Decriminalizing Transportation and Movement: A Vision for Antiracist Approaches to Safety
The US Department of Transportation defines transportation equity as "fairness in mobility and accessibility to meet the needs of all community members. A central goal of transportation equity is to facilitate social and economic opportunities by providing equitable levels of access to affordable and reliable transportation options based on the needs of the populations being served," particularly the most marginalized populations.
The Transportation Equity Caucus (TEC) seeks to transform transportation policy to be antiracist, noncarceral, accessible, equitable, and safe for all. Transportation is not equitable if it is not safe. As a group, we have been working to advance transportation safety and justice for Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and people of color overall, recognizing blatant inequities. With this document the TEC is laying out the principles that should guide transportation safety and justice. These principles are derived from the strategies, policies, and tactics that already exist and that demonstrate what is possible to make sure Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and other marginalized communities thrive. Indeed, transportation safety approaches must prioritize making tangible and intentional progress toward dismantling the structures that perpetuate racism. Within its framework of transportation equity, the Caucus adheres to the principles of mobility justice set forth by the Untokening. Mobility justice demands that safety and equitable mobility address not only the construction of our streets, but the socioeconomic, cultural, and discriminatory barriers to access and comfort that different communities experience within public spaces.
Unfortunately, Black and Brown people have historically experienced a lack of safety and freedom of movement in public spaces and have been marginalized and disenfranchised by law enforcement. More specifically, traffic enforcement, ostensibly in the name of safety, is the most common form of police-initiated contact, disproportionately affecting Black people. A 2018 report by the Department of Justice found that “being a driver in a traffic stop was the most common form of police-initiated contact” and that “Blacks were more likely to be pulled over in traffic stops than whites and [Latinos].” Fortunately, our past does not have to pre-determine our future. The TEC is advancing and supporting the movement to remove law enforcement from traffic safety strategies to decrease the number of interactions Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and people of color overall have with police. We want to redefine public safety to prioritize the needs of disenfranchised people, as well as disabled people, and other marginalized groups.
The harms that emerge from engaging the police in traffic safety reflect just one devastating symptom of the anti-Blackness, white supremacy, patriarchy, and ableism embedded in law enforcement’s living history. While this history dates back to genocide, land theft, and enslavement, we see in this acknowledgment an opportunity for a new path: one that leads toward a safer and thriving society where reparations for these harms become possible. We acknowledge and hold all these truths for not only how things have been, but how they can be. The Caucus believes and has documented that an array of alternative solutions exist to create equitable and safe transportation and urban planning policies, programs, and practices. We work to advance a more expansive definition of safety that centers dignity, health, and well-being for ALL.
While the investment in other social services and the elimination of police violence are some goals of the Caucus and other advocates, as the nation discusses how law enforcement is funded and used for transportation, infrastructure, pedestrian, and cycling projects, the following framework may help policymakers make substantial progress in ending systems of oppression within traffic safety.
Framing of Strategies and Outcomes
In this document, we discuss various enforcement policies and programs and how they contribute to the harmful interactions and killings of Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and people of color who are simply engaging in public spaces for travel and movement. As is well documented, Black and Brown people are twice as likely to experience the threat of or use of force during police interactions, and Black people are more than twice as likely to be killed than non-Hispanic whites. The Caucus believes that these policies, programs, and practices must cease to exist to save lives, and that solutions must come from the residents of those communities who are directly impacted and living this experience. They must be given the opportunity and resources to create and implement new and innovative safety policies, programs, and practices that exclude interaction with law enforcement. We also outline recommended alternative strategies and cite examples of where innovative solutions are already taking place.
These principles and strategies are meant as a guide for remaking transportation policy so that all modes of transportation are truly safe. In order to do so, we expand our definition of safety beyond preventing death and injury in traffic crashes or train derailments to preventing harm and death at the hands of law enforcement.
For far too long, transportation safety has hinged upon enforcement of traffic laws rather than upon proper engineering and design of transportation infrastructure and good policy. It has also been created without the input of Black and Brown people, and Indigenous people, and with minimal attention to equity. Additionally, many traditional transportation advocacy organizations have followed the framework of the 5 E’s of traffic safety — Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, Evaluation, and Engineering. In order to facilitate transportation policy that advances safety for all, this framework must include and center a new "E": Equity, which the TEC has advocated for years. The Caucus has also worked to remove the “E” of Enforcement, which works against our goal of safety for all. In recent years, the inappropriate inclusion of enforcement as a strategy in traffic safety frameworks, including previous Vision Zero approaches as adopted by many communities across the country, has exacerbated this reliance on enforcement and increased the risks of racialized enforcement inequities in Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.
Law enforcement has used discriminatory and harassing pretexts of checking for criminal violations to stop Black and Brown people from exercising their human right to mobility.[1] Essentially, these stops are not about improving traffic safety at all. Even when a racially profiled traffic stop does not result in violence, these stops can cause fear, humiliation, distrust and PTSD among those who are stopped.[2] Nuisance tickets and fines can be a financial hardship to pay and can result in loss of a driver’s license and create bad credit reports.[3] These things can compound the cost of the ticket by creating burdens in many areas of life such as obtaining housing, mobility to get to and from jobs or school, and acquiring gainful full-time employment. These ticket fees also lead to Black and Brown people, Indigenous people, and people of color overall being placed in jail for nonpayment and many do not have the means to pay the fines and interest. Many also do not have the capital to post bail, leaving them left with little to no options once they are placed inside the criminal justice system. This is often true even in the case of automated enforcement of traffic laws, which we include in our analysis below.
We recognize that dangerous and reckless drivers are a risk and threat that should be addressed. Broader efforts to address traffic safety should be designed to proportionately address these harms without inadvertently perpetuating new ones. Data demonstrates that most people do not drive recklessly or drink and drive, and do not see bad driving behaviors as something to be proud of.[4] Preemptive strategies can combat these behaviors, such as supportive driver assistance technologies, subsidized cab rides, accessible transit services to prevent DUIs, and public education. Strategies should seek to prevent unwanted behavior and outcomes and promote positive ones, rather than relying on punishment after harmful instances have already occurred. For example, we should leverage tools like intelligent speed assistance to encourage safe driving.
Through the lens of the following principles, the Caucus suggests specific changes and legislation that should be considered at the federal, state, and local levels. These principles can also be used by advocates and policymakers to determine if new legislation should be endorsed or opposed; or to review existing transportation programs and policies to identify recommendations for how to improve or transform them.
Transformational outcomes for community safety
Our goal in addressing the role of law enforcement in creating safe places to walk, bike, and roll is to ensure that the infrastructure in all places is safe, accessible, and readily available for everyone to use, especially historically disenfranchised groups. Transportation safety approaches must demonstrate tangible progress toward dismantling structural racism and move us toward the following outcomes:
- Acknowledgment of historical problems and harms including systemic and structural racism.
- A complete elimination of police violence and criminalization of users of public and active transportation modes, and elimination of fines and fees that create financial harm to community members.
- Removal of enforcement as a strategy from safety programs such as Vision Zero.
- Addressing racial inequities such as a lack of investment in and a lack of focus on fair and just distribution of resources for safe places for walking, biking, and rolling in communities where Black and Indigenous people, people of color overall, and people with limited incomes live or travel.
- Improved life outcomes such as increased access to jobs and education, decreased rates of injuries and fatalities, and equitable health outcomes among Black and Indigenous people, people of color overall, and low-income communities.
- Community-created programs and performance measurements to evaluate contributions to dismantling systems of racism that have caused harm.
Meaningful strategies to advance transportation equity
The TEC recommends the following strategies to achieve the aforementioned outcomes:
- Acknowledge systemic racism and repair harm by enacting transportation justice frameworks.
- Expand the definition of safety to be more inclusive of historically marginalized groups.
- Divest from enforcement as the primary traffic safety strategy.
- Eliminate punitive enforcement and decriminalize sustainable and healthy transportation modes.
- Prevent speeding through roadway design and intelligent speed assistance technologies, not through enforcement.
- Build community power and ownership by ensuring access to resources and capacity for culturally relevant and contextual solutions.
- Invest and distribute resources equitably to achieve racially just outcomes and create efficient and safe transportation systems.
- Promote transparency and accountability through policies and practices.
The tabs below outline recommended actions that legislators, agencies, and other decision makers can take to advance the associated strategies, as well as examples of existing relevant initiatives or programs.
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