title: Cars before kids: automobility and the illusion of school traffic safety.
abstract: Traffic safety is a contested public issue and highly negotiated practice that requires sociological analysis and systematic public policy attention. In our case study, we examine elementary school traffic safety programs in Vancouver, British Columbia. We illustrate how such programs assume a politics of responsibility that largely targets children and parents for traffic safekeeping within an institutional environment that gives programs only sporadic support and funding to manage traffic risks. While this context of school traffic safety programs helps to maintain an "illusion of safety," it does not challenge the current auto-dominant mobility structure and its inherent problems.
authors.affiliation: Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC, Canada.
authors.forename: Sylvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Parusel
authors.forename: Arlene Tigar
authors.initials: AT
authors.lastname: McLaren
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000517:prevention & control*; D001955:British Columbia; D002648:Child; D002669:Child Welfare; D006801:Humans; D012449:Safety; D012574:Schools; D012924:Social Conditions; D012939:Social Planning