Despite a recent investigation unearthing broad failures in a decade-long DC program to eliminate traffic deaths, Arlington is holding fast to its Vision Zero goals.

Both Arlington and DC have set goals of eradicating all vehicle crashes resulting in fatalities and severe injuries. DC its Vision Zero Action Plan in 2014 with the aim of achieving this by 2024, and Arlington adopted its own action plan in 2021 with a 2030 goalpost.

Vision Zero Program Manager Christine Baker told ARLnow that her team is “optimistic” about the county’s odds of reaching zero critical crashes over the next six years, thanks to a wide array of initiatives and cross-departmental partnerships.

“Vision Zero is an all-community effort,” she said. “As we collaborate and create a sustained dialogue around safety, we see the program’s impact deepen.”

If Arlington — which already has one of the lowest traffic fatality rates in the nation — can achieve this, its Vision Zero project would contrast sharply with its counterpart across the river.

In the District, the Washington Post found that, far from tapering off, traffic fatalities have climbed over the past decade to a 16-year high of 52 deaths last year.

Meanwhile, in Arlington, the number of crashes resulting in deaths and severe injuries has fluctuated since the adoption of the county’s Vision Zero Action Plan.

At first, critical crashes fell from 65 in 2021 to 53 in 2022, according to county data. But that number rose last year, with 65 crashes resulting in severe injuries and six resulting in death.

The first six months of this year were relatively safe for Arlington residents, with 19 severe-injury crashes and one traffic fatality. That’s below the 12-year average of 24.2 severe-injury crashes and 2.3 fatal-injury crashes in January through June.

Baker highlighted numerous initiatives that the county has undertaken under Vision Zero. These include:

“With these and other safety initiatives in-play, we are working hard to get to our goal of zero,” Baker said. “We also lean greatly on partners like Arlington Public Schools and our external stakeholders to help broaden the program’s reach into the community.”

The program manager noted, however, that many severe crashes involve “unpredictable behaviors” such as drunk driving or speeding — which engineering alone can’t always change.

“To tackle these behavioral issues, we host our critical crash mitigation campaign with a different theme each month as identified through critical crash patterns,” she said. “We’re trying to meet people where they are in the community to spread awareness through pop-up events with informational and materials giveaways.”

An update to the Vision Zero Action Plan is tentatively scheduled to come in 2025.