Pedestrian safety task force rolls out recommendations

After months of planning, the Mayor’s Task Force on Pedestrian Safety has recommended more than a dozen ways to address traffic and pedestrian safety.

Many fatal or serious accidents involved pedestrians at intersections in Columbia.

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According to Ian Thomas, 4th ward councilman and the task force co-chair, the task force’s first recommendation is the “Vision Zero” policy.

He said the policy is used across the country.

“It basically takes the premise that safety is the most important thing when you’re designing and operating transportation systems and road systems,” he said. “Traffic deaths and serious injuries are preventable, and they’re not acceptable.”

The recommendations are under a three-category umbrella that includes education, enforcement and engineering.

One policy recommendation under education is “One Percent for Safety Education”, a way to put 1 percent of revenue into a fund for safety education, which is not currently well funded.

Enforcement recommendations include prohibiting cellphone use while driving and bringing back the use of red light and speed cameras.

“There is strong and unanimous support for red-light cameras on the Pedestrian Safety Task Force because they increase compliance and save lives, especially when we have an understaffed police department,” said Thomas. “I am aware of privacy/government intrusion concerns in the community but, on balance, I believe they are a benefit.”

The task force hopes to re-establish a traffic unit that was dissolved in Columbia in order to create a community outreach unit. But Thomas said that might have to wait until the police department can address its understaffing problem.

“There may be a serious problem with the way some of our intersections are designed,” Thomas said.

One of the ideas on which the task force agreed is that “roadway design and engineering should encourage safe behavior, reduce the likelihood of drivers and pedestrians making mistakes and limit the severity of crashes.”

The task force hopes to involve traffic engineers and figure out ways to “identify engineering design parameters that contribute to pedestrian deaths and injuries.”

It would like to create a new position of traffic safety engineer.

Thomas said he believes that many of the recommendations can be implemented if the city council remains open and receptive to them.

The plan will be presented to council on April 4.