Question 4: What does Montgomery County need to do to achieve Vision Zero, eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries?

Transcript: Vision Zero can't just be something we say in Montgomery County, it has to be something that we do here, and we have to do it in every single policy decision and budget decision that we make. The first thing when it comes to Vision Zero is about lowering vehicle speeds, because we know that the number one reason why tragedies happen and why collisions turn in to deaths is speed. And that means road diets, that means reengineering, that means eliminating outdated engineering decisions like channelized right turns that add speed to cars as they come into contact with pedestrians as opposed to reducing speed when they come into contact with pedestrians. It means putting in place better infrastructure that prioritizes all road users before a tragedy happens. But at least when a tragedy does happen, actually responding to them in the ways that we should, which we haven't always done here, unfortunately, in Montgomery County. Like what we did on the Old Georgetown Road when Jake Cassell tragically lost his life because of terrible, outdated engineering. And we work with SHA and with our delegation, and we got them to add in a bike lane. We need to do that more and more. We need to focus and prioritize on pedestrians. But most importantly, we need to rethink the way that we look at public infrastructure. Recognizing that roads are for people and that public infrastructure needs to serve everybody who uses safely.