As more Americans start driving to work and hitting the roads after a year of restrictions, they will return to streets that have become more deadly.
Last year, nails 42,000 people were killed in vehicle crashes and 4.8 million were injured. That represents an 8% increase over 2019, the largest year-over-year increase in nearly a century, even though the number of miles driven fell by a 13%, according to the National Security Council (NSC).
Emptier roads caused it to accelerate further, leading to more deaths, said Leah Shahum, executive director of Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit whose goal is to reduce traffic fatalities.
Ironically, congestion, a nightmare for drivers around the world, was what kept people safer before the pandemic, added Shahum.
“This is a health crisis public nationwide, “said Laura Friedman, a member of the California Assembly who introduced a bill this year to lower speed limits.
” If they died 42, 000 people each year in accidents aircraft, we would do much more about it, and yet we seem to have accepted this as collateral damage. ”
California and other states are trying to reduce traffic fatalities, a problem that has become aggravated in recent 10 years, but has become urgent since the start of the COVID pandemic – 19.
Legislators, from coast to coast, have presented dozens of bills to reduce speed limits, establish radar programs and promote pedestrian safety.
The proposals reflect a change in perspective in traffic management. Increasingly, both transportation safety activists and engineers are calling for roads that get drivers to their destination safely and not as quickly as possible.
Legislators have already reacted, Although it is too early to know which bills will eventually become law, explained Douglas Shinkle, who directs the transportation program of the National Conference of State Legislatures.
But concrete proposals are beginning to emerge.
Some states want more local power with the ability to regulate traffic in their communities, giving cities and counties more control over speed limits, as lawmakers have proposed in Michigan, Nebraska and other states . Some want communities to use speed control radars, something that is being studied in Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Florida and elsewhere.
In Connecticut a bill for safety is on the table of pedestrians that incorporates several concepts, including giving local authorities the power to limit speed and allow some municipalities to test radars near schools, hospitals and work areas.
” For decades, we have built roads and highways that are adequate and quite safe for motorists, ”said Connecticut Sen. Will Haskell (D-Westport), who chairs the committee overseeing the bill.
“We also have to recognize that some people do not have a car but have the right to move safely around their community.”
“Almost immediately” after the pandemic began, data indicated an increase Massive road fatalities, despite lockdown orders that kept people home and reduced the number of drivers, said Tara Leystra, NSC’s manager of state affairs.
“Many states they try to allow local communities more flexibility so they can lower their speed limits, ”Leystra said. “It’s a trend that started before the pandemic, but I think it really accelerated this year.”
In California, fines issued by the state highway patrol for driving more than 100 miles per hour nearly doubled to 31, 600 during the first year of the pandemic.
Friedman (D-Burbank ) wants to reform the way California sets speed limits on local highways.
California uses the “percentile 85, ”a decades-old federal standard that many states want to abandon. Every 10 years, state engineers examine a stretch of road to see how fast it is driving. Then, they base the limit on the percentile 85 of that speed, that is, the speed at which the 85% of drivers.
This encourages “increased speed,” said Friedman, who chairs the transportation committee of the State Assembly. “Every time a study is conducted, many cities are forced to increase speed limits because they drive faster and faster,” he added.
Before the pandemic, a working group of California recommended letting cities have more flexibility in setting their speed limits, and a federal report found the percentile standard 85 inadequate for set speeds. But not everyone opposes the rule.
In New Jersey, for example, legislators presented a bill, in this legislative session, to start using it.
Friedman’s bill, the AB 42, would allow local authorities to set some speed limits without using the method percentile 85. It would require traffic inspectors to take into account areas such as work zones, schools and residences for the elderly, where vulnerable people may have access to these streets, when setting speed limits.
In addition to reducing speed limits, legislators also want to improve their control.
In California, two bills would repeal the state’s ban on automated enforcement of the speed limit. speed, allowing cities to launch pilot radar programs in places like work zones, on particularly dangerous streets and around schools.
But after a year of intense scrutiny on fairness, In both public health and law enforcement, legislators recognize that they must strike a delicate balance between protecting communities at risk and over-surveillance.
Although radars do not discriminate by the color of the skin, the Prejudices can enter the equation.
The richest areas tend to have wide streets and passable sidewalks, while those with lower income tend to be crossed by highways. Putting cameras only on the most dangerous streets could mean that they mostly end up in low-income areas, Shahum said.
“This is a question of street design,” he said. “These have always been neighborhoods in which little has been invested.”
Assembly Member David Chiu (D-San Francisco), author of one of the bills, said the measure includes safeguards to make the radar program fair.
Would limit fines to $ 125 , with a sliding scale for low-income drivers, and would convert infractions into civil, not criminal offenses.
“We know that something must be done, because traditional speed surveillance has not had success, ”Chiu said. “On the other hand, it is well documented that drivers of color are much more likely to be stopped.”
Kaiser Health News is the newsroom of KFF (Kaiser Family Foundation), which produces journalism in depth on health issues. Along with Policy Analysis and Surveys, KHN is one of the top three programs of KFF, an organization that provides information on health issues to the nation.