We all deserve to be safe in our communities, on our roadways, and in transit.
January 10 marks one year since Tyre Nichols succumbed to injuries sustained during a brutal assault by Memphis Police officers following a traffic stop. Tyre should still be alive today. But unfortunately local traffic enforcement policy – with an overemphasis on stopping people for non-safety related reasons and our country’s long history of racial injustice – keeps us less safe.
Our goal is to make sure we can make it to our destination free of harm, discrimination, and violence. And we get there by investing in our communities. Across the country, there is already work being done that reimagines traffic safety with the holistic understanding of what people need to move safely and freely within their neighborhoods and communities. This includes, among many things, removing police from traffic enforcement.
To support local elected officials in taking action to create real traffic safety the Local Progress Impact Lab created a new resource: Creating Traffic Safety: A Policy Memo for Local Elected Leaders. This policy memo provides data on why we need to change the way we think about traffic safety and offers tangible policy solutions to keep everyone safer on the roads. Specifically, the memo identifies ways localities can:
- Reduce the role of police in traffic enforcement
- Create the physical infrastructure and systems to build real traffic safety
- Pursue these interrelated solutions equitably
It also highlights work being done in localities across the country – including Philadelphia, Memphis, Pittsburgh, PA, Brooklyn Center, MN; Seattle, and Los Angeles.
