How can it be safer to walk, bike, ride and drive in DC? Vision Zero wants to know

WASHINGTON (7News) — How should D.C. reshape the enforcement of traffic safety rules? That’s one of the questions the Vision Zero team is asking city residents.

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It’s the same question posed to the residents who attended a town hall Saturday morning in Northeast D.C.

One Ward 4 resident expressed concern about the cyclists’ activity in the District regarding running red lights.

“It’s not fair. It’s not fair at all,” Jocelynn Johnson said. “It seems that the cyclists have a free ride. They can do whatever they can – run stop signs, stoplights… They’re not captured by cameras. They’re not held accountable like motorists are, and that’s not to me seriously showing me that the powers that be in Washington D.C. are actually focusing on safe streets for everybody.”

7News spoke to one cyclist who admitted that he bends the rules from time to time.

“I will look at an intersection, and if I don’t see traffic there, I’m just going to go, you know,” Jason Haber said. “It is a gray area of the rules.”

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“We work for the public, so we want to hear from the public,” said Vision Zero Office Director Charlie Willson who led Saturday’s meeting.

He touted some achievements from the program.

“[There’s been] huge growth in our use of automated traffic enforcement, which is a known safety feature,” Willson said. “Speed management is the most important thing we can do to decrease fatalities.”

Willson also acknowledges there’s still work to be done to keep drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians safe on D.C. roads.

“This feedback is going to be reflected in our five-year strategic plan that we’re building that’s coming out early next year,” Willson said.

Johnson, although relieved to share her opinion with someone who’s listening, isn’t satisfied just yet.

“We need to make sure that the people who make the decisions, who are the lawmakers, put laws in place to level the playing field,” Johnson said.