The Road Safety Ink: December Edition
Happy New Year! Don’t miss the December recap of the Road Safety Ink . Verra Mobility’s President, David Roberts shares his thoughts on the trends of smart mobility in 2023; we close out 2022 with the launch of new automated enforcement programs and look at the impact of the 24/7 speed safety camera technology in New York.
The Big Story
Directions of Smart Mobility in 2023
David Roberts, President and CEO of Verra Mobility, takes a look ahead at the smart mobility themes and trends for 2023 on Forbes.com.
“In 2023, we should undertake a concentrated, collective effort to make our roads safer for everyone—drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. The statistics are sobering—despite investments in safety efforts, traffic fatality rates have reached a 16-year high. This year presents us with opportunities to reverse this trend.”
Automated Enforcement on the Rise
Check out where red-light and speed safety cameras are creating safer roads and reducing collisions across the country.
“While one fatality is one too many, we can be grateful that fatalities have declined overall and that we are defying national trends with the near-lowest levels of pedestrian fatalities in the city’s history. This is, at least in part, due to our success in securing 24/7 speed camera operation.”
-?????????Ydanis Rodriguez, NYDOT Commissioner
Streetsblog took a vote to celebrate some of DOT’s best projects of the year which helped make the city a more walkable, livable, and safe place.
So far this year, overall traffic fatalities have declined by more than 7 percent since last year, and pedestrian fatalities have dropped along with it — success the DOT attributes to its work on the street.
“This success is against the backdrop of the rest of the United States, which has seen pedestrian deaths rise to levels not seen since the 1980s, we are clearly defying national trends in a big way. How are we doing it? With more street redesign.”
-?????????Margaret Forgione, DOT First Deputy Commissioner
领英推荐
?The number of crashes decreases year by year in these zones with cameras, with 11 reported collisions from September through December last year, down from 14 in the same time frame in 2020, an SDOT report states. There is typically one collision reported per month in school zones with speed cameras. The report also says there were more than 54,000 citations issued in 2021.
“It’s very efficient to do this because we know we have a severe staffing shortage within the police department. We want to expand how we protect kids walking to and from school.”
-?????????Alex Pedersen, Seattle Councilmember
A Push for Change
Studies show that thousands of motorist’s disregard school bus stop-arms every school day, unnecessarily putting children, bus drivers, and other motorists at risk. Many parents and law makers are pushing for change to protect their children.
“Well, this mom is doing her part. I have created my own awareness campaign for this very serious problem. I'm talking to politicians, the media and anyone who will listen. And I've started an online petition urging the Legislature to pass the school bus stop-arm camera bill into law.
This is a no-brainer, folks. Put the cameras on the outside of the buses, issue citations and reduce the number of repeat violations — all with no upfront cost to the state and taxpayers — to save kid’s lives.”
-?????????Maria Scheri, Peabody Resident