Tulsa City Councilor G.T. Bynum likes using data to make budget decisions. Now, another councilor is following his lead to cut down on car crashes.
City Councilor Anna America is heading up a study that will use data from several sources to find ways to reduce the number of traffic accidents. A calculation from INCOG says there were 10,000 crashes last year within the city limits.
"There was kind of a — not acceptance of it, but sort of a sense that people say, 'Well, that's what happens. You've got more traffic, you have more accidents.' And we wouldn't have that attitude with anything else," America said. "So, I think we said that's not good enough. We still need to figure out how to make it safer when you have more traffic."
Those 10,000 car crashes came at a total cost of $550 million.
"That's lost wages, injury, property damage, insurance premiums, all the pieces that go toward that," America said. "So, even if you're able to say, do a 5 percent reduction citywide, that's a lot of money."
America said data is the way to go, because there are no one-size-fits-all solutions.
"Enforcement and education will be how you tackle DUI ... changing a streetlight doesn't help that," America said. "So, the strategies will be different depending on what the data shows us are the real problems."
America has six of the city’s 10 most dangerous intersections in her district. Public safety, engineering, planning and other departments will start by looking at the worst of the worst: 71st Street and Mingo Road.
