Overview:
Jill and Michael White started Route 2 Change to bring crash victims and their families in front of lawmakers in town halls across the state.
Typically, the Aurora History Museum is a place where people can revel in the past. The museum’s halls honor Aurora’s connection to transportation, with an old trolley car on display; however, on the night of Sept. 11, approximately 30 Coloradans gathered in those halls to call for a safer future on the streets and sidewalks across the state at an event called Route 2 Change.
“We know that infrastructure is a critical part of the solution, but the truth is, infrastructure takes decades and billions of dollars, and we don’t have decades,” said Jacqueline Claudia, executive director of The White Line, in her opening speech. “The people here tonight didn’t have decades. That’s why we’re going after the other part of the problem: the cars and the people who drive them dangerously.”
Over the course of two hours, 14 victims stepped up to a podium, telling their harrowing stories. They recounted their experiences of themselves or family members who have suffered hurt or loss while walking or biking on the road due to reckless drivers. Nearly a dozen lawmakers from Colorado sat in front of the podium, listening to their frustration, grief and calls for change.
Among those 14 speakers were Jill and Michael White, founders of The White Line nonprofit and organizers of the Route 2 Change event. To the Whites, this message is extremely personal after their 17-year-old son, Magnus, was hit and killed by an impaired driver on Sept. 29, 2023, while biking home in Boulder. Magnus was a Team USA cyclist and the driver who killed him was charged with vehicular homicide in June 2025.
“I’ll start by saying I wish Magnus was here,” said Jill White during her speech on Sept. 11. “He was an incredible kid. He had so many best friends … I tell you that because, as you know, we’ll do everything for our Magnus. Now, we’ll do everything for the other kids and wives and husbands and children and brothers and sisters that have been killed by drivers.”
Since then, the Whites have set out on a mission to end deaths caused by reckless drivers. Their organization has achieved this by raising awareness of the issue and advocating for stricter punishments since 2024.
“We’re fighting to end road deaths,” said Michael White, Magnus’ father. “And we want to change driver behavior with storytelling, data and life-saving technology.”
The Whites came up with the idea to begin their Route 2 Change campaign after their experiences going to testimony meetings at the Colorado State Capitol, calling for change in traffic laws to protect pedestrians and bikers. In those meetings, victims only get three minutes to tell their stories, which the Whites felt wasn’t enough.
“You can have conversations sometimes [after the meetings], but a lot of times, the state senators and legislators are really busy,” Michael said. “So it was just based upon experience that there just wasn’t enough time for real stories and the real emotions to get heard … We just thought there’d be a better way to do this, bring victims and legislators together, because that emotional storytelling really moves legislators.”
The idea to platform victims’ voices in front of lawmakers in a small town hall format manifested into the form of Route 2 Change, which has taken off across Colorado starting this summer. While the event is impactful and extremely hard for all the victims involved, the Whites say it’s been a rewarding experience to be able to provide a platform.
“It’s rewarding just seeing the families and victims come forward that haven’t had a platform or an opportunity to really tell their story, because they all want change,” Jill said. “They don’t want this to happen to other people. They either haven’t ever talked to any news outlets, they haven’t been able to connect to their lawmakers, they don’t know where to go. So it’s giving them an opportunity to have a place to go to tell their story.”
One of these individuals is Terry Vogel, who lost her husband, Chuck, after he was hit by a reckless driver two minutes into his early morning bike ride on July 4, 2019. After telling her story to lawmakers in Aurora, Vogel spoke on how impactful The White Line and Route 2 Change have been in allowing her to help create change.
“[The White Line] has been great support, legislative support and has brought a lot of innovative action,” Vogel said. “They’ve been taking personal stories in addition to their data and utilizing it in a meaningful and impactful way to bring about change and create a movement.”
The White Line aims to bring change to communities across the state, from Boulder to Aurora to Colorado Springs.
“[Traveling the state for Route 2 Change] has been humbling,” Claudia said. “It’s been inspiring. I’m very hopeful that our collective efforts from the victims, their families, the legislators, the people who care about these issues, who are coming out and coming together, that we’re going to be able to create some momentum, because every year that goes by, there are thousands more people whose lives have been irreparably changed.”
After multiple successful Route 2 Change events, The White Line is now setting their sights on holding an event near the Capitol in Denver. Currently slated for some point in October, meeting Denverites close to home is extremely important to the nonprofit.
“Denver has a huge problem with [traffic violence] and it is largely invisible, especially because the problem impacts minorities,” Claudia said. “We hear a lot about the rich people on expensive bicycles. Those are the ones that make the news. But the reality is, there are lots of people who just are walking to work, they’re walking to school, they park their car and they cross the road and they’re being hit. And until we solve this, we’ve got a massive problem.”
Outside of Colorado, The White Line is working to bring the Route 2 Change campaign to other audiences and states. Traffic violence isn’t an issue exclusive to Colorado, and Claudia and the White family are working hard to ensure that they can help empower change nationwide.
“We’ve had people reach out already and request this from Illinois, from Michigan, from Arkansas,” Claudia said. “It’s our hope that this becomes kind of a national movement of people coming together to demand safety and accountability where they live.”
As the White Line and Route 2 Change expand, their message of safer streets remains consistent.
“We shouldn’t all risk our lives to go outside, go to the store, go to school, go to work, right?” Michael said. “Our lives shouldn’t be at risk to do that. We just want to see change.”
