Metta Fund is excited to share “There’s Always a Way”, a stop-motion animated short produced by grantee Walk SF. The video stars “Little Boy Blue” and his Grandmother, and highlights infrastructure and policy changes that would improve San Francisco’s pedestrian safety and improve public transit.
Seniors are five times more likely to be killed in traffic crashes than younger adults.
Nicole Ferrara, Executive Director of Walk SF, shares her hopes for the film, saying “The film was created to help both the public and decision makers visualize the changes needed to achieve Vision Zero, which is crucial for seniors, who are five times more likely to be killed in traffic crashes than younger adults. Making walking safe for everyone, hinges on how streets are engineered. Most of our streets are designed for speed, not safety. Rather than explaining that in technical jargon, we wanted to convey that through storytelling.” Vision Zero refers to Walk SF’s goal of using engineering, traffic enforcement, and education to eliminate all serious and fatal traffic injuries in San Francisco by 2024.
Using film helps remind policy-makers that decisions have real-world impacts on people.
Filmmaker Darryl Jones elaborates on his inspiration for using the story of Little Boy Blue, sharing “Too often, human experience gets pushed to the background of city-planning and transportation efforts. Using film helps remind policy-makers that decisions have real-world impacts on people – that families can suffer life-long from the preventable losses of their loved ones. Sometimes, a story is what is needed to inspire people to take action. That’s what I hope to do with the film.”
Ferrara invites viewers to visit Walk SF’s website and share the video on social media with the hashtag #SafeStreetsforSeniors.