Oh great a paywall!

I left that there for you.

Bring on the traffic cameras.

bring on more pedestrian oriented infrastructure

While Richmond is spending millions to create safer roadways, preliminary statistics for 2022 show that major challenges remain.

The number of fatal crashes in Richmond as of Dec. 28 stood at 32, the most since the launch of the city’s Vision Zero crash-reduction initiative in 2017. Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles data shows 10 of the crashes involved pedestrians, compared to four in 2021.

The trend is not unique to Richmond.

Preliminary National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data shows 971 Virginia traffic deaths for 2022. There were 968 in 2021, a 14-year high. Pedestrian deaths went from 130 in 2021 to 166 in 2022, according to the state data.

“Virginia has really bad numbers this year, and I talked to some folks at the national level that have not seen an increase everywhere else,” said Brantley Tyndall, director of Bike Walk RVA, a group that’s working to make the area more walkable and bikeable.

Although Tyndall’s unsure of why Richmond experienced such a jump in the number of fatal crashes, he’s glad to see the city make progress in implementing traffic-calming measures and repaving major roadways.

“It’s been a bad year in Richmond, and I don’t know if there’s something specifically contributing to that, but we’ve lost 10 [pedestrian] lives this year,” he said. “It’s clear to me that we have to do something.”

Tyndall also hopes officials will follow through with reducing speeds along major thoroughfares and for Richmond to create a transportation department, which the City Council has considered numerous times.

Richmond’s Department of Public Works has placed a strong focus on addressing the city’s problem areas.

For example, a project at U.S. Route 360 and U.S. Route 1 is close to wrapping up with new crosswalks and high visibility devices.

Areas along Hull Street are scheduled to receive $154 million in safety improvements, said Public Works spokesperson Paige Hairston.

Hairston said numbers locally mirror trends in the region, state and country, and in the coming year the department is planning to provide a number of solutions.

The department is using federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funding to expand the number of pedestrian hybrid beacons, a device that improves visibility of crosswalks.

“These locations are selected based upon their proximity to schools and parks and their exposure to higher volumes of traffic,” Hairston said.

Pedestrian safety improvements are underway around Oak Grove Elementary School, and others will start next year near Mary Munford Elementary School.

The department is also working to replace worn regulatory and warning signs along the “high injury street network” to ensure better visibility.

The Broad Street Streetscape project will continue next year from Laurel Street to Hamilton Street, and next summer crews will begin constructing pedestrian safety improvements at an additional 35 signal intersections.

Construction of these improvements will last at least a year and will use around $1.8 million in federal Highway Safety Improvement Program funds, Hairston said.

The city is also looking to install 150 speed bumps on residential streets.

The Richmond Police Department is in the process of selecting a vendor for speed enforcement cameras to use within active school zones.

Seeking engineering solutions

Chet Parsons is director of transportation for PlanRVA, an organization that represents Richmond and eight surrounding localities. Parsons and others work together to analyze, plan and consult on projects that affect the region as a whole. He said engineering safer roads is only half the battle.

“There are lots of engineering solutions to improve safety on the roads, but there are also lots of behavioral issues,” Parsons said. “I think we’re all aware of and know we need to do a better job.”

He said the statistics coming out of Richmond are alarming, but all nine of PlanRVA’s jurisdictions are seeing a similar rise in traffic-related deaths.

“We are well-aware of the issues that are arising not just in vehicular safety but pedestrian and bicycle safety,” Parsons said. “I think education is going to be a huge, huge tool that we want to double down on for this year and work with localities on behavioral solutions.”

Parsons also said PlanRVA is keeping its eye on funding opportunities presented by NHTSA and its National Roadway Safety Strategy unveiled in January 2022. But he believes enforcing good driving behavior is a key issue.

“If people are more aware of their surroundings and more engaged in their travel patterns, I think that’ll make a huge difference in terms of preventing needless crashes next year.”

bring on more brain rippling

Article mentioned several examples - sounds like first priority is proximity to schools, parks followed by traffic volume

When you open the link and it blocks you, put 12ft.io/ in front of the URL

Nice! Thanks for that

I’ll let them set up one on my front porch. It’ll pay for itself after the first school bus flies through the stop sign.

Been living on Meadow for 2yrs, near Maymont. And people speed down Meadow CONSTANTLY. Right passed the police department. Never seen anyone pulled over or cops by the school watchin for people speeding. Maybe the Richnond police should start enforcing some fuckin traffic. Cause people tear ass through this city.

I dunno. Maybe I'm bein ignorant and that wouldn't help. But damn I hate riding my bike around here sometimes. People drive like assholes and just blow down the street every night near my place. Sorry for the venting. Just frustrating man. Got kids all around my place playin outside. Fear the day I hear one of em get killed by a car flying down the road.

You're welcome! It works for pretty much everything except for the NYT and WaPo, for them you can go to archive.is and access them that way

Anytime I see a cop driving behind me and then realize its only RPD I relax....they never pull anyone over for traffic. It's wild.

I'm also a cyclist and I totally relate. Had some dickhead 2 days ago in a beater driving like he's on a Nascar track try to pass me while I was in a turning lane literally turning left at the intersection...he thought he could squeeze through on my left side. This shit happens all the time.

Classic...thinking it's a behavior issue. Just design roads that don't act as meat grinders. It's not that hard.

For WaPo and others you can load article text by blocking scripts from running, with a plugin like NoScript, which can be dialed to suit.

...says the engineer that graduated from Tech. Not everything is a god damn clover leaf. JFC

Are you referring to Parsons?

They did. Deaths went up. I've been here 30 years and the city has become nothing but less walkable with these changes.

I've been pulled over twice by RPD lol. First time was at Cary and Nansmond, some idiot nearly ran into me when I was leaving Kroger going north on Nansmond across Cary because of the shift there.

Cop does a u-turn in the middle of Cary and pulls me over. I proceed to tell him I did nothing wrong and explained the situation of what happened. So he goes back to his car and sits there for at least 20 minutes with his lights on (I had gone to Kroger to get medicine at 8pm on a Friday night because I had a suspected stomach ulcer and was in CRAZY pain, so I just had to sit there and suffer). After 20 minutes 2 other squad cars pull up and one of the other officers told me I could go, because that dickwad cop couldn't tell me himself he was wrong.

Other time was on Monument west of 195. Was going 48 because I was almost to Willow Lawn and thought it had already changed to 45, but it was still 35 in the city, around Westmoreland I think. I explained it was an honest mistake to the officer but he wrote me a ticket anyway.

RPD can eat my ass.

It’s not that hard for competent folks. RVA government pays dog shit and could never hold someone who’s capable good design

It's a nationwide issue where car centric design is the default and we have multiple generations of Americans who can't imagine transport infrastructure that priorities safety and actual efficiency over just slapping more lanes on every road and calling it a day.

Agree. Doesn’t help that most of these people actively work to make pedestrians and cyclist feel unsafe with very little if any consequences