Dallas’ traffic is deadlier than that of other big cities. Will this plan save us?

Driving in Dallas is treacherous, and it’s getting worse. Between 2010 and 2020, Dallas site visitors fatalities elevated 80%. Among the many 15 most populous cities within the nation, Dallas has the second-worst site visitors fatality price.

On Wednesday, the Dallas Metropolis Council accepted an bold agenda to attempt to cease the bleeding. Town’s new Imaginative and prescient Zero motion plan was designed to get rid of all site visitors fatalities by 2030 and minimize extreme accidents in half.

As we welcome this step, we urge the town to make Imaginative and prescient Zero a real motion plan – not only a want record.

Although site visitors fatalities are on the rise nationally, a metropolis workers knowledge evaluation reveals that Dallas’ fatality price is rising quicker than the U.S. common, reaching 17 deaths per each 100,000 residents in 2020. The hazard is very pronounced for pedestrians, who make up a disproportionate share of site visitors fatalities within the metropolis. Solely 2% of Dallas residents stroll to work, but pedestrians account for 30% of site visitors deaths, the town discovered.

The Imaginative and prescient Zero plan ranges from consciousness campaigns to street re-engineering. Although the town’s wide-ranging agenda is admirable, it ought to goal its most harmful streets first for its highest-impact interventions.

Simply 7% of Dallas streets are accountable for 62% of extreme crashes, the town present in its crash knowledge evaluation. As of now, the town’s Imaginative and prescient Zero motion plan lacks many specifics about the way it will forestall fatalities and accidents on these high-risk roads.

Metropolis workers stated that every yr, it plans to implement low-cost security enhancements on a mean of 5 harmful corridors. And every quarter, it can goal six harmful corridors for conspicuous traffic-law enforcement.

Town has but to say the way it will prioritize these corridors, or when it can announce its first targets.

In an e-mail, metropolis spokeswoman Catherine Cuellar stated Dallas will work to develop and share these plans within the coming months. However, she wrote, “it will be untimely to debate rank and schedule right now,” earlier than the town can end its evaluation.

Though eight years may sound like a brief timeline to get rid of all site visitors deaths within the metropolis, it’s a very long time for the council to maintain focus. By laying out clear priorities and standards, the town can keep on monitor. Going into finances season, the council ought to take into consideration the way it’s persistently funding this agenda from yr to yr.

Imaginative and prescient Zero calls on policymakers to shift their considering. As a substitute of seeing site visitors fatalities as inevitable, Imaginative and prescient Zero’s proponents argue, we must always take into account them preventable.

If the Dallas Metropolis Council is dedicated to saving lives, it ought to begin the place the bleeding is worst.

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