In the ongoing series “Driven to Death,” NBC 5 investigates Dallas reported a higher traffic fatality rate than any other U.S. city of its size, with speed being the number one cause of accidents.
But some road safety activists believe the accident may have been more than just a driving error. They suspect that Texas' road design and speed limit regulations may also be contributing to higher speeds and fatalities.
To understand why, consider for a moment what it's like to obey the speed limit on a Dallas freeway. On a recent drive, NBC5 investigates I set cruise control to the 60 mph speed limit on Interstate 35E in Dallas. Soon we were being overtaken from all directions and it became uncomfortable to drive above the speed limit, and it felt like we needed to speed up to avoid becoming obstacles on the road.
NBC 5's “Investigation” asks whether bad driving was not the only cause of the crash. Some traffic safety advocates believe the state's road design and speed limit regulations are leading to higher speeds and more fatalities. NBC 5 senior investigative reporter Scott Friedman is looking for solutions.
Jay Crossley, head of Vision Zero Texas, an urban advocacy group working to end traffic deaths, said the Texas Department of Transportation has spent decades building roads and setting speed limits. If you think about it, it's natural that drivers who drive within the speed limit would feel uncomfortable, he said. .
“It feels weird and you feel like you're doing something wrong because you're on a wide open racetrack,” Crossley said. “The way we designed Texas' streets and roads is a trap. And we're saying we're blaming users for using the system the way it was designed.”
Crosley said the state has long designed its roads to handle speeds well above the posted speed limit, or so-called “design speed.” He said TxDOT's designs often prioritize wider lanes on six-lane state highways that run through large highway corridors and pedestrian areas in urban areas.
Roads are designed to move traffic faster than just keeping speeds at the safest level in congested areas, he said.
“At some point, you have to choose between saving lives and promoting faster motor vehicle traffic,” said David Zipper, a visiting scholar at Harvard University and an expert on transportation policy and road safety. ” he said.
We drove with Zipper on the roads of Dallas, where hundreds of serious traffic injuries and fatalities have occurred in recent years.
“What really strikes me is that these highways are so wide that they act like faucets, and just have so many cars plowing into the city centre,” Zipper said. .
On the Central Expressway north of downtown Dallas, a review of TxDOT accident data shows 18 people have died and at least 78 have been seriously injured in speed-related crashes within five years. .
On the Central Expressway between Woodall Rogers and Spring Valley Road, TxDOT raised the speed limit from 65 mph to 70 mph eight years ago. The agency said at the time that the speed improvements would ease congestion.
Zipper said it's unusual to see such a speed limit on a highway that enters the heart of a major U.S. city.
“As far as I can tell, raising speed limits, especially in densely populated areas and urbanized places like Dallas, only moves us further away from the safety goals this state is supposed to be pursuing. I’m not sure if you’re thinking about it,” Zipper said.
When TxDOT staff said Secretary Mark Williams would not be available for an interview for this report, we contacted the agency at a traffic safety conference in Austin and asked what the agency would do to address speed. I asked him if he was doing it.
Williams said he “rebuilds” criticism that the agency has designed roads that encourage faster speeds and increase deaths and injuries, and that TxDOT has many tools to build safer highways. He said he is making use of it.
Williams said he is “certainly grateful to advocates and people who are willing to look at the status quo and challenge us on how we move forward with road design,” but at the same time, TxDOT is pushing for speed improvements. He also suggested that it is possible to simultaneously achieve improvements in safety and safety.
“Yes, we need to design roads to deal with congestion, and sometimes that will be to increase speed,” Williams said. “People are sitting in crowds and not moving. But you also have to balance that with the safety concerns and the safety elements that are there.”
Zipper says there is an unavoidable trade-off between speed and safety, and that U.S. road planners have long been obsessed with what he calls the myth that highways are safe in big cities. said. He noted that cities in Canada and Europe, where fatality rates are much lower, are cracking down on motorists by not only lowering speed limits but also using automatic cameras on drivers.
Additionally, by installing traffic calming devices and building lanes near pedestrian areas, drivers feel like they are entering a smaller space and are naturally forced to slow down. NBC 5 investigates I saw it firsthand on a recent trip to Edmonton, Canada.
Dallas transportation planners say they want to reduce speeds on Buckner Boulevard, one of the city's most accident-prone highways.
However, Buckner is part of Loop 12, a state highway whose speed limit is set at 40 mph by TxDOT. Therefore, cities should first request a speed study from TxDOT and then expect the state to recommend a lower limit.
Meanwhile, the city says it cannot build crosswalks in the middle of blocks to increase pedestrian protection because TxDOT policy requires speed limits to be lowered before crosswalks are installed. Stated.
Mr. Zipper said it is no coincidence that Texas has the highest speed limits in the nation on its highways, and that the state also has the highest number of traffic fatalities in the country (approximately 12 people per day). I believe.
Some safety advocates said part of the problem lies in a formula called the “85th percentile rule” used by TxDOT to set speed limits. TxDOT measures speed on the road and basically he sets the limit to the speed of the 85th fastest out of 100 drivers.
“You know, people who drive significantly faster than other people, we accept them as the norm and say that should be the speed limit,” Crossley said. .
So some worry that the 85th percentile rule will prompt engineers to raise the speed limit if there are a lot of speeders on the road.
“The result is traffic moving at very dangerous speeds,” Zipper said.
The federal government has moved away from using the 85th percentile rule as the primary factor in speed settings, with TxDOT stating: NBC 5 investigates that they are doing the same thing.
“It's been abused in the past,” Williams said, adding that TxDOT will no longer use only this metric when determining road speed limits, but will incorporate other factors into its decisions as well. he added.
On the other hand, we still drive on roads where the 85th percentile rule is used to set limits. For example, on Central Expressway, TxDOT records we obtained show that the speed study the agency used to raise limits in 2015 used the 85th percentile rule.
NBC 5 investigates Speed surveys were carried out and Central drivers were found traveling at speeds of 16mph and even 30mph over the 70mph limit. These speeds help explain why trying to follow the law can sometimes feel “pretty awkward.”
“In our cities, our highways and boulevards have become racetracks, and it feels uncomfortable to drive at a safe speed,” Crossley said.
TxDOT reported NBC 5 investigates We argued that the speeds we recorded were a problem and that police needed to do more to crack down on speeding. Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said he conducts special speed enforcement on roads, including the Central Expressway, but staffing shortages and a focus on violent crime mean the department doesn't enforce speed enforcement as consistently as it would like. He added that it is not possible. We will discuss this in more detail in a future report.
TxDOT also said NBC 5 investigates Officials lowered speed limits on some local highways, including Highway 78 in East Dallas, where a speed study recommended lowering the limit to 35 mph.
But city officials say some of the most dangerous roads they've identified are state highways, and the process of changing speed limits can be frustrating and time-consuming, during which even more deaths and injuries could occur. He said there is.
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