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A new set of bills is trying to tackle the ongoing problem of dangerous driving in the District by getting bad drivers off the road faster.
The bills from Councilmembers Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) and Christina Henderson (D-At-Large) come after a six-hour-long hearing in May on the problem.
The District has struggled to limit the number of traffic fatalities in recent years despite adopting the principles and goals of Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2024. Twenty-eight people have been killed in traffic so far this year — eight more people compared to this time last year.
“(The increases) tells me that our traffic enforcement system is just not working right now,” Allen told DCist/WAMU. “So the legislation from myself and from my colleagues, I think is really squarely aimed at how do we reform and change this to do a better job and keep people safe on the streets in D.C.”
Since the pandemic, drivers’ speeds have increased, patience decreased, and there has been increasingly reckless behavior like swerving around a slowing vehicle at a stop sign. Pedestrian deaths across the country are at a 40-year high.
The bills next head to the transportation committee for a public hearing.
Allen’s bill, which contains multiple parts, would aim at creating more consequences for numerous offenses.
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