The Civilian Review Board and VMT
Cheers RVA!
The heat continues after the holiday weekend with a high of 94. Scattered thunderstorms are expected in the afternoon with a 50% chance of precipitation.
the juice:
City Council is accepting applications for eight seats on the Civilian Review Board. The application is here and closes on Friday, August 30.
Applicants must be city residents, and not members of law enforcement or have family in law enforcement. Members will serve three-year terms.
The Civilian Review Board:
will play a vital role in reviewing, investigating, and making recommendations to City Council, the Mayor, and the Chief of Police on specific internal investigations to ensure accuracy, completeness, and impartiality.
the pulp:
Two adult pedestrians were struck by a vehicle early Saturday morning in South Richmond. One victim was killed and the other suffered non-life-threatening injuries. The accident occurred on Snead Road, which lacks sidewalks. Police say the pair were walking in the road.
The 4900 block of Snead Road A 9-year old boy drowned in the James River on Saturday near Pony Pasture. The boy was swimming with his family and was found underwater in a deep hole against an underwater rock.
the dive:
The national transportation research nonprofit TRIP released a report last week on transportation safety in Virginia. The headline is that traffic fatalities in Virginia have increased 24% in the last 10 years resulting in $34.1 billion in economic and quality-of-life-costs.
The total number of people in Virginia has increased during that time period, so the best metric to analyze is fatalities per vehicle miles of travel (VMT), which has also increased over that same time period by 20%.
Road fatalities spiked during COVID across the nation, as emptier roads emboldened drivers to engage in riskier behavior.
2011 was actually the lowest year for U.S. traffic fatalities since 1949 (wow), but fatalities have since been increasing to roughly 35k/year.
In the past five years bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities have also increased:
Bicyclist and pedestrian fatalities, which accounted for 21 percent of all U.S. traffic fatalities in 2023, increased 18 percent from 2018 to 2023. From 2018 to 2023, the number of pedestrians killed increased 16 percent (from 6,482 to 7,522) and the number of bicyclists killed increased 29 percent (from 859 to 1,105).
Larger vehicles is one of many factors affecting this trend. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety found that over the last 30 years vehicles have changed:
4 inches wider
10 inches longer
8 inches taller
1000 lbs heavier
Researches at the IIHS also found that vehicles taller than 40 inches were 45% more likely to result in a fatality than vehicles shorter than 30 inches, through an analysis of 18,000 pedestrian traffic deaths.
The top three best-selling automobiles in 2023 were all full-size trucks, with some front ends as high as 55 inches.
I’m not convinced we can necessarily stop the trend of Americans purchasing larger and larger vehicles; but through a combination of infrastructure and public awareness hopefully we can reverse the trend of dangerous roads, particularly in urban areas where the design focus should be on people rather than automobiles.
the vibe:
Have a safe and great day RVA!
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