In a city where the vast majority of people drive to work, it may be difficult to imagine living life as a pedestrian. But when it comes to traffic safety, pedestrians are at the forefront of the issue: One in five serious and fatal traffic crashes in Dallas this year have involved pedestrians, according to the city’s Vision Zero dashboard.
“A red light and a walk signal is not always enough, somehow, to cross the street safely,” said Tyler Wright, an advocate for pedestrians and vice president of the Dallas Area Transit Alliance. “I have to make eye contact with every single car, and even when I do, sometimes they almost hit me, because they’re trying to turn right on red.”
This is not an uncommon experience. Over the last decade, drivers’ failure to yield to pedestrians was cited as a contributing cause of more than 300 serious and fatal pedestrian crashes in Dallas, TxDOT crash data shows.
The first week of October marked Dallas’ third annual Week Without Driving, an event powered by several local advocacy groups, including the Dallas Area Transit Alliance. Week Without Driving, led nationally by America Walks, aims to highlight gaps and inequities in the transportation system by encouraging residents and policymakers to experience daily life without a personal vehicle, according to a news release.
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It was this type of first-hand experience with pedestrian infrastructure that pushed Maddy Ullman, a local disability in film consultant, to become involved with Week Without Driving. Ullman, who has cerebral palsy, started using a wheelchair as a mobility aid about six months ago.
“I was like, ‘I’m so excited to have a wheelchair because I can go roll around my neighborhood.’ Well, I tried. I tried,” Ullman said, recounting her experience navigating her neighborhood sidewalks in Uptown. “At least right now, I can’t go without someone else, because one crack in the … one crack in anything, I can’t get over.”
She told that same story in an Instagram Reel last spring, which set off a chain of events that ultimately saw Ullman running a workshop for Week Without Driving, hosted by the Dallas Bicycle Coalition, titled Storytelling for Change. The aim of the workshop, Ullman said, was to encourage people to get involved with the movement and tell their stories, too.
The purpose of the Week Without Driving movement is to push people to put themselves in the shoes of people who cannot or choose not to drive. This way, Wright said, people can understand what it’s like for Dallas’ pedestrians at a discrete, on-foot level; whether that be in terms of infrastructure gaps or even emotionally.
“Sometimes it can be a little exhausting,” Wright said, “just because you’re constantly on guard as a pedestrian.”
Over the past couple of years, Wright has tried to limit his car use when he can, choosing to walk or bike around his neighborhood in Addison, or take DART to places like downtown Dallas, Richardson and Plano. But he recognized that his choice to do this is just that — a choice.
“I could not imagine if I had to walk or bike or bus everywhere because I need to get to a job or I can’t afford a car, or I’m trying to make rent,” Wright said. “So when you think about that; I come from a comfortable place, and I choose to participate in this because of values. It’s totally different from people who have no choice.”
Wright emphasized that empathy for the pedestrian experience from city leaders is critical when it comes to improving pedestrian safety. The type of people who serve on city councils, he said, are the type of people who can drive anywhere they want.
The city’s efforts
City Council member Paul Ridley acknowledged the role safety concerns have in shaping people’s transportation choices, noting that pedestrian activity in Dallas is being limited by perceptions that it isn’t safe to cross certain roads and worries surrounding speeding or thoughtless drivers.
The city adopted the Vision Zero Action Plan in 2022, which outlined a target to eliminate traffic deaths and halve the number of serious traffic crashes the city experienced by 2030. Before Vision Zero, Ridley said, the city had not given much thought to pedestrian and vehicular safety.
“It’s become a much bigger part of our philosophy in Transportation and Public Works, how we approach the issue of making our streets safer for people; it’s become a priority,” said Ridley, who also serves as the chair of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.
The Vision Zero Action Plan included various strategies to improve traffic safety for all road users, but pedestrians were specifically highlighted as a priority for the city as a disproportionate number of severe traffic crashes in the city involved pedestrians. The action plan stated that while only 2% of people walked to work, pedestrians accounted for 30% of traffic deaths from 2015-2019.
It has been a little over three years since the Vision Zero Action Plan was adopted. Actions taken by the city in the past year to advance its Vision Zero goals have largely centered on evaluations of what might work best to make Dallas streets safer.
According to city staff, the city has completed or nearly completed several transportation studies for streets identified in the Vision Zero Action Plan as being a part of the “high injury network,” the 7% of streets that account for 62% of the city’s severe traffic crashes.
For crashes involving pedestrians, the high injury network includes portions of Maple Avenue, Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard and Great Trinity Forest Way. The city said it is also studying the effect of traffic calming measures such as speed cushions (similar to speed bumps, but with less of an impact on larger vehicles such as ambulances), updated traffic signals and flashing pedestrian beacons across Dallas.
The city also said it has worked with TxDOT to add new traffic signals along Loop 12 to provide safer opportunities for pedestrians to cross the roadway. This thoroughfare has seen the largest number of serious and fatal pedestrian crashes in Dallas, according to TxDOT crash data.
Though he does commend Dallas for being one of the only cities in the area to implement a program like Vision Zero, for Wright, the city has not approached the issue with the urgency it requires.
“I haven’t really seen any local politicians take it seriously,” Wright said, “or at least have enough people take it seriously enough to push things forward.”
Sustained forward momentum on pedestrian safety projects is critical — especially considering Dallas’ position as being one of the most dangerous cities for pedestrians in the state.
However, making changes to Dallas’ infrastructure requires balancing the interests of many different groups. The city saw that play out last year with the Maple Avenue Safety Project.
The Vision Zero Action Plan identified a section of Maple Avenue, between Hudnall Street and Oak Lawn Avenue, as being a hot spot for severe pedestrian crashes. Increasing the safety on this street became a priority. One of the solutions proposed in the Maple Avenue Safety Project was to reduce the number of lanes on the street from four to three, which would also make space for a bike lane.
This proposal, Ridley said, was met with both support from pedestrian and cycling advocates and concern from business owners who felt losing a lane would reduce traffic to their businesses.
Moving forward, the city said it will implement a two-phased project on Maple Avenue. The first phase is installing pedestrian hybrid beacons and rectangular rapid flashing beacons along the route.
“If we see the other improvements don’t work or weren’t successful in reducing the accident rate,” Ridley said, “then we will pursue more aggressive measures.”
What’s next for Dallas?
Looking just five years out from the Vision Zero deadline of 2030, Ridley said the city still has a lot of work to do. But the first step is hearing from residents and people who are concerned about public safety, he said, and making sure they alert the city to conditions that are unsafe.
He also said the city needs to budget appropriately to be able to introduce the needed infrastructure improvements. Next year’s budget, which was approved in September, allocates $1.5 million of the general fund to Vision Zero to “secure $9 million in federal funding to implement improvements identified in corridor studies,” according to the city‘s budget overview.
At its core, Vision Zero is a mindset shift. According to the Vision Zero Network, a nonprofit focused on supporting Vision Zero efforts across the United States, “communities that want to succeed at Vision Zero need to acknowledge that business as usual is not enough and that systemic changes are needed to make meaningful progress.”
Ullman said her ultimate vision for the transportation landscape in Dallas is one that provides more options for everyone, whether that be in terms of affordability or in more accessibly-designed transit. Transit investment and pedestrian safety are connected, according to Wright.
“If I’m going to have to walk 5 miles, I could take a bus most of the way and then walk the last little bit. That’s going to be the safer route for the pedestrian,” said Wright. “Whatever investment in transit we make that improves service, that improves access, that improves the frequency, helps the pedestrian because it gives them more options.”