The District signed onto Vision Zero in 2015, committing to eliminate traffic deaths entirely by 2024. That deadline has already passed. This year’s numbers aren’t just off target — they’re the worst in sixteen years, with fatalities up more than 60 percent from 2022.
A target missed by this much isn’t mainly a matter of individual driver behavior. It’s a question of what streets are built to permit — how wide the lanes are, how long the crossing distances, how much a design prioritizes traffic speed over a pedestrian’s ability to survive a mistake. The people most exposed to that design are the people walking, biking, and waiting for buses: disproportionately residents in the wards with the fewest resources to demand it get fixed.