US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
smartcitiesdive.com
US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
1–10 of 82 posts
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#2Pathetically small considering how much they spend on making streets more dangerous (i.e. more cars traveling at faster speeds).
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#3Pathetically small considering how much they spend on making streets more dangerous (i.e. more cars traveling at faster speeds).
> The next round of funding opportunities, totaling $1.1 billion, is expected to be released in April
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#4Pathetically small considering how much they spend on making streets more dangerous (i.e. more cars traveling at faster speeds).
> The next round of funding opportunities, totaling $1.1 billion, is expected to be released in April
Yes, still pathetically small. The DOT spent $375 billion on roads in 2022. Most of it went towards making roads more dangerous by increasing traffic volumes and speeds.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#5As long as safety for people is not prioritized over car speed, no amount of spending will make streets substantially more safe. Cars are the problem, they cause all the deaths.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#6As long as safety for people is not prioritized over car speed, no amount of spending will make streets substantially more safe. Cars are the problem, they cause all the deaths.
> they cause all the deaths
And have all the utility, too. It's not a simple problem.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#7https://www.enotrans.org/article/bipartisan-infrastructure-b...
> Sub-state municipal governments, MPOs, and tribes will be able to apply for grants to develop Vision Zero plans ... At least 40 percent.. $400 million of the up-front $1 billion.. would have to go for the planning grants to develop Vision Zero plans.
https://visionzeronetwork.org/where-to-start/
> First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proved successful across Europe — and now it’s gaining momentum in major American cities ... Vision Zero focuses on preventing traffic fatalities and serious injuries. This starts with understanding what and where the most problems are, then prioritizing resources to make systemic improvements. Data should be analyzed over at least five years to identify locations and types of serious crashes and to identify patterns. It is important to supplement police crash records, which can omit important information, with public health and equity data for a fuller picture.
https://visionzeronetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Wha...
> Speeding kills more than 10,000 people each year in the U.S. – on par with drunk driving – yet, the act of speeding does not carry the same social consequences as drunk driving. Vision Zero calls on communities to prioritize safe speeds through safe street design, automated speed enforcement (or safety cameras), and setting safe speed limits.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#8Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The next round of funding opportunities, totaling $1.1 billion, is expected to be released in April
Yes, still pathetically small. The DOT spent $375 billion on roads in 2022. Most of it went towards making roads more dangerous by increasing traffic volumes and speeds.
We can still celebrate this one-time increase from $0 to $1B/year for 5 years.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#9So people pay taxes to the federal government, who then doles it back out to the cities and states to spend it, after taking a big cut for their own legions of bureaucrats.
If these projects are important, why can't they be funded directly via city and state taxes? If I want safer roads, I can call up my state rep, who is much more likely to listen to me than my congressman or senator.
Re: US DOT awards $800M toward street safety
#10As long as safety for people is not prioritized over car speed, no amount of spending will make streets substantially more safe. Cars are the problem, they cause all the deaths.
> they cause all the deaths And have all the utility, too. It's not a simple problem.
The problem is simpler than your framing alludes. There are other modes of transit that are much safer with far fewer negative externalities than private cars, like walking, bike, bus, and rail. We repeatedly make a political decision in the US not to prioritize them. This spending for street safety is a step in the other direction, but by and large does very little to change the dominance of public spending on private cars in the US.