Transportation

No, Police Should Not Fine Cyclists Who Wear Headphones

Ticky-tacky penalties are no way to accomplish Vision Zero, especially if they won’t be enforced equitably.
Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

The District of Columbia is now one year into its Vision Zero effort to end traffic fatalities in the city, and there’s still a lot of work to do.

As D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser recently noted, traffic deaths fell by about half over the past decade. In 2016, the city saw a slight uptick in total traffic fatalities (from 26 to 28) and a hike in traffic injuries (from 12,122 to 12,430), while it enjoyed a 40 percent decrease in pedestrian fatalities.