Dallas City Council held a committee briefing on the “Vision Zero” road safety plan. The plan has made little progress in reducing traffic deaths and injuries. NBC 5 Investigations obtained documents that prompted council members to request the briefing. Senior Investigative reporter Scott Friedman has the details.
There were plenty of questions but fewer answers as a Dallas City Council committee was briefed Tuesday on the status of the city's "Vision Zero" road safety plan.
Council members requested the briefing after an NBC 5 investigation revealed documents suggesting a lack of progress on key steps toward reducing traffic deaths and injuries in the city.
In November, NBC 5 Investigates obtained a draft copy of a Vision Zero progress report that showed a few action items completed.
Many items were listed as "in progress" or had not been started.
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On Tuesday, Dallas Transportation Director Gus Khankarli declined to say how many of those action items have been completed since then. He said he would not share details until the entire council meets for a briefing on the program next month.
"I would recommend to give us until March the 6th, because of the fact that we're getting some additional information," Khankarli said in response to one council member's question.
Some council members expressed frustration with the lack of detailed information provided.
"I know you all are putting in work, but if I was a member of the public listening in, I would be like, 'We have to wait, more? We have to wait more, to hear concrete steps?'" said District 5 Councilmember Jaime Resendez.
Khankarli insisted the department is progressing on the Vision Zero plan by conducting traffic studies to identify roadway safety solutions and re-designing some city streets with higher death rates.
"But what I want to say is that the city of Dallas, while we're not happy nor satisfied, and we shouldn't be satisfied to where we are, but we're making, some headway considering the constraints on the resources," Khankarli said as he briefed the committee.
There were hints Tuesday that more resources could soon flow into Vision Zero. Khankarli suggested some council members may put some of the roughly $5 million in discretionary funds each member is expected to receive in a 2024 bond package toward the Vision Zero program.
In a recent interview with NBC 5 Investigates, Councilmember Paula Blackmon said she would contribute half of her allotment to Vision Zero-style improvements.
"I've allocated $2.5 million for my discretionary pool for streets. And this is what it's going to be for. I've got so many traffic studies because my citizens are demanding walkability," Blackmon said.
One major walkability challenge facing some Dallas neighborhoods is missing crosswalks.
As NBC 5 Investigates has shown, crosswalks on some streets like Ferguson Road in East Dallas have faded, with stripes no longer visible to drivers, leaving pedestrians without marked paths to reach bus stops and stores.
The city recently re-painted one crosswalk on Ferguson after NBC 5 Investigates showed how students from nearby Bryan Adams High School ran across the six-lane road at an intersection where the crosswalk lines had faded away. Images on Google Street View suggested the crosswalk had faded away for over 15 years.
On Tuesday, the transportation director told the council he is reluctant to re-stripe other crosswalks at intersections where the curbs have not been removed to make the intersection ADA-compliant and provide proper wheelchair access.
"So the point being is, it's not because the city doesn't want to put a crosswalk back, it is because if we're going to put it back, it needs to be at the right location," Khankarli told the council committee.
NBC 5's ongoing investigative series, Driven to Death, has shown in recent years, Dallas has had the highest traffic death rate among America's 10 largest cities.
Under questioning from council members Tuesday, Khankarli said his department would utilize Vision Zero strategies to try to change those numbers. Vision Zero assumes that drivers will make mistakes and crashes will happen, but it assumes that roads can be designed to help reduce dangerous speeds and make crashes less likely to cause severe injuries and deaths.
The Dallas City Council first committed to pursuing a Vision Zero approach in 2019. However, more than four years later, the city is still not recognized as a national Vision Zero Network member.
In an interview last fall, the Vision Zero Network's founder told NBC 5 Investigates that the Dallas plan lacked concrete steps to reduce high speeds, making crashes more severe.
Khankarli said Tuesday that the city is implementing Vision Zero principles and will be "correcting language" in its plan to make sure the city complies with the program network's goals.
