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Jay Hightman and Lindsay Hawn pose with their van and a photo of their daughter, Robyn Avril Hightman, who was hit and killed by a truck. They attended this week's World Remembrance Day ceremony organized by Richmond Families for Safe Streets. (Photo by Rodrigo Arriaza)
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First District City Council member Andreas Addison was among the speakers at Monday evening's World Remembrance Day ceremony. He has introduced a legislative package to Council aimed at promoting pedestrian and bicyclist safety in the city. (Photo by Rodrigo Arriaza)
Robyn Avril Hightman loved to ride her bike. She was such a dedicated cyclist that after deciding to move from Richmond to New York City, she made the trek on her track bike in just three days, says her stepmother, Lindsay Hawn.
"That is how amazing this person was," Hawn says.
Hightman's life was cut short in June when, at age 20, she was hit and killed by a truck during her first shift working as a bike courier in New York. Jay Hightman, her father, says he felt immense pain in the aftermath, but after the New York chapter of advocacy group Families for Safe Streets reached out, he began sharing Robyn's story.
Now, he hopes to help prevent other families from experiencing similar tragedies by working with the newly formed Richmond chapter of Families for Safe Streets. On Monday evening, the group organized the city's first ceremony in observance of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, where he and Hawn joined other local residents who have lost loved ones in traffic crashes.
"I lost a daughter and a kindred soul, but the world lost something, because she was more than a cyclist," he says. "She was an artist, a musician, she was one of those bright stars that [you] sometimes run across in your life."
The day, observed on the third Sunday in November each year, was first held in 1995 and was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 2005 as a way to remember the millions killed and injured on roads around the world.
Hawn and Hightman agree that after feeling isolated in the wake of Robyn's death, meeting others who have gone through similar losses was invaluable.
"It's nice to know that there are people trying to make a difference and trying to make sure that nobody else has to go through this," Hawn says. "That's what really is keeping my husband going, is working toward creating a safer environment for everyone, and ensuring that the streets are safer for drivers, pedestrians and cyclists."
Richmond officials are also joining the effort to make the city's roadways more friendly to walkers and cyclists. First District City Council representative Andreas Addison and 9th District member Michael Jones attended the ceremony, and called deaths and injuries resulting from traffic crashes an unnecessary evil that the city needs to find ways to solve.
"That's really why I want to be here, is to show how those stories are not forgotten, they're not just a picture on a wall, they're the reasons why we want to try to make our streets safer," Addison said in an interview before the ceremony.
At this month's regular City Council meeting, Addison introduced his Safe Streets for All legislative omnibus, a package containing 10 proposed measures that seek to promote multi-modal transportation and enhance pedestrian and bicyclist safety. The legislative package got its first airing at the Tuesday meeting of City Council's Land Use, Housing and Transportation Standing Committee.
Jones also has introduced a measure to impose a citywide speed limit of 35 miles per hour in an effort to make city streets safer.
Included in Addison's proposed legislation are measures to request that the General Assembly allow "no turn on red" zones in the city, penalize those who park in bike lanes with a $60 fine, create a pathway to install all-way stop signs at intersections, reduce speed limits in certain areas of the city and make allocations in the city's budget for Vision Zero plan implementation.
Also at Tuesday's meeting, the committee heard a presentation on the city's Vision Zero effort from Sarah Shaughnessy, a community health planner with the Richmond City Health Department. The initiative, introduced by Mayor Levar Stoney in 2017, aims to eliminate serious injuries and deaths on Richmond's roadways.
According to Shaughnessy's presentation, that goal is still a long way off. In 2018 alone, 176 people were seriously injured on Richmond streets, and 12 were killed. Averaging data collected over the last three years, 171 people were hurt and 14 were killed annually, she said. As Shaughnessy explained, most of those crashes occurred along the city's "high injury network" — roads that comprise just 16% of Richmond's total road network, but are the site of 58% of all reported crashes.
"It's rather stressful the number of fatalities that we've had in the city, but certainly, this is something that we should be very serious about making happen in the city of Richmond," committee chairwoman and 6th District representative Ellen Robertson said.
Five of Addison's measures were forwarded to City Council with a recommendation for approval, while three were continued to the committee's January meeting.
"I believe that these ordinances and resolutions provide our city with additional tools in the toolbox to meet the need of making our streets safer for everybody that travels them," Bike Walk RVA Director Louise Lockett Gordon said of the ordinances sponsored by Addison during a public hearing.
