Safe for All: 2023 Update

Discriminatory land use policies also took the form of  restrictive covenants and deed restrictions  that barred people of color from purchasing homes in certain neighborhoods. This made it more difficult for people of color to build equity in their homes, which has historically been one of the most significant ways for Americans to build generational wealth. These historical policies help explain much of the racial and economic segregation we see in Austin today.

These practices were particularly acute in areas which are now some of Austin’s most desirable neighborhoods. To the right, an advertisement for the Hyde Park development in Central Austin, proclaims that, “Hyde Park is exclusively for white people”.

The overrepresentation of the Black or African American population among severe crash victims continues to be most pronounced within motor vehicle crashes and pedestrian crashes.

While some of these disparities might be explained by differences in rates of walking, transit use, or vehicle ownership, those differences do not tell the whole story. In fact,  national reporting  on pedestrian crashes show that people of color, and particularly Black or African American and American Indian or Alaska Native pedestrians, are struck and killed at higher rates than Non-Hispanic White people even after controlling for differences in walking rates. These national trends can be seen in the Austin data as well, as Black/African American and American Indian/Alaska Native pedestrians are substantially overrepresented within severe pedestrian crashes.

These disparities are even more pronounced among young people of color, as over the past five years 94% (16 of 17) of fatal crash victims ages 15 or younger in Austin were either Hispanic or Black.  At the national level, a   2021 report   by the Governors Highway Safety Association found that Black children ages 4–15 had the highest rates of fatalities involving pedestrians and other people not in vehicles as a percentage of all motor vehicle traffic fatalities. Although fatal crashes involving children make up a relatively small share of all fatal crashes in Austin, continuing to proactively redesign roadways with children and other vulnerable road users in mind will help Austin reverse these alarming trends.

As discussed in the "How we got here" section, one potential reason for these persistent disparities might be different levels of safety risks associated with the built environment in different parts of Austin. As economic pressures push people further outside of Austin's core, they are forced to travel on wider, faster, and more risky arterials and freeways. The map to the right shows how Austin's Black population generally moved towards the periphery of the city over the past decade.

We are also gaining a better understanding of how differences in the age of vehicles on our roadways might factor into racial/ethnicity disparities in traffic injuries.  National research  shows that crashes involving older vehicles tend to be more severe than those involving newer vehicles for a variety of reasons, including safety features that may not be available in older model years. While we do not have information on the race/ethnicity of vehicle owners by vehicle year, the Austin crash data does show that people of color are overrepresented in severe crashes involving older vehicles. Austin Transportation will continue to explore these dynamics to better understand how vehicle age may be contributing to racial/ethnic disparities, and what, if any, safety-related strategies may be appropriate.

Communities of color continue to make up a higher share of severe crash victims than they did in 2016 when Vision Zero began tracking these trends. Following a consistent increase in the share of severe crashes among communities of color between 2016 and 2020, these numbers moved back closer to the citywide racial/ethnic makeup in 2021, but increased once again in 2022.  National reporting  suggests that differences in peoples' ability to work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly among blue collar workers, may have contributed to the sharp increase in traffic fatalities among people of color from 2019 to 2020; however, experts are still seeking to understand these dynamics.

ATD's Vision Zero team also updated the  High-Injury Network  (HIN) in 2022 using the latest five years (2017-2021) of crash data and analyzed how the updated network aligns with the City's equity objectives. The HIN identifies streets in Austin with a high concentration of serious injuries and fatalities and is used by ATD to help prioritize safety investments and initiatives.

Similar to the previous version of the HIN, we found that the updated network reflects the disparities seen in the severe crash data. For example, 26% of the Combined HIN (orange lines on the map) is within or adjacent to the Most Vulnerable Equity Analysis Zones, despite those zones making up less than 13% of Austin's land area. Furthermore, within the top 10% highest scoring HIN segments (i.e. segments with the highest concentration of serious injury/fatal crashes), nearly half are located within or adjacent to the Most Vulnerable EAZs.

Over the past two years ATD has also continued to make progress in implementing rapid and low-cost treatments on   High-Injury Roadways  (HIR). Previous ATD analysis found that 67% of people who were seriously injured or killed on the HIRs between 2016-2020 were people of color, compared with 56% of seriously injured or killed crash victims citywide. 

Analysis performed by ATD's Vision Zero team in late 2021 showed a  17% reduction  in serious injury and fatal crashes on the first six HIRs that were addressed compared with their previous three-year average. Since then, improvements on four additional HIRs have been substantially completed, and ATD plans to continue to evaluate the overall safety performance of HIRs in 2023.

We also continue to evaluate how we prioritize Vision Zero Intersection Safety Projects funded through the 2018 Bond (Prop G) and 2020 Bond (Prop B) to ensure that the safety funding authorized by the Austin community is allocated in a way that is consistent with the City's equity goals. 

Starting in 2021 ATD began to apply additional equity criteria to help identify intersections with a high number and/or percentage of crash victims who are people of color. These locations were prioritized for initial project screening and many have moved on to the project development phase to create initial concepts and begin design efforts.

The map to the right shows that, as of late 2022, 20 of the 24 Intersection Safety projects that were in the construction, design or scoping phases are located within or adjacent to Most Vulnerable or Medium-High Vulnerable EAZs.

Austin Transportation is aggressively pursuing federal transportation safety grants authorized through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to improve citywide safety, with a focus on historically underserved communities.

In January 2023 the U.S. Department of Transportation  announced  that Austin will receive $22.9 million through the  Safe Streets and Roads for All   (SS4A) Grant Program to make its streets safer for everyone. ATD will use the funding for major intersection safety projects, pedestrian crossings, a citywide lighting study, and other safety investments. Importantly, Austin will allocate at least 50% of grant funds in USDOT-defined   Underserved Communities  , which are shown in orange lines in the map. 

Austin Transportation seeks to support efforts to build community members’ ability to provide meaningful input and wholly participate in Vision Zero activities. One way we do this is by making crash data open and available to the Austin community through the  Vision Zero Viewer , which includes statistics on the race/ethnicity and other demographic information of crash victims.

In late 2021/early 2022, ATD's Vision Zero program commissioned three local artists to produce art that reflected stories collected from community members about the impact of traffic crashes on their families and their communities.  The three murals were completed in February 2022.