GUEST COLUMN: Time to rethink Denver’s ‘Vision Zero’ plan
Along with the challenges of addressing the city’s homeless issue, auto theft and crime, the lack of affordable housing, and a need to reenergize downtown, the next Denver mayor should focus attention on one more problem — traffic safety, in the city.
With a lot of fanfare the City of Denver announced in 2016 its Vision Zero Plan with a goal of zero traffic-related deaths and serious injuries by 2030. It was an admirable goal and was lauded by many. As part of that announcement the City outlined a five year plan toward putting a framework and actions in place to achieve the 2030 goal. Since the announcement of Vision Zero, the city has spent millions on various safety projects and programs such as traffic calming, greater traffic education and outreach, lighting, traffic signal change, improved engineering designs on projects, safer bike lanes and sidewalks, etc.
One might imagine that based on all of these efforts and expenditures that the City may be well on its way to accomplishing its goals under Vision Zero. That isn’t the case. While the City has identified various accomplishments since it initiated Vision Zero in 2016, the fundamental goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries associated with those incidents by 2030, appears further away than it was seven years ago when the program was started. Rather than traffic fatalities and serious injuries dropping, they have increased significantly. At the end of their five year plan in 2021, recorded traffic deaths in the city was one of the highest in the city’s history with 84 fatalities which was a 38% increase from the beginning of the plan in 2016.
So, what happened? Why is the city’s Vision Zero plan not only not reducing fatalities and serious injury accidents but those numbers have increased?
In highway safety they refer to a three-legged stool for improving safety. The three legs are Education, Engineering, and Enforcement. Education includes signage, safety messaging, and outreach to the public on the importance of safe driving. Engineering involves designing roadways in a manner to enhance safety not only for motorists but others like cyclists and pedestrians. . Finally, there is enforcement which is essential in ensuring that drivers are following traffic laws and driving in a safe manner. To have a successful highway safety program, it’s critical that attention is given to all three elements.
The reality is that the City recently has only focused on two legs of the highway safety stool, education and engineering. Over the last several years they have downplayed the importance of traffic enforcement and de-emphasized the effort which has translated into fewer officers conducting speed and traffic operations.
To illustrate this point, in 2010 there were 144,370 traffic violations written and by 2021 that number had fallen to 48,576, a 66% decrease.. It isn’t only the number of violations that have dropped substantially but the physical presence of police officers performing traffic enforcement.
Like it or not a law enforcement presence along roadways acts as a deterrent for drivers from speeding and acting recklessly. It also makes individuals less likely to drive while impaired for fear of receiving a DUI. One of the key results of an active traffic enforcement program is that drivers adhere better to speed limits which acts to reduce the number of serious crashes where speeding is a primary factor. A clear indication of the impact related to reduced traffic enforcement, not only in Denver but statewide, is the increasing number of traffic fatalities where speed was the primary factor. In 2010 speeding was a factor in 33% of all statewide fatal traffic accidents. By 2020 speeding was the key factor in 46% of fatal traffic crashes.
With Denver’s Vision Zero report for 2021 specifically identifying reckless, careless and aggressive driving, including speeding along with impaired driving as the most common factors in traffic fatalities, one might assume that the City would have reversed course. These are the unsafe driving practices that are prevented or curbed by an active and visible traffic enforcement program where officers stop violators before an accident occurs.
Yet, despite the lack of success of Denver’s Vision Zero Plan, the city’s traffic safety strategies for 2023 look much like those in prior years and to date appear to be yielding similar results. While we are only seven weeks into the new year, already fourteen lives have been lost. Based on that pace, it’s likely by year’s end that the number of traffic fatalities and serious injuries will be similar to last year.
So why hasn’t the city dedicated more officers to conduct traffic enforcement on our streets and highways? Part of the answer may lie with the reaction by elected officials and the public to the spate of horrible high profile traffic stops over the past few years where law enforcement officers went well-beyond what was appropriate, leading to the tragic death of individuals. Traffic stops took on a bad connotation and being viewed as a pretext to target minorities and use aggressive policing. In response various cities reevaluated their public safety policies. In the case of Denver, its Reimagining Policing and Public Safety Task Force in their final report in 2020 recommended that the city “remove police officers from routine traffic stops and crash reporting and explore non-police alternatives that incentivize behavior change to eliminate traffic fatalities.” Denver Police had already been scaling down traffic stops but the task force recommendation further solidified the matter to the point where traffic monitoring operations and stops have almost become a rarity which has not been lost on the public or reckless drivers.
The next mayor needs to recognize that Denver’s current Vision Zero plan isn’t working. Continuing with the same strategies will produce similar dismal results in the future. The new chief executive must restore the third leg of the highway safety stool, and recognize the importance of an effective traffic enforcement program that includes a greater presence of traffic patrols on key corridors. Without such action we will see more families experience the pain and suffering of losing a loved one while witnessing many more who may be seriously or permanently injured in one of these incidents.
Greg Fulton is the president of the Colorado Motor Carriers Association, which represents more than 650 companies directly involved in or affiliated with trucking in Colorado today.
Dense afternoon traffic runs north and south on Interstate 25, just south of the 20th Street overpass in Denver.
