![]() ![]() accounted for 70 percent of traffic-related arrests, despite making up under 50 percent of the population, with no indication of a commensurately higher rate of dangerous driving behavior. The history of D.C.’s automated traffic enforcement camerasĪ high-profile report released in 2013 found that black residents in D.C. While research shows that traffic cameras do reduce vehicle speeds, collisions, and injuries, this analysis highlights the racial inequities that can happen when a city relies too much on enforcement as a Vision Zero strategy. This initial investigation suggests that absent an affirmative effort to equitably site automated traffic cameras, a disproportionate burden of enforcement could be borne within the District’s predominantly black neighborhoods. ![]() does play into in the enforcement of traffic violations: census tracts with higher proportions of black residents are associated with a higher incidence of traffic fines, despite not experiencing a greater number of crashes. My analysis of moving violations citations and crash data suggests that the racial geography of D.C. Given the District’s high degree of residential racial segregation, decisions about where and how to use “neutral” technology like speed cameras can still have a disparate impact in terms of outcomes. But as with many technologies, even “neutral” automated traffic cameras can be used in ways that unintentionally further racial disparities. And in a sense, this is correct, as they do lessen the potential for selective enforcement and potentially volatile police encounters. Proponents have argued that speed cameras and red light cameras remove the potential of racially discriminatory enforcement. In terms of D.C.’s enforcement mechanisms, the vast majority of citations for moving violations are from automated traffic cameras. ![]() … is not only going to perpetuate those inequities, but also cause additional harm in those communities. So when you have a community, particularly communities of color, low-income communities where there has been historical disinvestment in safe streets, it’s no wonder that the outcomes of traffic fatalities and serious injuries are higher in those communities. If our only mechanism to make a street safer is to go out and have police out there or speed cameras, we’ve already failed at the design of the street. Greg Billing Executive Director of the Washington Area Bicyclist Association, agreed: “It’s going to take us a little bit of time to redesign an entire city that has been designed for cars.” Billing also described enforcement as “a strategy of last resort”: “The thing that we think makes the biggest difference is design,” Jacob Bason, President of All Walks DC, said, in a recent discussion on the Kojo Nnamdi Show. Enforcement is often an easier tool for cities to deploy, especially when safer street design is held up by logistical and bureaucratic barriers. Among these three, engineering is the most fundamental, but also the most difficult. Strategies to prevent traffic fatalities traditionally fall into three categories: engineering, enforcement, and education. have been criticized for being ineffective-traffic deaths rose locally and nationally in recent years-and for exacerbating existing racial inequities. ![]() The Vision Zero movement recognizes traffic collisions as a public health epidemic with identifiable causes and solutions, rather than accidental and immutable forces of nature beyond reach of safety interventions using this framework, the District has taken concrete steps to address root causes and reduce traffic fatalities. joined the international Vision Zero movement by committing to end traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |