TROMP, a cultural look at street accidents

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TROMP officially announced, Monday, the outset of the second phase of the program designed to change the culture of travel in the city of Cambridge for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers alike.

Members of the Cambridge City Council, the Cambridge School Department, and the Cambridge Police Department gathered on the steps of Cambridge City Hall, to support the cause known as the Travel Responsibility Outreach and Mentoring Project.

The non-profit, citizen-lead initiative promotes a safer and more respectful traffic environment through four phases they call orientation, education, warning and enforcement.

Following positive reception by Mayor Denise Simmons and other elected officials, Gina Tempesta, a TROMP board member and WBZ radio traffic reporter, announced the official start of the educational phase of the project. They will reach out to different sectors of Cambridge’s communities with information and training on appropriate travel behavior.

According to TROMP’s website, members will get the information out through public service announcements on local TV and radio, YouTube and Twitter. The site also shows that TROMP will have notices sent home from schools, informational packets given at car inspections, as well as add reminders in all City mailings.

TROMP has been working with the Cambridge Police Department to get law enforcement involved. According to Matt Shuman, TROMP public relations representative, the plan is not to scold, it is to “reinforce good behavior.” He gave the example of a policeman escorting a jaywalker to the crosswalk and having a conversation about how jaywalking can upset traffic.

Lieutenant Jack Albert of the Traffic Enforcement Unit, said “there is no negative to this at all” as the community effort helps law enforcement as well as reduce accidents. “When I was a kid in Cambridge, they did a lot of training with kids as far as bicycle safety, crossing the tracks safety,” he said, adding that Cambridge needs to continue educating, “it’s the lack of courtesy that really surprises me.”

Albert also added that the initiative needs to spread itself nation wide once it is locally established because an outsider may come into Cambridge not understanding what TROMP is or what the values behind it are.

The idea for TROMP came from the founder and President of the Dance Complex in Cambridge, Rozann Kraus. Several who spoke on Monday, including City Council Reeves, said she got organized to form TROMP after her son was hit by a car. Kraus said that although “it makes a nice story for people,” it is not true. It just happened to be a coincidence that she was a member of the Cambridge Pedestrian Committee when the accident happened.

Instead, Kraus says that TROMP was born from watching many similar grass roots initiatives around her quickly lose support, she wants to create something that will thrive on its own. Today, TROMP is a non-profit organization that, according to Tempesta, receives its funding from grant money and donations only.

“It has to start somewhere, but at the same time it has to start everywhere,” said Kraus, referring to how the effort depends on the collaboration of all citizens of all commuting capacities, “everybody who travels has to understand everybody else who travels.”