David Roberts is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Verra Mobility, a leading provider of smart mobility technology solutions.
In 2023, we should undertake a concentrated, collective effort to make our roads safer for everyone—drivers, passengers, cyclists and pedestrians. The statistics are sobering—despite investments in safety efforts, traffic fatality rates have reached a 16-year high. This year presents us with opportunities to reverse this trend.
Along with safety efforts, this coming year will see municipalities of all sizes take a pragmatic view of smart transportation to improve urban mobility and maximize the use of existing infrastructure. During the pandemic, empty roads resulted in increased speeds and more deaths, pushing back years of progress. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHSTA) found that nearly 43,000 people were killed in traffic crashes on U.S. roadways in 2021—the highest number of fatalities since 2005, and up 10.5% from the previous year. What I find most alarming is the 21% increase in fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled from 2019 to 2020—the biggest percentage increase on record. We should get back on track to improving transportation safety, and these are the trends that can help make this happen.
For years, several U.S. cities have adopted Vision Zero programs aimed at eliminating traffic-related injuries and fatalities. With fatality trends going in the wrong direction, we expect to see a renewed focus on Vision Zero investments in the 53 U.S. communities currently signed on to the initiative.
Speed reduction is a core focus of Vision Zero programs. We saw average speeds jump recently, and the risk of causing severe injury or death grows exponentially the faster someone drives. According to NHTSA, 78% of the vehicles in fatal pedestrian crashes were on roads with speed limits above 30 MPH.
We can make a big difference if we focus on our schools. We should make areas around schools safer for our children by using automatic camera-based systems to prevent speeding and change driving behaviors. We worked with the city of Ottawa recently on a new automated enforcement program. We saw tremendous results with a 50% reduction in speeders at the pilot sites and a 72% decrease in the proportion of high-speed drivers.
Automated safety enforcement is a force multiplier for areas struggling with police staffing shortages by helping communities redeploy resources to more serious crimes. Automated enforcement can be expanded to new use cases and help enforce bus lane restrictions, monitor speed in construction zones or even address drivers who block intersections and crosswalks.
In 2023, we’ll see an increase in traffic safety programs and automated enforcement efforts to target the most dangerous streets. This will hopefully start to reverse the recent trend and get us back on track to make the roads safer for everyone.
While safety initiatives should be at the forefront of U.S. transportation improvements in 2023, we will also see more cities make efforts to improve urban mobility in their communities. More of our customers are interested in exploring curb management solutions to address the increasing complexity at the city curb. Increasingly, consumer vehicles are having to compete for valuable curb space with e-commerce delivery vans, ride-shares, food trucks and even micro-mobility solutions like e-scooters. This valuable real estate can no longer be serviced simply by the traditional parking meters paid in 30-minute increments.
Cities of all sizes will be looking for large-scale, easily deployable solutions with immediate impact. We’ll see more parking kiosks deployed along with automated traffic management and time-of-use-based pricing to balance the needs of commercial and personal vehicles. The goal here is to use adjustable pricing to ensure a spot is always available when needed. Moving from standalone parking meters to parking kiosks makes it easier to support both credit cards and cash, without having to collect coins from every individual meter.
This approach enables smart mobility as cities can gather data on which parking spots are needed, informing long-term planning and a more flexible approach when demand changes—for example, on a game day when more parking is needed near a baseball or basketball stadium.
Another trend to watch in 2023 is the continued shift to automated or cashless tolling as a way to improve efficiencies and reduce congestion.
Outside of the urban environment, highways have often presented unique traffic and congestion challenges. Traditionally, you could usually count on a backup at the toll plaza. This pushed transportation agencies to deploy automated tolling, but human toll collectors still sat in the booth as thousands of cars passed by daily. Social distancing drove a rapid switch to automated systems using tag and license plate readers to accurately charge drivers. Automated tolling reduces backups when people don’t have to stop, cutting idling and helping the environment, while removing people from harm’s way at the toll booth and enabling dynamic time or passenger-based pricing.
In 2023, we should refocus on making our cities and roads safer, smarter and more connected. Smart mobility will help get more people to their destinations faster, easier and safer than before. We need reasonable, effective solutions that stand on their own—a parking kiosk saves hours of work, automated tollways reduce congestion and automated enforcement helps police officers focus on solving crimes while improving public safety. Ultimately, effective, practical, tech-enabled solutions will help us achieve smart mobility in 2023 and the near future.
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