The National Capital Region Transportation Planning Board (TPB) at the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments (COG) adopted a regional roadway safety policy on Wednesday, endorsing a set of shared actions to reduce injuries and fatalities on area roadways and committing to safety strategies that advance equity.

The board action established and funded a TPB Regional Safety Program to assist area jurisdictions and the region with studying, developing, and implementing projects, programs, or policies that improve safety outcomes for all roadway users. The program will launch this fall.

It also specifically called on member jurisdictions and agencies to work individually or collectively to:

• Implement all applicable countermeasures to make the region’s roadway infrastructure safer and improve road user behavior.
   
• Increase seat belt use among all occupants in a motor vehicle, reduce unsafe vehicle speeds on all roadways in the region, and reduce impaired and distracted driving.
   
• Adopt safety goals consistent with Vision Zero or Towards Zero Death policies and develop local roadway safety plans and ensure an equitable impact on all road users, and adopt procedures that increase the use of ignition interlock devices for impaired driving offenders.

These actions are based on the findings of a year-long Regional Safety Study which analyzed the types of fatal and serious injury crashes in the region and the factors contributing to them.

“Far too many are injured or killed on the region’s roadways, and I’m proud of the work that the TPB has done to pinpoint how we can save lives,” said TPB Chair Kelly Russell, City of Frederick Alderman. “For too long policies, including transportation policies, have had disparate impacts on communities of color, so we’ve also pledged to approach this work, and all our work, through the lens of justice, equity, and fairness.”

Earlier in the meeting, the TPB passed a resolution establishing equity as a fundamental value and integral part of all TPB work activities: 

"The TPB and its staff commit that our work together will be anti-racist and will advance equity including every debate we have, and every decision we make as the region’s MPO; and

The TPB affirms that equity, as a foundational principle, will be woven throughout TPB’s analyses, operations, procurement, programs, and priorities to ensure a more prosperous, accessible, livable, sustainable, and equitable future for all residents; and

We recognize past actions that have been exclusionary or had disparate negative impacts on people of color and marginalized communities, including institutionalized policies and practices that continue to have inequitable impacts today, and we commit to act to correct such inequities in all our programs and policies."

MORE: TPB Safety Study Resources & Safety Policy