Just two days after 23-year-old Aya Knox was fatally struck by a car while crossing the street in downtown Dallas, leaders of a city-appointed task force announced to a council committee that Dallas is failing its pedestrians, and the stakes are life and death.
A report compiled by the Street Design Manual Work Group presented Dallas leaders with a list of 19 recommendations to enhance pedestrian safety throughout the city. The first of these recommendations is straightforward: “enforce adherence to policies.” The work group was tasked with reviewing the city’s street design manual in 2023 to ensure the policies aligned with initiatives such as ForwardDallas, the bike plan, and Vision Zero, which aims to eliminate traffic-related deaths in Dallas.
Citing 2023 data, the report found that Dallas had 57% more traffic incidents resulting in fatality or serious injury per capita than Austin, El Paso, Fort Worth, Houston or San Antonio. The memo considers these deaths a “consequence of poor street design,” and goes on to paint an unrelenting picture of city departments failing to put safety first when building Dallas’ roads…