What GGWash said at a recent DC traffic safety hearing

The DC Council held a hearing in early October to solicit public comments on four traffic safety-related bills. Greater Greater Washington’s policy staff testified on behalf of GGWash and the coalitions we manage, the DC Transportation Equity Network (DC TEN) and the DC Sustainable Transportation (DCST) coalition. We thought the bills were mostly great, and we had a few thoughts on how to improve them. The aims of each bill are summarized below.

The License Suspension Reform Amendment Act of 2023 aims to “improve traffic safety by expanding the situations in which a driver’s license and/or vehicle registration would be suspended.”

The Fraudulent Vehicle Tag Enforcement Amendment Act of 2023 aims to “improve traffic safety by addressing the proliferation of long-expired temporary tags and other counterfeit vehicle tags.”

The Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility (STEER) Act of 2023 aims to hold dangerous drivers from outside of the District accountable for their driving behavior by empowering the Attorney General of DC to pursue civil suits against dangerous drivers both within and outside of DC. It also includes ways to get dangerous drivers and their cars off the road faster than what current processes allow.

The ATE Effectiveness Amendment Act of 2023 aims to change dangerous driving behavior by shifting the penalty system for drivers toward a point-based system for moving violations – which includes speeding over 11 miles per hour over the speed limit, running red lights, and running stop signs – captured by traffic cameras.

Most importantly, we think the hearing was a very healthy and important show of collaboration among councilmembers. Traffic safety is an issue that requires that same spirit and practice of collaboration among multiple District agencies, including the District Department of Transportation, the Department of Public Works, the Department for Energy and the Environment, and DC Health. Opportunities like these to look at various angles of an issue at one time and in the same “room” aren’t very common, but they can be really helpful for making policy that’s sensitive to context and more effective.

Greater Greater Washington’s testimony

Alex Baca, DC Policy Director, devoted most of GGWash’s testimony to making our support for the Automated Traffic Enforcement Effectiveness Amendment Act very, very clear. We have for several years advocated for switching entirely from fines for traffic infractions to points, because points, which cannot simply be wiped away given one’s ability to pay, are a more serious and more appropriate consequence for those who drive dangerously.

Transportation Equity Network

Kai Hall, Policy Officer, testified on behalf of the DC Transportation Equity Network in support of all four traffic enforcement bills.

Kai emphasized the coalition’s support for assigning points instead of fines for traffic violations, as outlined in the Automated Traffic Enforcement Effectiveness Amendment Act. Assigning points to drivers may result in a variety of consequences based on the number of points accrued. As Alex pointed out above, unlike fines, points cannot be paid off, and lead to proportional consequences for dangerous driving behaviors. This addresses a longstanding equity concern with the current fine-based system, which disproportionately punishes drivers without the means to pay tickets and allows those with means to continue their dangerous driving behavior without meaningful consequences. This bill also allows drivers to attend safe driving courses as a way to remediate points.

The DC TEN supports the Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility (STEER) Act, which, among other things, would empower the Attorney General of DC to pursue civil suits against out-of-state drivers who violate our traffic laws. This is a step in the right direction as DC struggles to get Maryland and Virginia on board with a formal framework for reciprocity to enforce consequences against dangerous drivers.

Kai also highlighted the opportune timing of this hearing, as it coincided with the National Walk and Roll to School Day and the National Week Without Driving. The DC TEN organized District officials’ participation in the Week Without Driving, and shouted out Councilmember Allen, Chairperson of the Transportation and the Environment Committee, and several Advisory Neighborhood Commissioners who testified at the hearing for their participation in the campaign.

DC Sustainable Transportation Coalition

Caitlin Rogger, executive director of DC Sustainable Transportation Coalition and deputy executive director of GGWash, testified in support of the four bills, offering a few suggestions.

For the License Suspension Reform Act, Caitlin pointed out that proposed provisions for revising penalties for alleged driving under the influence should also reflect the heightened danger caused by distracted driving.

From her testimony: “Research shows that texting while driving slows down driver response times by 35%, whereas alcohol slows down responses by 21% and cannabis by 12%. What that means in practice is that if I step into the road, a driver traveling at 20 miles per hour under normal conditions needs 40 feet to stop and avoid hitting me; a driver at the same speed but under the influence of cannabis needs 45 feet; under the influence of alcohol, they need 48 feet; but if they’re distracted by technology, looking at their screen, they need a full 54 feet to not hit me, possibly causing me injury or even death…27% of drivers involved in a crash were using a phone within 60 seconds of impact.”

In a similar vein to DCST’s support for councilmembers collaborating to address traffic violence, Caitlin reflected that a public health emergency like this can’t be solely solved by the District Department of Transportation alone. DDOT doesn’t count epidemiologists among its staff, yet it’s charged with delivering a specific and (appropriately) ambitious set of public health improvements without having the detailed datasets, or analytical or health intervention skills, to do so. But it doesn’t necessarily need to have them, because there’s an agency in the same government that does have those skills and capabilities: DC Health. Collaboration between these agencies could help a lot.

Overall, GGWash, DC TEN, and DCST are pleased about the introduction and discussion of these bills, and the collaborative way in which the Council is looking at them. We look forward to following these bills’ progression.