Texas has a traffic problem, but it’s not congestion

Crashes are a much bigger problem for the people of Texas than congestion.

About 10 people die every day in the Texas transportation system — more than in any other state. Unlike congestion, which imposes a small, annoying daily cost on a lot of people, crashes tragically alter the lives of about 60 Texas families every day. Last year 3,721 people died, and 17,546 suffered life-changing incapacitating injuries.

We could do a lot more on safety. Our state and local leaders could clearly prioritize ending traffic deaths, as many cities and states are doing. Sadly, our focus seems stuck on congestion, and crashes receive neither the attention nor the funding required.

We pour billions of dollars and concrete every year trying to reduce congestion. Certainly, we must maintain the nation’s largest road system and consider new or expanded roads. But our dogged obsession with congestion is keeping us from spending and planning more wisely.

For individuals, congestion incurs an estimated annual economic cost of $14 billion in unproductive time, extra fuel burned and other annoyances, which amounted to $527 per Texan in 2014, a statistic that’s remained level since 1982, according to our analysis of data from the Texas A&M Transportation Institute’s 2015 Urban Mobility Scorecard. On the other hand, using National Safety Council standards for estimating economic costs, crashes cost us $38 billion in 2014 and $38.4 billion last year. The Federal Highway Administration also provides a methodology for assessing a comprehensive cost of crashes (including future years of life lost) that puts the total toll of our dangerous streets and roads at a staggering $99 billion last year.

TXDOT’s Unified Transportation Plan — a 10-year program that guides transportation strategies and spending — is now open for public comment. Last year’s UTP received a total of 23 public comments — fewer than one for every million Texans. The proposed UTP places inordinate emphasis on addressing congestion: at least $35 billion in funding focused on congestion over 10 years. Category 8 funding (for safety) is expected to be only $3.3 billion.

Before the 2017 Texas Legislature, the Texas Transportation Commission prepared a task force report, led by Commissioner Jeff Moseley, called Solutions for Saving Lives on Texas Roads. It focused on rural roads and proposed spending about $540 million a year to save roughly 540 lives a year, with an estimated $12 return on every $1 spent. Lawmakers left the plan on the shelf.

After that, I got involved in the federally required 2017 Strategic Highway Safety Plan process. A fight over the appropriate fiveyear goal for reducing traffic deaths ended with an assumption that we could not reasonably expect fewer traffic deaths in Texas, given the lack of commitment to safety by the state’s leadership.

City, county and agency staff worked with nonprofit leaders and advocates to develop a meaningful package of safety interventions that are being turned into action plans this summer. Unfortunately, not many of the life-saving ideas in the SHSP are likely to come off the shelf given the inadequate funding.

There may be little we can do to move the needle on congestion, but much can be done to end the carnage on our roads.

Residents have a unique opportunity to tell state leadership what you want:

• a priority on the lives of Texans in the transportation planning process,

• concrete goals and strategies for reducing transportation deaths,

• and a TxDot budget to reflect our moral obligation to end this epidemic.

You can submit online comments or print a comment form and mail it to: TXDOT, Attention: Peter Smith, P.O. Box 149217, Austin, TX 78714-9217. Comments must be received by Aug. 20 at 4 p.m.

Crossley is founder and executive director of Farm&City, a nonprofit think tank dedicated to high quality urban and rural human habitat in Texas in perpetuity.