Dallas has no written plans to curb pedestrian accidents, city audit says

Dallas doesn’t have any written procedures for learn how to lower the variety of pedestrians hit in site visitors, doesn’t test to see if any preventative measures now in place really repair the danger of accidents and is means behind on ensuring previous crosswalks are nonetheless seen, says a stinging metropolis audit launched Monday.

Together with no formal plans, town’s transportation division doesn’t have any efficiency measures that deal with pedestrian security or any particular targets or timelines for proactively decreasing crashes at places the place a number of individuals have been harm, although the division routinely collects crash knowledge.

The town additionally has a backlog of 1,500 crosswalks in want of re-marking, which might price $1.2 million.

That’s all in accordance with a routine overview of the transportation division by town auditor, which will likely be formally offered to the Metropolis Council’s authorities efficiency and monetary administration committee subsequent month.

[Read the audit]

Metropolis transportation director Gus Khankarli didn’t reply to a request for remark in regards to the 14-page audit. In a letter to metropolis auditor Mark Swann responding to the report, Metropolis Supervisor T.C. Broadnax stated town is already engaged on plans to handle most of the points raised by the audit.

One among them is Imaginative and prescient Zero, which was requested by the Metropolis Council in 2019. Metropolis employees is about to current a full plan for that effort to the council someday this yr mapping out methods to enhance residents’ security on roads, together with having zero site visitors deaths by 2030.

“Coincidentally, the (transportation) division beforehand acknowledged a number of of the problems described within the audit report as needing enhancement,” Broadnax wrote. “Transportation has been creating and implementing options to handle these points over the previous three years.”

Broadnax couldn’t be reached for remark Monday night.

Dallas, the ninth-largest metropolis within the U.S., ranked fifth in 2020 amongst pedestrian deaths in cities of at the very least 50,000 individuals, in accordance with the Nationwide Freeway Visitors Security Administration. The 66 individuals killed put Dallas under solely Phoenix, Houston, New York and Los Angeles.

Among the many nation’s 20 largest cities, Dallas had the very best fee of pedestrian deaths per 100,000 individuals in 2020.

Among the many metropolis audit’s findings:

— Dallas doesn’t have any set standards for when intersections warrant additional investigation to guage questions of safety in areas the place individuals have been hit a number of instances. There’s no uniform monitoring of what enhancements are wanted. And there are not any procedures to see how properly enhancements are working.

“Attributable to this, some excessive damage places is probably not addressed in a well timed method and should trigger fairness points,” the audit stated.

— The town has a yearly purpose of re-marking 830 crosswalks a yr, however final fiscal yr funded solely 70 crosswalks.

— The town has seven transportation employees accountable for all crosswalk upkeep in Dallas and the Metropolis Council has decreased the funds by greater than $400,000 since 2016.

The auditor’s workplace advisable Khankarli create particular plans to enhance pedestrian security with timelines for once they’re carried out in addition to methods to trace progress.

Suggestions additionally included creating written insurance policies to include pedestrian accident knowledge Dallas already collects into these plans in addition to a standards for when to proactively additional look at pedestrian site visitors points in particular areas of town based mostly on tendencies seen within the knowledge.

Khankarli also needs to create a plan to clear the backlog of crosswalks that should be re-marked and embrace an estimate of what number of years it’ll take, the audit stated. The town additionally wants to examine security measures, like indicators, indicators and crosswalks, extra continuously, in accordance with the audit.

Federal and state tips, for instance, name for pedestrian site visitors indicators being inspected each six months and crosswalks being refreshed each seven years. Dallas requires pedestrian site visitors sign upkeep each 18 months and crosswalk re-marking each 10 years, the audit stated.

Broadnax wrote that town doesn’t plan to observe two of the suggestions. He stated the transportation division gained’t observe federal suggestions that pedestrian and bike security plans prioritize pedestrian site visitors over all different modes of transportation, as an alternative opting to deal with safer roadways for all customers.

He additionally stated town gained’t line up upkeep tips with federal and state requirements.

“Whereas transportation agrees it could be perfect to align upkeep schedules for pedestrian security with main standards, we’ll settle for the danger for this suggestion as a result of useful resource challenges and uncertainty, significantly relating to funding and recruiting and retaining an sufficient variety of expert staff,” Broadnax wrote.

Khankarli is one in all 4 prime metropolis officers included on the finish of Broadnax’s letter.

The audit comes as town is creating and making an attempt to place into place a number of completely different traffic-related plans together with ones to handle hundreds of miles of lacking sidewalks, and a plan to create tips to assist metropolis officers prioritize coverage selections and future initiatives that incorporate a number of types of transportation for residents.

The transportation audit has been within the works on and off since at the very least 2020.

Dallas didn’t have a devoted transportation division till 2017. Transportation was beforehand a part of town’s public works workplace.