceptable to have one for the road, but it is still, in our society, socially acceptable.

00:37:52:04 - 00:38:08:26
Amy Cohen
Almost like people are applauded when they go super fast. It's glorified in our advertising. And so a big piece of what this stuff Super Speeders campaign will do is, is not just stop the worst of the worst, but reframe the dangers of speed to the general public as well.

00:38:08:29 - 00:38:44:14
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. Well said. One of the things that obviously we can do to try to bring attention to the problem that exists because again, we're talking astounding numbers. We really are. I mean, the data is just is mind boggling when we consider this, you know, 40,000 plus fatalities, millions of serious injuries every single year. And yet it, it it doesn't, you know, it doesn't really resonate with the average person.

00:38:44:16 - 00:39:09:21
John Simmerman
If we have an airliner crash, you know, quote unquote, God forbid we have an airliner crash. It leads with the news. Even if there's the potential of a mishap, it leaves the with the news. And yet, you know, somewhere around 115 people perish every single day out on our roadways. But it doesn't lead the news. And so there is this, this lack of awareness of the general populace.

00:39:09:24 - 00:39:30:24
John Simmerman
And that's where, you know, the World Day of Remembrance comes in and what y'all are trying to to do. And you're helping lead the way, with this, with other organizations, around the country. And, in full disclosure, I'm a board member of. It could be me. I have strong connections with Boulder, Colorado. I lived there for a decade.

00:39:30:29 - 00:39:41:16
John Simmerman
Again, my nonprofit is is based out of, Boulder. And so Trini Willerton is a very dear friend of mine. Talk a little bit about World Day of Remembrance.

00:39:41:19 - 00:40:13:27
Amy Cohen
Sure. It's an event that started, over 25 years ago in Europe. And, I think it's, 11 or 12 years ago now. We decided we should really have a large scale event in the United States to mark World Day of Remembrance. It is a UN sanctioned event. So our first event was trying to show the scale of this crisis by, doing a giant march from the City Hall in New York City to the UN from, you know, this these are you know, this is a crisis that's on our streets locally.

00:40:13:27 - 00:40:48:22
Amy Cohen
It has national implications and international implications. And, you know, the event was much larger than we really, expected. And other folks started saying, oh, we want to do a world of remembrance that also, you know, can you help us? So we joined at first with the Vision Zero Network, and then with other organizations and have a wealth of resources available at Woodward at Dash usa.org, we have an organizers toolkit we had that includes like how do you organize your event, what kind of event you want to have, what are things people have done?

00:40:48:25 - 00:41:20:11
Amy Cohen
We every year provide a sample media advisory press release. We do trainings, we meet together monthly for anybody interested in holding an event. And last year we had over 75 events. And I have a few pictures you can see of events held across the country from new Jersey, to, you know, different city halls and different places that in San Diego, all showcasing, you know, family members who have lost loved ones.

00:41:20:13 - 00:41:30:05
Amy Cohen
You know, and these are just some other photos of us in action, showing our legislative wins, standing with the governor of the state of New York.

00:41:30:08 - 00:42:03:04
John Simmerman
So pausing for a second to talk about legislative wins and the policy side of things, I have always positioned the active towns movement, and what I'm trying to do as being a wholly nonpartisan initiative. It should be attractive to anyone, regardless of what their politics are across the political spectrum. One should be want to be able to have a community that encourages and supports safe and active, you know, populace for all ages and abilities.

00:42:03:07 - 00:42:37:10
John Simmerman
One should be able to. Whether you're eight years old or 88 years old, you should be able to walk or bike to your meaningful destinations and be able to live that healthy, active lifestyle within your community. So that should resonate with anybody and everybody. Talk a little bit about this movement and how it's it's resonating across party lines and any challenges that that you all are facing, given the fact that it's very easy for things to divulge or, or sort of, disintegrate into culture war types of narratives.

00:42:37:12 - 00:43:00:27
Amy Cohen
I mean, I'll start and then I'll turn it to Patty. I was just going to say that, you know, we really do focus on the upstream solutions, and really look at legislation as I said before, you know, education has maybe a small place, but that's all we've worked on as a society. And we really need to look at the upstream solutions so that we can have the biggest impact, on saving lives.

00:43:00:27 - 00:43:06:23
Amy Cohen
And Patty can talk about our our most recent effort and it's bipartisan appeal.

00:43:06:26 - 00:43:44:05
Patty Avery
Yeah. We've actually been really gratified to see that across the country, the intelligent speed assistance bills have had bipartisan support. Delegate Hope in Virginia, who introduced the bill, said he he was actually almost thrown in such a hyper partizan environment to see absolutely bipartisan support for this bill. Because, you know, when we think about vehicle safety and safer vehicles, we think about all the technology that has improved crash outcomes for people inside the vehicle.

00:43:44:07 - 00:44:10:26
Patty Avery
But these this effort for intelligent speed assistance improve safety, not just for the driver and passengers in the vehicle, but for everyone outside the vehicle, people in other vehicles, cyclists, pedestrians and so the message has, has hit home to them. And we're finding, you know, certainly there were concerns in, in some of the states around the cost.

00:44:10:26 - 00:44:44:19
Patty Avery
Is this going to be affordable for everyone? And so all the bills we've seen so far have made provisions for people with lower incomes to either receive it added, cost abatement or other means of making it affordable for all drivers. You know, we also see that, interestingly, they've found as they're building out the regs in Virginia, one of the things they discovered is there's actually savings in fuel cost for the users who will be mandated to have this in their vehicle.

00:44:44:19 - 00:45:18:10
Patty Avery
So there are things that are keeping that cost in check. And the states already have the ignition interlock program. So it's it's only marginally adds to the cost that the state incurs for administering a program like this. So I think the combination of, having to acknowledge the problem, you know, any more people argue about data that should be not arguable, but they cannot argue with our stories.

00:45:18:12 - 00:45:33:03
Patty Avery
They cannot argue with the fact that Sammy died when he did not need to, that Bethany died when she should not have. Stories are what makes the difference in these cases.

00:45:33:06 - 00:46:10:14
John Simmerman
Yeah. And when we look at the reality of, you know, really what we're talking about here, we're talking about trying to create streets that are safe for all ages and abilities, regardless of the mode that they choose to use to get to their meaningful destinations on a daily basis. And I think in, in a democracy, you know, yes, we need to hear like from all sides and we need to be able to to make sure that we're not being draconian and, you know, from on high saying you shall live in this way.

00:46:10:16 - 00:46:47:15
John Simmerman
But at the same time, also part of a democracy, one group's freedoms should not be causing damage to another person's life and their freedoms. So, I, I understand that it's important for us to, to to think about the fact that, yes, some people are car dependent and some people have to drive to get to their meaningful destinations, but that shouldn't mean that, it is a situation where they can do so dangerously and causing harm to others.

00:46:47:22 - 00:47:13:23
John Simmerman
And that's where we can, like, start to leverage some of this technology, this ability to create safer streets. Let's get the design right. Yes. And then let's have that overlay of the other things that we can do, like this technology you're talking about. It sounds like there's also a concept, especially in New York City. I think you had mentioned it earlier, Amy, about speed cameras and things of that nature as well.

00:47:13:25 - 00:47:31:10
John Simmerman
Again, I have a hard time understanding how this can be controversial. But I do get the fact that we have to get we kind of have to do everything we have to get the design right of the streets, as well as having these other measures in place.

00:47:31:13 - 00:47:47:10
Amy Cohen
I mean, exactly, you're probably familiar with the term, you know, the safe system approach uses the Swiss cheese model of mitigation. Right? We want our road to be safe. But something could go wrong that might not be good enough. So we want to layer on top of that, making sure we have slow speed limit and layer on top of that.

00:47:47:10 - 00:48:13:09
Amy Cohen
Safer vehicles. And you know, just in terms of, of the fairness and, and some of the things about this, you know, this effort to stop super speeders, we are not taking away people's vehicles. We are not taking away their driver's license as I said before, they were driving. Anyway, we are saying with a provisional license you can drive, you can still get to work, you can still get to your, you know, drive your kids around or whatever else you have to do.

00:48:13:09 - 00:48:39:19
Amy Cohen
We are just saying you have to do it safely. And I think that's one of the reasons it has gotten so much bipartisan support. So the bill was introduced, because of our push in New York first. But as other states have introduced that, there have been additional, you know, components. So Virginia added a component that said, if a driver, even a single incident was going 100 miles an hour like that driver should get it right away, why wait until they get caught again and again?

00:48:39:21 - 00:49:08:20
Amy Cohen
And, you know, we horrifically have many members in our group who've testified at these, you know, hearings in favor of the bills, who has lost loved ones to drivers who've gone over 100 miles an hour. You know, Laurie Markowitz and Mark in in Washington State testified at their Assembly transportation hearing and very powerfully said, you know, her son was killed by a driver going 112 miles an hour and had a history of doing that.

00:49:08:20 - 00:49:19:22
Amy Cohen
Previously, if that technology had been in place and mandated the first time the driver got caught, her son would be alive. Why should anyone be allowed to go 112 miles an hour.

00:49:19:24 - 00:49:47:08
John Simmerman
Right? Yeah. These are, you know, obviously the deviants in our society are the ones that did take it to this level, that are taking it to the extreme levels. When we're talking about the vast majority of the the crashes that are out there that occur on, on a daily basis, it brings us back to our design speed of, of the streets and the roads that we have.

00:49:47:11 - 00:50:22:00
John Simmerman
It also brings us to, to the realities of car dependency and are land use, and the fact that much of North America and many other areas around the globe have so become dependent on automobiles and the land use patterns of you can't get to anything unless you get into a car really works against us. And so I think that when I, when I pull back and I think about active towns and you think about the work that we're doing holistically here, we're looking at everything.

00:50:22:00 - 00:50:43:09
John Simmerman
You know, you mentioned it earlier. Amy, going upstream, I'm going upstream, looking at our what are we doing from a land use perspective? What are we doing from a parking minimums perspective? All of these things seemingly don't seem to be directly related to this, but it actually is because it's all connected to motor normativity and car dependency.

00:50:43:12 - 00:51:11:13
Patty Avery
Certainly. And I just wanted to say, you know, I lived outside the country for 15 years. I spent five years in the Netherlands, so I experienced the ability to get anywhere. I needed to go on public transport. I lived in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Okay, not ideal public transportation, but I never owned a car there. As soon as I came back to the U.S, I moved to a community where I have no options but to use a vehicle.

00:51:11:15 - 00:51:20:12
Patty Avery
So we know it's possible. But helping reframe the conversation is the challenge.

00:51:20:14 - 00:51:46:27
Amy Cohen
You know, just very similar to that. You know, it is the reason that any kind of fro design change that impacts the amount of parking spaces on a street gets so much pushback because people feel like they have no other option. And so a key piece of it is investing in transportation, supporting and advocating for those investments. You know, a lot of our members push for what's called daylighting at intersections in San Diego.

00:51:47:00 - 00:52:15:15
Amy Cohen
They had a big campaign called the a horrible name, the Fatal 15. They looked at the fifth. The data showed the 15 most deadly intersections in San Diego, and they advocated that the city council, you know, provide funding and commit to fixing them. And that campaign was successful. And a big piece of that and a big piece of the pushback was the, you know, daylighting at the corner, removing parking spaces from the corner so that you can see better so that the intersection is less deadly.

00:52:15:18 - 00:52:30:08
Amy Cohen
And, you know, that is a big piece of the work, and it does impact that need for public transit. So people can say, yeah, maybe I don't need a car. We don't need so many cars. We need another way to get around walking, biking, public transit.

00:52:30:10 - 00:52:51:07
John Simmerman
Yeah, yeah. I'm glad you mentioned daylighting. I'm actually going to pull up, a wonderful video that, my good friend, Clarence Akerson was Street Films put together on daylighting. Again, these are strategies that we can, you know, implement and employ to our built environment very, very quickly and cheaply. Again, I hear it all the time.

00:52:51:07 - 00:53:14:08
John Simmerman
They're like, oh, well, we don't have the money to do these fancy things. Bullshit. I'm calling bullshit. Other stuff. These are very lighter, quicker, cheaper things that we can do that can have an immediate impact on, making the intersection safer, slowing the motor vehicles down because drivers will be like, oh, this is not the same situation that I was just in.

00:53:14:14 - 00:53:36:24
John Simmerman
Even on a street that may be too wide and and encourage speeding. What we can do here is we're creating horizontal deflection. We're creating a situation where that intersection becomes that much safer. Super, super stoked that you mentioned daylighting. Good stuff. These are the types of strategies that can be employed. And again, it doesn't take huge amounts of money.

00:53:36:27 - 00:53:44:05
John Simmerman
Fantastic. Okay. Final thoughts from both of you. Patty. Start us off. Any final thoughts that you'd like to leave the audience with?

00:53:44:07 - 00:54:19:11
Patty Avery
I think certainly your listeners understand they engage with this. And and as people who are active and out and moving in their communities, they absolutely understand how critical it is that we find a way for vehicles to be operated in an environment where humans are involved. And so this piece of, of the intelligent speed assistance is only one of the layers of Swiss cheese that Amy referred to.

00:54:19:14 - 00:54:52:24
Patty Avery
But I would give you an invitation that if you've been injured or lost someone in a crash, please come to our website and share your story. Add your story to our story map, because part of the reason just doesn't seem to land on the national radar is that these crashes take place in individual communities. Bethany's crash was not on the nightly news, so as great a tragedy as it was, she was only one of the 40,000 that year.

00:54:52:26 - 00:55:02:29
Patty Avery
So, but when we bring our stories together, we can act. We can actually show what a health crisis this is in the United States. Yeah.

00:55:03:01 - 00:55:25:02
John Simmerman
I'm glad you phrased it in that way as well. And I did want to say this about, the Netherlands having since you had had lived there for a while is that they are not anti-caa they are pro mobility choice. And so what you see is an overlapping of mobility networks that are safe and inviting for all ages and abilities.

00:55:25:02 - 00:55:52:23
John Simmerman
And so it's not perfect. They've got plenty of challenges yet to to to deal with. And what I love about the Dutch approach to this is they're they're never satisfied. They're always tweaking it. They're always making it a little bit better. It's it's like a they are the epitome of, of of TQM total quality management. They're like always wanting to, you know, improve upon their, their, their intersections and their designs and their street designs.

00:55:52:23 - 00:56:08:21
John Simmerman
And so that's what I want to say. Is that what we're really talking about here is not impinging upon people's rights and freedoms. We want to give you more freedom, more choice of mobility options that are safe and inviting for all ages and abilities. Okay, Amy, last word.

00:56:08:23 - 00:56:25:29
Amy Cohen
I think I have two thoughts. The first is that, you know, just building on what you're talking about. In the Netherlands, people always say, oh, well, they just have a different culture. America will never do that. And I do just want to remind people that, in fact, in the Netherlands and many of those other countries, they were very car oriented.

00:56:25:29 - 00:56:50:27
Amy Cohen
They had huge, horrific high numbers of people dying on their roads, and they made intentional policy and legislative choices to change what they do, to bring them to the places where they are. And we need to do the same, and we need to do it, in a way that often can be effective by lifting up the voices of people who are personally impacted to give a face to this crisis.

00:56:50:27 - 00:57:15:13
Amy Cohen
And Families for Safe Streets is here to partner with communities across the country looking to make change at the local, state and national level. You know, reach shit, share our information so that people can get the support they need, the training they need so that they can become advocates in your community and partner with you and achieve the changes that we need to make our roads safe for everyone.

00:57:15:15 - 00:57:44:21
John Simmerman
Yeah. And I'll say this too, is, is that even if you are not part of this quote unquote club that nobody wants to be a part of, even if you don't have somebody within your immediate family that has been affected by traffic violence, please still reach out. We need this to get out of our echo chamber. Please share this information, both here on YouTube as well as out on the audio only platforms.

00:57:44:23 - 00:58:06:15
John Simmerman
Be proactive. I mean, if if you are a member of of your community, in your society, you are, by the way, you should want to make sure that our public spaces, our streets are safe for everybody, for all ages and abilities, regardless of the mode that you choose to get around. So again, engage with, families for safe streets.

00:58:06:18 - 00:58:24:10
John Simmerman
Again, the website is family for Safe streets.org Amy and Patti, thank you so very much for joining me on the Active Towns podcast. This has been so much fun. It's an honor and pleasure, and I'm absolutely delighted we were able to make this happen. And sorry it took so long.

00:58:24:12 - 00:58:26:29
Amy Cohen
Thank you so much for having us today.

00:58:27:01 - 00:58:27:22
Patty Avery
Thank you.

00:58:27:25 - 00:58:50:00
John Simmerman
Hey, thank you all so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it. I hope you found this episode with Amy and Patty, inspirational for trying to create safer streets for everyone. And if you did, please again, head on over to families for Safe streets.org and get involved with the organization. And if you did find this episode, informative and engaging, please give it a thumbs up.

00:58:50:05 - 00:59:06:29
John Simmerman
Leave a comment down below and share it with a friend. And again, if you're enjoying this content here on the Active Towns Channel, please consider supporting my efforts by becoming an active Towns Ambassador. Super easy to do. Just click on the join button here on YouTube. You can also leave YouTube super! Thanks as well as navigate over to Active Towns.

00:59:07:00 - 00:59:26:01
John Simmerman
Georgie. Click on the support tab at the top of the page. There's several different options of supporting my efforts, including making a donation to the nonprofit, Buy Me a Coffee, as well as becoming a Patreon supporter. Patrons do get early and ad free access to all this video content. Again, thank you so much for tuning in. I really do appreciate it.

00:59:26:05 - 00:59:47:28
John Simmerman
And until next time, this is John signing off by wishing you much activity, health and happiness. Cheers. And again, just want to send a huge thank you to all my Active Towns Ambassadors supporting the channel financially via YouTube memberships YouTube super thanks. As well as making contributions to the nonprofit and joining my Patreon. Every little bit adds up and is very much appreciated.

00:59:48:03 - 00:59:49:15
John Simmerman
Thank you all so much.