D.C.’s path to making local roads safer seems to be going in the wrong direction.
In 2015, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser announced the Vision Zero plan, with a goal of reducing traffic deaths in the District to zero by 2024. Yet, despite major money going into the plan, pedestrian fatalities have been trending upwards over the past seven years.
On Thursday, the District released a report saying that while the program is falling short of its goals, they plan to double down on efforts to reduce traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries.
“Our original target of achieving zero deaths by 2024 was ambitious and has not been without its challenges,” Bowser said in a statement.
“But we are beginning to see the fruits of the many traffic safety initiatives started within the past seven years, and the many lessons learned have helped us identify critical needs — such as new models of project development and enforcement — that we must implement with urgency.”
Since the Vision Zero 2024 announcement, the city has put a number of new and increased road safety measures into place.
Speed limits have been reduced on many roads, stricter traffic rules and higher fines for offenders have been enacted, and more cameras have been commissioned to catch rule breakers.
Yet in 2021, D.C. had about 40 traffic deaths. In 2015, when the plan was announced, there were only 26. The number for this year is already at 26, with a couple months still left in the year.
The solution, the report suggests, is to do more of what they were already doing — more traffic cameras, more speed limit re-evaluations, more police in school zones and more enforcement of traffic laws. Adding to that will be evaluations of “high crash corridors” and traffic patterns throughout the district.
More efforts will be made into making sure the safety plan is equitable with investments into public transportation and under-served communities.
“The burden of traffic violence falls disproportionately across the District, with wards 7 and 8 bearing the greatest losses of life and serious injuries,” said Bowser. “We must change that outcome.”
Wards 7 and 8 alone have a combined 82 pedestrian fatalities from 2017 to 2021, compared to the 92 total through the rest of the District.
A new Vision Zero website has also been made available to offer education and information on the projects underway to make the roads safer in the city.
