Dallas City Council has postponed lowering the speed limit on dangerous parts of Loop 12.
The proposed ordinance would decrease speed limits on several parts of Loop 12, a notoriously dangerous stretch of roadway with a high number of fatalities.
The decision to lower speed limits was delayed until September to consider adding additional road selections where the speed limits will be reduced, per NBC 5 DFW.
“Reducing speed limits, it’s part of the solution. It’s not going to solve all of our problems, especially if people are not going to follow the law anyway,” Councilman Jaime Resendez said in an interview with NBC 5. “This is just part of the holistic approach we are taking to this problem.”
Dallas has been known for having some of the most dangerous roadways in America.
As of August 30, Dallas has seen 18,055 total crashes so far this year. 130 of those were fatal and 573 caused severe injury, according to a city dashboard.
A study by Forbes ranked Dallas as the sixth most dangerous city in the country to drive in. Per the study, Dallas has the third-highest number of fatal car accidents involving a drunk driver, ranks fourth-highest for deadly accidents involving speeding, and has the seventh-highest total number of fatal car accidents.
Dallas launched Vision Zero, a road safety project, in 2022 in an effort to improve street safety.
As part of the project, researchers identified the city’s most dangerous streets, called the high injury network, wherein 7% of Dallas streets account for 57% of severe crashes.
However, the plan has been criticized for showing little progress.
In February, the initiative was called into question after a city council briefing at which Department of Transportation Director Ghassan Khankarli declined to say how many action items on the Vision Zero progress report had been completed.
In April, Khankarli again faced the Dallas City Council, this time with a detailed 67-slide presentation on Vision Zero’s project, as reported by The Dallas Express.
One key component of Vision Zero is the implementation of more traffic signals to create safer roadways; however, Khankarli stated that traffic signals now cost 50% more than initially estimated, causing a slowdown in progress.
Additionally, Dallas’ Bike Plan is undergoing an update, including a two-way, barrier-separated bike lane along Jackson Street that would connect Harwood Park with the AT&T Discovery District. The Bike Plan has not been updated since 2011, as reported by DX.
The City of Dallas plans to spend $27 million of taxpayer money on roadway and pedestrian safety initiatives in southern Dallas, including Vision Zero, the Bike Plan, and other projects.