Opinion: Congress should keep its hands off D.C. traffic safety laws

Congress is fixated on traffic safety in D.C. – and not in a good way. 

Earlier this year, a U.S. House committee advanced a bill to overturn D.C.’s authority to operate automatic traffic cameras and prohibit right turns on red. And the U.S. Department of Transportation announced efforts to “prohibit the operation of automated traffic camera enforcement in the District of Columbia.”

No one — apparently including members of Congress and political appointees — is happy to get a traffic ticket in the mail. But D.C.’s enforcement system, plus recent policy reforms and road design changes, are showing up as lives saved. 

In 2025, D.C. saw traffic fatalities cut in half — the largest reduction in the country.  This progress should be protected. Moreover, decisions impacting the traffic enforcement program should be made by D.C.’s locally elected leaders, not by federal lawmakers.

These recent policy reforms were implemented thanks to data-driven, real-world considerations from a wide range of local leaders, including each of us: Ward 6 Councilmember Charles Allen, Chair of the D.C. Council’s Transportation Committee, and Ariel Levinson-Waldman, leader of the public interest group Tzedek DC. 

We initially came to street safety with some different perspectives about how to improve the District’s heavy-handed parking and traffic debt policies. But we soon came together in recognizing that a person’s ability to pay a ticket was no guarantee they would be a safe driver. The system in place clearly needed to change. 

Ten years ago, any unpaid fine or fee in D.C. of more than $100 led to automatic driver’s license suspension (with no ability to apply for or renew one). It also led to disqualification for business and occupational licenses for more than 125 occupations. It was unjust that a speeding ticket could hamstring a worker’s livelihood even as it presented no more than a minor inconvenience for a middle-income or wealthy person.  

The D.C. Council, with urging from many residents, reversed these inequities and ended this automatic disqualification from drivers, occupational, and business licensing via a slate of bills starting in 2021. The council also shifted the responsibility for the placement of traffic cameras away from the Metropolitan Police Department and to the District Department of Transportation, which analyzes crash data and now places cameras based on the concentration of injuries. These were big changes, but the city needed more to change driver behavior and make our roads safer. So we started working on a new bill, which eventually became the STEER Act. 

This law has teeth, creating accountability for repeat driving violations.  It’s meant to focus on the most serious offenders and preserve the earlier gains made on fines and fees reforms. It grants D.C.’s elected Attorney General the ability to bring civil suits against vehicles with egregious, repeated speeding tickets. It puts in place a first-in-the-nation requirement that anyone convicted in court of criminal reckless driving will have a “speed governor” installed in their car to limit their speed; and it creates a priority towing system for vehicles with multiple dangerous driving violations in a six-month window — importantly, paid or unpaid.

These reforms protect D.C. residents from dangerous drivers, no matter where those drivers live. D.C. is owed more than $1 billion in outstanding traffic-related fines and fees, overwhelmingly from drivers from Maryland and Virginia.

The District’s newly enhanced enforcement power has already secured over $600,000 in judgments against dangerous drivers, including one Maryland resident with a history of speeding and running red lights. That driver hit a D.C. middle school student in a crosswalk. He has now been held accountable in court. 

Pairing that accountability with safety-driven infrastructure changes is driving down traffic fatalities. Physical additions to our streets such as flex posts, intentional turn lanes, and dedicated bus and bike lanes better protect all road users.

D.C.’s careful and successful reforms, implemented by D.C. leaders, have advanced the sound principle that consequences for public safety violations should focus on dangerous conduct, rather than chasing revenues or punishing poverty or inability to pay.  And, as a result, we are literally saving lives. We cannot afford to move backward.

Charles Allen represents Ward 6 on the Council of the District of Columbia, where he serves as Chair of the Committee on Transportation and the Environment.

Ariel Levinson-Waldman is a Ward 4 resident and the Founding Director of Tzedek DC.