Advocacy

DC Families for Safe Streets welcomes those impacted by traffic violence. Members may be family and friends who have lost a loved one in a crash, crash survivors, and family members of survivors. This includes individuals who were injured or lost loved ones who were here to visit or work. We also welcome those who are engaged on issues of traffic safety and public health through their professional lives and community service.

Safe streets legislation in DC

“Vision Zero” is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.

DC’s recent safe streets laws include (note: some of the below laws may be partially or entirely unfunded):

  • Vision Zero Enhancement Omnibus Amendment Act (passed 2020):
    • Lowered speed limits to 20 mph throughout DC and 15 mph in school zones (done!)
    • Will improve continuous sidewalk networks 
    • Requires DDOT report progress on the District’s top 15 most dangerous corridors for pedestrians and cyclists 
  • Safer Streets Amendment Act (passed 2022):
    • Prohibit drivers from turning right at red lights by default across the city (Jan. 2025)
    • Make continuous sidewalks, raised crosswalks, and raised intersections as the standard for construction
    • Upgrade materials used to permanently slow down cars and create bike lanes 
    • Allow people riding bikes and scooters to treat a stop sign as a yield sign. 
  • Safe Streets for Students Amendment Act (passed 2022):
    • Establish an Office of Safe Passage reporting directly to the Mayor
    • Require plans for infrastructure upgrades to promote school commute safety
    • Increase the size of school zones—the areas where DDOT implements school safety infrastructure
    • Require DDOT to recommend to the Council how to create full-time crossing guard jobs
  • Automated Traffic Enforcement System Revenue Designation Amendment Act (passed 2022):
    • Would require funds from automated traffic enforcement (e.g., speed cameras) to be spent on traffic safety improvements, changing the current practice of sending that money to DC’s general fund.
  • Strengthening Traffic Enforcement, Education, and Responsibility (“STEER”) Amendment Act (Passed 2024)
    • Creates a vehicle point system for vehicles with repeated high-speed driving:
    • Empowers the Office of the Attorney General to go after both in-state and out-of-state dangerous drivers
    • Establishes a new Intelligent Speed Assistance Program – capping the ability of a driver to drive over a certain speed – for drivers whose license was suspended or revoked because of excessive speeding (including reckless driving)
    • Improves DUI enforcement by addressing DMV notification failures around Ignition Interlock enrollment
    • Improves communication between agencies to stop people convicted of DUIs and who should have their licenses suspended from driving without consequences
    • Supports victims by clarifying that driving tickets from stolen vehicles won’t be sent to car owners
    • Creates alternatives to fines for accountability and improving driver behavior

DC Families for Safe Streets’ advocacy priorities:

Other national efforts

In addition to local efforts, below are other national efforts led by the founding Families for Safe Streets in NYC and/or our partners at the Vision Zero Network.

#CrashNotAccident

Traffic crashes are fixable problems, caused by dangerous streets and unsafe drivers. They are not accidents. Pledge to stop using the word “accident” today.

Safer Fleets Challenge: Intelligent Speed Assistance (2024)

Speeding is a major cause of deaths and serious injuries on American roadways. Governments have a unique opportunity to demonstrate their commitment to safety by retrofitting their vehicle fleets to follow the speed limits that they themselves set! Intelligent speed assistance (ISA), is a commercially available technology to retrofit vehicles to help drivers maintain posted speed limits.

FSS has joined with America Walks calling on cities and towns to start installing ISA on their fleets. We’re seeking 50 governments to take action to adopt ISA by 2025.

Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Act (2023)

We thank Representatives Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) and Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.) for introducing the Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Active Transportation Act (H.R.1668), which would tweak the regulations on the federal Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) and spur states to spend that money to complete their protected bike and pedestrian networks, potentially saving the lives of people who walk and roll. Thank you to Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for being a co-sponsor of this important, life-saving bill, and to Dan Langenkamp of Montgomery County FSS for his advocacy.

National Roadway Safety Strategy (2022)

On January 27, 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation released the National Roadway Safety Strategy (NRSS), which sets the first-ever national goal of zero roadway fatalities and commits to specific actions to advance the goal of safe mobility for all ages. Learn more from our partners at the Vision Zero Network.

#ZeroTrafficDeaths resolution (2021)

We thank Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton for being an original co-sponsor on the bicameral Zero Traffic Deaths resolution (H. Res. 565, S. Res. 321), calling for the first national goal of Zero Traffic Deaths in the U.S.