Families for Safe Streets: Turning Faceless Numbers into Stories with GIS Tools

Every day, 120 people are killed and over 14,000 suffer life-altering injuries on US roadways. Families for Safe Streets (FSS), a nonprofit organization that advocates for lifesaving legislative and policy changes, believes that every life-altering crash is a policy failure. To support its advocacy work and present compelling data to drive change, the organization has adopted geographic information system (GIS) technology.

FSS is composed of people who have lost loved ones, been injured, or cared for someone who was injured in traffic violence. Across the US, individuals affected by traffic violence have established chapters to fight for change in their local communities, while hundreds more advocate for change in communities that do not yet have a chapter. With GIS, FSS chapters can memorialize loved ones, visualize the magnitude of traffic violence, and provide precise data to the media as they cover these tragic events, ultimately driving awareness and policy change.

Although more than 44,000 people are killed on US roadways annually, few people recognize the scale of the crisis. FSS members recognized the need to raise awareness about the numerous lives lost and affected by traffic violence. Previously, they only held in-person memorials and vigils to honor those who lost their lives on the road. But there was a need to memorialize those impacted at a larger scale. So when FSS members attended a National Safety Council meeting and came across the Celebrating Lost Loved Ones GIS-based map, they felt inspired to do something similar. The map aims to reduce the stigma around addiction by having families and friends add pictures of loved ones lost to opioids and substance use disorder. 

“We work closely with the National Safety Council and came across the opioid map and thought, ‘Wow, we need this too; I wonder how they developed that,’” said Amy Cohen, cofounder of FSS. “We truthfully thought it would be a fortune, but we reached out [to Esri] and were thrilled to be able to launch our own map so easily.”

FSS members used tools such as the Attachment Viewer in ArcGIS Instant Apps to build the Families for Safe Streets Community Story Map, an interactive map that serves as an online memorial space, providing a way for those affected to share stories and build community. By showing the faces, stories, and life-changing consequences behind the statistics, the map helps humanize a public health epidemic—one of the most effective ways to move decision-makers to change.

The Community Story Map has been a great tool to identify new advocates and connect them with a local FSS chapter, or even in some cases, create new chapters depending on need.

Data visualization tools are powerful when communicating a cause, building a community, or making critical decisions such as policy change. Unlike spreadsheets that make it hard to comprehend and digest large datasets, imagery such as infographics or maps allow a viewer to easily understand what is being communicated.

“This map is becoming instrumental for local and statewide advocacy, as we are able to regularly share the map with legislators and media groups,” said Cohen.

After witnessing the map's strong impact in bringing advocates from all over the nation together, the Philadelphia FSS chapter was inspired to use the map as a tool for promoting the expansion of speed safety camera programs within their city. After they were successful in expanding the program, FSS members continue to see how powerful data visualization tools are for advocacy efforts.

A huge part of a civic nonprofit’s role is to educate the public on the issues they support. This allows them to find new advocates and volunteers, as well as opportunities for media coverage. However, without data visualization, organizations struggle to communicate their causes to audiences who may not be directly impacted by them.  

“By collecting community stories as we are now, on the map, the public is able to easily understand our cause, which has resulted in a lot more media coverage,” said Cohen.

The FSS Community Story Map has turned statistics into people, giving names to them and sharing their stories for all to access. It provides an opportunity to unite a country around a cause and allows the grieving to attach photographs and stories to what were once faceless statistics.

Setting up a digital memorial is only the first step for FSS. Moving forward, organization members aspire to leverage GIS technology to analyze demographic data around traffic deaths and identify any commonalities in the communities most impacted. This will provide greater insight into what sort of legislation the organization should support. The Families for Safe Streets digital map honors and remembers those lost to crashes and those who have suffered life-altering injuries. GIS tools allow FSS to expand its reach and continue to advocate for safer traffic safety measures.