Eric Wemple: Stopping bad drivers
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District 6 parent Alison McGill volunteers to help families cross the street at Tyler Elementary School on Capitol Hill. It's a dangerous job, given that motorists drive past the school and get stuck in traffic on Southeast 11th Street on their way to Interstate 695. At the urging of D.C. City Councilman Charles Allen (D-6th District), the D.C. Police Department occasionally deploys officers during unrest. — Mr. McGill was overjoyed.
But about half the time, she says, commissioned officers watch the world go by. “Well, I get paid to be there,” she said casually. “Why are you sitting in the car?”
Watching cops monitor egregious traffic violations and then do nothing is a fundamental experience in the District. Vocal voters in Washington, D.C., want traffic violators to pay for speeding, illegal U-turns, and running red lights.
In 2015, Mayor Bowser launched a “Vision Zero” initiative for the district that expressed tremendous behavioral optimism. “We are taking the first steps toward achieving Vision Zero, where no lives are lost on our streets or at intersections,” Bowser said. But D.C. roads, and some drivers, have little respect for bureaucratic vision. Last year, the city recorded 52 road fatalities, the highest number since 2007.
Keith Anderson, D.C.'s deputy mayor for operations and infrastructure, told me the solution goes beyond enforcement, pointing to a “multi-pronged strategy” that includes “a number of interventions.” Examples include reducing the number of lanes, lowering speed limits, lengthening curbs, and allowing pedestrians to get a head start at crossing lights, changes that he said are effective at 80% of Washington, D.C., intersections. It is being enforced. All are welcome and important developments.
In terms of enforcement, this district is camera town. City officials say the city's automated traffic enforcement (ATE) system relies on more than 400 cameras, making D.C. one of the most active users of the technology in the country. It is said that it will be done. The return, they say, is worth the investment. A few months after the cameras were installed, Anderson said in his D.C. Council testimony that “drivers slowed down and personal injuries decreased by 30 percent.”
However, cameras cannot capture every bad act by drivers. And it only imposes a fine on the registered owner of the vehicle, as opposed to the more serious sanction of adding points to your driving record. Additionally, neighboring jurisdictions do not have enforcement reciprocity agreements with D.C. regarding automatic tickets, meaning residents of Maryland and Virginia can essentially ignore them. Mr. Allen's bill addresses some of the problems in the system and is expected to go into effect soon.
So there's plenty of room for what traffic buffs call “face-to-face” enforcement, the old-fashioned method of police interrogating drivers. During the traffic safety hearing, Allen pointed out that 99 percent of any given speeding ticket is issued by ATE, and the remaining 1 percent is issued by police officers. Additionally, as DC Crime Facts reported, the number of adult arrests for traffic violations by DC police is 73 percent lower than pre-pandemic numbers.
Data contextualizes the atmosphere. Mike Velasquez, District 6 Advisory District Commissioner, said at his October City Council hearing. Not only are they brandishing guns, they are brandishing another dangerous weapon: a car driven by an indifferent person. ”
As one Bowser administration official put it, police traffic stops are “fraught with the potential for discrimination, inappropriate use of force, and other ugly consequences.” Their shortage is equally troubling, as Washington, D.C., officials have hopefully recognized.
Eric Wemple is a columnist for Post Opinions.
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