More than three years after Mayor Johnston reaffirmed Denver’s commitment to Vision Zero and the goal of eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries, he’s finally moving forward with a key strategy he said he would use to make our streets safer: automated speed enforcement. Unfortunately however, his current plans don’t include investing revenues from the new speed cameras into desperately needed street safety improvements.
Tell City leaders: Use speeding ticket revenues to pay for safer streets!
We know that speed is a primary factor that determines whether a crash happens, and whether that crash results in a serious injury or fatality. We also have decades of evidence that speed cameras reliably reduce crashes and improve safety incomes. Automated enforcement is more cost efficient and less prone to bias than officer initiated enforcement, and avoids any potential conflict between police officers and community members.
Denver’s first Vision Zero Action Plan [PDF] adopted in 2017 specifically called for the use of automated enforcement as part of a comprehensive speed management program, with a target implementation date of 2019. Hundreds of people have been killed in preventable traffic crashes on Denver’s streets since this deadline passed, and it is well past time for Denver to fulfill this commitment.
The 2017 Vision Zero Action Plan also recognized that ultimately the most effective strategy for preventing fatal and serious injury crashes is through street design changes that reinforce safe speeds, and thereby reduce or eliminate the need for enforcement. The plan therefore called for modifications to City code “to reinvest revenue generated from automated enforcement into Safe Routes to School and Vision Zero projects and programs.” This action was also supposed to be initiated by 2019.
The City has a simple mechanism for allocating automated enforcement revenues to safe streets improvements, by directing them into the already existing Transportation & Mobility Special Revenue Fund that Denver established in 2021 to fund transit, bicycle, pedestrian, and safe streets improvements.
The Mayor needs City Council approval to establish the new speed camera program, and the Council Health and Safety Committee will be discussing the proposed ordinance on Wednesday October 14.
Send a message to the Mayor and Council today, urging them to amend the program and invest the speed camera revenues into safe streets improvements.
Learn more about our work on Vision Zero