Join us on November 16th for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims in DC as we honor the 1.35 million people killed globally each year in preventable traffic crashes and work for change. This year the DC chapter of Families for Safe Streets is honoring World Day of Remembrance by continuing to post crash sites at locations throughout the District. We will also gather as a community and walk in solidarity to the Lincoln Memorial, to join our friends and neighbors who participate in the Ride For Your Life.
Walk with us on World Day of Remembrance
Join Families for Safe Streets chapters from across the region for a 1/2-mile walk from the Foggy Bottom Metro to the Lincoln Memorial. At the Memorial, we will join participants from the Ride for Your Life bike ride for a rally with members of Congress and civil society leaders to honor victims of road traffic violence and demand change. For more information on the Ride for Your Life, visit waba.org/rideforyourlife2025.
- Date: Sunday, November 16, 2025
- Time: Meet at 11am
- Start location: Outside of Foggy Bottom Metro (Blue/Orange/Silver) / George Washington University Hospital at Eye St NW and 23rd St NW
- End location: Lincoln Memorial
We acknowledge that the start location may be difficult for someone with a personal connection to the hospital. We encourage you to honor your feelings and needs. Should you want to join us, but not at the start, please feel free to meet us along the walk or by noon at the Lincoln Memorial.
Post a crash sign in honor of our neighbors and loved ones
Our chapter honors every fatal crash in the District by posting signs in honor of our neighbors and loved ones to call attention to this crisis. We will be bringing signs to our walk to distribute to volunteers to post signs in their neighborhoods.
Learn More: Safe Speeds Saves Lives
Unsafe speeds are a primary factor in about one-third of the 40,000+ traffic deaths in the U.S. each year. The good news is that we can prevent these tragedies: by lowering speed limits, redesigning dangerous roads, and applying proven technologies such as speed safety cameras and anti-speeding technology called Intelligent Speed Assistance.
We celebrate DC as the first jurisdiction in the United States to pass legislation adopting ISA. The STEER Act, empowers the DC Attorney General to pursue the most egregious and reckless drivers on the District’s streets, and enables the creation of the first program in the country to require anti-speeding technology for reckless drivers.
We also celebrate the Commonwealth of Virginia for passing a law on anti-speeding technology and support our neighbors in Maryland to do the same.
As District residents, visitors, and neighbors who have been personally impacted by traffic violence, we are cautiously optimistic that the STEER Act will address the most egregious and reckless drivers on our streets. We also know that the STEER Act alone cannot eliminate all traffic fatalities and injuries.
As of Friday, October 10, 2025, there have been 18 traffic fatalities to date, a nearly 60% decrease from this time last year with 43 fatalities. But a staggering 12 traffic fatalities (or two-thirds!) of this year’s traffic fatalities are pedestrians.
Recent research using the DC Trauma Registry also discovered there are far more traffic-related injuries recorded at our local hospitals than the total number of injuries captured by the DC Vision Zero program. The same study also noted that Black people accounted for more than 70% of motor-vehicle-related trauma cases, despite only accounting for 43% of the District’s population.
We know that one death or injury is too many because we intensely feel and experience the missing laughter around the house, an empty seat at Thanksgiving, and the quiet longing as we look at photos that remind us what life was like before the crash. More must be done—such as following through on commitments to implement safe street redesigns—to ensure everyone is safe.
Want to help?
Our chapter is all volunteer led, and can’t do this alone. Email us DCFamiliesForSafeStreets at gmail.com if you are able to post crash signs either in your Ward or elsewhere in the District, or want to help with the walk from Foggy Bottom to the Lincoln Memorial.