Solutions exist for Houston’s deadly streets, but officials need to step up.
Solutions exist for Houston’s deadly streets, but politicians need to step up.
Imagine three fully-loaded 737s crashing each year at Houston airports, killing everyone on board. Then imagine their deaths being shrugged off as an acceptable cost of air travel. People knew the risks when they got on board, didn’t they? Trying to improve safety would just mean expensive and annoying regulations.
This metaphor should be seared into your brain after reading the first part of the “Out of Control” series by the Chronicle’s Dug Begley and St. John Barned-Smith. It basically describes the status quo of driving in Houston.
Each year, 640 people die on Houston-area roads and 2,850 more are seriously injured. These numbers aren’t normal — and they shouldn’t be acceptable. These statistics make us the deadliest metro area for drivers, passengers and anyone else who dares to use our roads. The Texas Department of Transportation acknowledges that we’re facing a crisis in road safety.
Yet, for whatever reason, our collective consciousness — not to mention our political system — allows this continuing tragedy to pass by most of us with little attention paid beyond a few minutes in the morning news. Perhaps this lackadaisical attitude stems from lack of a unifying horror to demand our attention. There’s no single, unavoidable mass disaster — no fireball, no shouting terrorist, no smoking gun.
Yet, no part of our region is spared — rich and poor, black and white, Hispanic and Asian. Every day, people die. And victims’ friends and families are left with a lifetime of mourning. Why? It’s not as if this inevitable. So far, the attitude from our elected leaders could be summarized as: We’ve tried nothing and we’re all out of ideas.
There are plenty of policy options that can target unsafe drivers and dangerous streets.
At a local level, Houston and Harris County can direct law enforcement to stop and ticket dangerous drivers. While the population has grown, both the Houston Police Department and the Harris County Sheriff ’s Office handed out fewer tickets last year than in 2012. Resources are already stretched thin. Houston has a culture of speeding. Handing out tickets is politically unpopular. But all you have to do is watch drivers hit the brakes the moment they enter West University or Southside Place to know how stricter enforcement can lead to safer streets.
The city and county also need to design roads with safety in mind. This means narrower streets that slow traffic in neighborhoods and create space for cyclists and pedestrians. If drivers feel comfortable going 50 miles per hour, it doesn’t matter what the speed limit sign says — they’ll drive at 50.
The city should also reduce parking minimums in dense, walkable parts of town so that people don’t have to get in their cars in the first place. Currently the city requires new construction to include mandatory parking lots with rules that don’t differentiate between a feeder-road pit stop and dive-bar watering hole. Eliminating parking minimums at bars could also help discourage drinking and driving. Better transit options will take commuters off the roads, reducing the chances of getting in a deadly crash in the first place. Safety should be part of the calculus as Metro tinkers with its next capital improvement plan.
At a state level, the Legislature has a responsibility to instruct TXDOT to make safety a higher priority. This not only means better design standards for streets, but also providing funding for mass transit, bike and pedestrian options that don’t put people at risk. The state also can create a dedicated program to identify, study and rebuild the deadliest roads and intersections in Texas.
Each year, more people die on Houston-area roads than the total number of Texans killed in Iraq since 2003. Each year, the situation gets worse. It is time to slam on the brakes and put a halt to this relentless carnage.