Posted on 11/25/2024 6:39:17 AM PST by Kudsman
A law banning cars from turning right at all red lights across D.C. was set to start with the new year. But city transportation officials, who never supported the blanket ban, have pumped the brakes because the D.C. Council failed to earmark money to alert drivers to the change.
As it stands, the city will only enforce a ban at about half of the District’s 1,600 intersections, where they have erected signs notifying drivers they can’t turn right on red
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
law banning cars from turning right at all red lights across D.C. was set to start with the new year. But city transportation officials, who never supported the blanket ban, have pumped the brakes because the D.C. Council failed to earmark money to alert drivers to the change.
As it stands, the city will only enforce a ban at about half of the District’s 1,600 intersections, where they have erected signs notifying drivers they can’t turn right on red. Sharon Kershbaum, director of the D.C. Department of Transportation, said a citywide ban was impractical, given the number of people traversing the roads who might not be familiar with the law. “Many of the cars on our roads are coming from Maryland, Virginia, where it’s okay to turn right on red,” Kershbaum said. “We don’t think it’s safe … without signs to just assume that because it’s law of the land that people are going to be aware and comply with it.” She added that she thought any ad campaign would have “a real challenge getting to all possible drivers” and “doesn’t add any more value than our approach, that we can do with our current budget.”
The 2022 law enacting the ban required about $385,000 for “gateway” signs at entrances to the city and ads about the law in advance of citywide enforcement in 2025, but with the money to be budgeted later on. Charles Allen (D-Ward 6), head of the council’s transportation committee, said he believed DDOT could have found the funds in the city’s existing $21 billion budget.
“These are costs the agency can absorb — they are just choosing not to,” Allen said. “They don’t want to do it, so they’re choosing not to fund it.” He added that in earlier hearings, DDOT did not make clear that the lack of money would mean the ban was in limbo. Former council member Elissa Silverman said that while DDOT could easily find such a small amount of money, lawmakers should have expected that the Bowser administration would not do it for them. The mayor did not sign the bill when it passed, indicating opposition.
“You need to put your money where your mouth is, especially when the mayor leaves a bill unsigned,” said Silverman, who lost her seat in 2022. “The council needs to fund the laws it wants implemented — otherwise they give the mayor an easy out.”
The council can allocate money for it in next year’s legislative session. The change was one part of the Safer Streets Amendment Act, enacted as part of a broader effort to protect pedestrians and bicyclists, and reduce the number of collisions at intersections. Another section of the law, allowing cyclists to turn right at red lights and treat stop signs as yield signs, is in effect. In the meantime, Kershbaum says DDOT is continuing a gradual expansion of right-on-red bans throughout the city that began in 2018 and has nearly reached its goal of placing signs at 1,000 of the District’s 1,600 intersections by the end of this year. All 55 active red-light cameras are at intersections where rights on red are banned and are already giving out tickets. But, Kershbaum said, whether to place signs at the remaining intersections will be decided on a case-by-case basis.
“We’ll put them up if we have a [community] request or we’re doing a corridor safety improvement and we think it would be helpful,” she said. “But we are not just going to put signs up at every intersection because of the law.” She said DDOT had attorneys “look closely at the legislation,” and they determined it wasn’t binding without the funding. When the law passed in 2022, DDOT argued that it “will lead to low levels of compliance and confusion for drivers” if right turns on red were banned on streets without signs making that clear. Then-council member Mary M. Cheh (D-Ward 3), who proposed the ban, responded at the time that “even a low level of compliance … would result in a safer and more pedestrian friendly environment.” She also said the 2025 implementation date gave DDOT time to “educate the public” on the change. Kalli Krumpos, advocacy director for the Washington Area Bicyclists Association, which helped push for the legislation, said the law and a vigorous public awareness campaign to highlight the changes are essential for safety.
“We know that 2023 was a 15-year high in traffic fatalities in D.C. and that is coming right before 2024, this year, which was supposed to be a year that D.C. reached Vision Zero, zero fatalities or serious injuries on our streets,” Krumpos said. “So obviously, we’re headed in the wrong direction.” Krumpos said there has been a lack of transparency on the status of the law and on DDOT’s decision to focus on specific locations rather than a universal ban. “I think it will be really helpful to clarify current funding status of signs going up at those intersections and the continuing plans for implementation,” she said. Everett Lott, who helmed DDOT when the law was passed, said he believed it was too broad to be effective. Like his successor, he advocated for expanding right-turn bans on a case-by-case basis focused on downtown.
“There are intersections throughout the city where pedestrians are definitely more vulnerable and more at risk potentially of being hit as they’re trying to cross than other locations,” Lott said. “There are some intersections and some locations where there’s very little volume, and if you ban the right on red in those locations, you’re going to end up encouraging some other bad behavior.” Drivers will try to go around cars stopped at the light, he said, and will get used to ignoring a ban that in other places is critical. Lott noted that “the way the law is written — whether there’s a sign or not, you’re supposed to know the laws of the District.” But, he said, given how many people travel through D.C. from neighboring states where right turns at red lights are allowed, “it does make it more challenging from an enforceability perspective” and “also a little bit from a fairness perspective.” Until recently, New York City was the only place in the country where turning right at all red lights was illegal. But with pedestrian fatalities rising, several cities have limited the practice and others are considering full bans.
Generally, studies indicate that right-turn-on-red collisions are rare but tend to lead to injuries for pedestrians and bicyclists. DDOT’s analysis of 74 intersections where the city has already banned right turns on red found “reduced conflicts,” both between drivers, and between drivers and pedestrians, with “minimal impacts on traffic flow.” Like D.C., Cambridge, Massachusetts, moved to eliminate right turns at red lights in 2022. But state law wouldn’t let the city change the traffic codes, so Cambridge instead put up signs blocking the turns at each individual intersection — something the city already had the authority to do. They finished this year. An adjustment to city code “would have been simpler,” said Cambridge’s Transportation Commissioner Brooke McKenna. “We always worry about sign fatigue, and it can be challenging to find the right locations to put up the signs.” But, she said, “It worked really well this way,” because without the signs, “it might be very confusing for folks from out of town.”
McKenna said traffic engineers do worry about the potential downside of putting restrictions in place that people are likely to ignore, such as stops signs at lightly used intersections. But for right on red, she argued, “if you’re consistent in your policy you’re likely to have higher compliance” — drivers don’t have to think about whether it’s in force or not.
“The value to protecting pedestrians and cyclists is so high from the right-turn restriction that it’s worth just making it across the board,” she added.
"This change" means force the entire country to have right-on-red, or prevent the entire country from turning right-on-red?
To my experience, preventing right-on-red would cause many backups while acknowledging there are exceptions.
Years ago, in the morning I was stopped at the intersection of Naylor Road SE and Minnesota Avenue, waiting for the light to turn green. Several cars ahead of me. There was a liquor store on the corner to my left, with an entrance/exit on Naylor Road and another on Minnesota Avenue. A car with DC tags cut into the parking lot from Naylor Road and exited to the right on Minnesota. Shortly after, a car with Maryland tags did the same. There was a DC cop in the back of the parking lot, and he pulled out and stopped the car with Maryland tags. That is when it occurred to me that the traffic tickets were DC's commuter tax.
Now - since I am retired - I stay out of that cesspool as much as I can.
The U-turn driver has right of way
https://dccouncil.gov/dc-home-rule/
Congress is supposed to review and approve all laws/regulations that the DC City Council passes. Looks like another EFF YOU from Democrats
If I remember it was the Carter gas fiasco, and 55 mph limits, and they said to states YOU MUST do right turn on red
It's not about DC figuring out how much revenue they actually need to be able to efficiently provide the services they need to provide. It's about imagining how much they could spend if they could just hijack the money train. It's the entire problem with home rule in DC.
If you were in San Juan, I don’t know how a car could possibly even get close to the sidewalk. The streets are lined both sides with parked cars, bumper to bumper. I think that if you somehow found a parking space there, you might consider buying another car and leaving the old one and its space as a bequest to your heirs.
“Years ago” is an important note. The DC Council went full retard on depolicing after the George Floyd fracas. That’s part of it.
But the more important part is that for years, scofflaws have simply ignored DC tickets. DC can collect against DC residents, but non-payment is epidemic among non-residents. The police can write a ticket, but nothing happens if it’s not paid.
It has reached the point where DC residents, tired of speeding and running stoplights and stop signs, have started taking pictures of license plates and looking them up.
It is not uncommon to find cars with $10-20,000 in unpaid traffic tickets on the streets. The violations run from parking to extreme speeding to running stop signs and lights at speed to lack of license, registration and insurance. Pay? Especially if you are a non-resident? Well, responsible citizens by and large ante up, but non-payment is common and typically nothing happens.
We had one case in the last year or two where a car was identified with over $120,000 in unpaid traffic tickets. That stirred the pot a bit and the city has modestly stepped up booting. But only modestly.
Lol!
Old San Juan......I saw it mostly at traffic light intersections where parking at the curb was prohibited.
Enforcing this law will likely disproportionately affect people of color. Therefore, it should either not be enforced at all or only be enforced on white people.
“Now when you come to a red light and it all looks clear to the left, you could proceed and find that a U-turning car has just run into your driver’s side door.”
That’s very common. It’s why I keep a very close eye on that left-turn lane across the way and don’t turn right on red if somebody there has the left-turn arrow. That person obviously has the right-of-way with the green arrow and a permissible u-turn.
The existence of a pretend "government" over the District of Columbia is unconstitutional.
“The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 required in §362(c)(5) that in order for a state to receive federal assistance in developing mandated conservation programs, they must permit right turns on red lights.”
looks like another legal cudgel Trump 47 can use against recalcitrant cities ...
All that is fine until someone gets into a bit of a hurry and doesn’t look because now they have to be looking in two places. If it’s me doing the u-turn and there is a car trying to turn right, I won’t even initiate the turn until I’m satisfied that the person turning right has made eye contact with me.
There is a similar problem with roundabouts where I work.... When one goes around a roundabout, one is ‘normally’ looking to the right to make sure that someone didn’t stop and is about to run into you. What they have done here is put crosswalks right close to the roundabouts so that while you are looking right, what you really need to be doing is looking to the left to make sure there isn’t a pedestrian trying to get across right where you might be wanting to exit the roundabout.
I do a u-turn every day to get to my house. I know what you mean about watching for bad drivers. That’s just part of the game.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on_red
North American traffic engineers first introduced this rule as a fuel savings measure in the 1970s, despite detrimental effects to the safety of pedestrians.[4] Canada and The United States are some of few major countries where turning on red is generally allowed.[5] Amid a push to reduce pedestrian fatalities and make cities safer for pedestrians and bicyclists, some American localities have in recent years implemented bans on turning on red.[6][7]
.......
The Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 required in §362(c)(5) that in order for a state to receive federal assistance in developing mandated conservation programs, they must permit right turns on red lights.[8] All 50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Puerto Rico have allowed right turns on red since 1980, except where prohibited by a sign or where right turns are controlled by dedicated traffic lights.
......
As of December 2018, the following states and territories ban left turns on red: Connecticut, Maine, Missouri, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Rhode Island, South Dakota (unless permitted by local ordinance), the District of Columbia, and Guam.[40] New York City prohibits left turn on red unless a sign indicates otherwise.[40]
Typical for a socialist, near communist tyrannical blue state, blue city democrat party government. “Our Leader’s last Five Year Government Plan failed, so we will write new laws to force you our beloved slaves to follow our tyranny. Because we know best because Our Leader has “a study” that we like.
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