There Is No Need To Wait for a Traffic Safety Moonshot
Americans are suckers for the idea of a moonshot. It stimulates every cultural sweet spot we have, reinforcing our self-image as an ambitious, resourceful and visionary people. We dream big and we accomplish great things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
The term “moonshot” refers to that great American accomplishment of being the first country to land a human on the moon. Americans who had persevered through the Great Depression and World War II united to ensure that the innovation machine of Western capitalism beat the repressive communists of the Soviet Union in a literal race to our original satellite. We got there first because we were ready to do what it took to accomplish what was seemingly impossible, or so the story goes.
At a time when there are an overwhelming number of complex and seemingly unsolvable problems challenging our society, it seems like everyone is calling for a moonshot. There is a moonshot for climate change and another for obesity. The president just announced a moonshot for cervical cancer. China supposedly has a moonshot strategy to get their soccer team into the next World Cup.
All of these initiatives are characterized by their high risk, long timelines, significant resource requirements and potentially transformative impact. Said differently, if you have a lot of resources and a lot of time, you can take big risks and it is likely that some of those will eventually pay off. It should be noted that the stories we tell about ourselves focus on the successes; we rarely document, let alone celebrate, the overwhelming number of moonshots that never escaped orbit.
Moonshots have their place, but that place is not addressing problems that are ubiquitous, chronic and complex. Those are the kinds of problems we work with at Strong Towns — those messy city-building challenges that primarily involve the untangling of decades of prior policy moonshots that were meant to be simple solutions to a complex problem.
Euclidean zoning. Building codes. The Interstate Highway Act. Fannie Mae. Mortgage-Backed securities. The gas tax. Urban renewal. Parking minimums. Credit scores. Generally accepted accounting practices. I can go on like this for pages; the list of simple moonshot solutions to incredibly complex problems is seemingly endless.
This is why the Strong Towns approach is the antithesis of the moonshot. We are the tortoise to the moonshot’s hare. We approach complex problems by feeling our way in the dark, incrementally, one step at a time, learning with each step what works and what doesn’t, building on successes and shedding failures when the cost of gaining that insight is cheap. This is the path to prosperity, a time-tested approach to building a strong and resilient place.
So, you can imagine our reaction to this story, part of Bloomberg City Lab’s solutions series:
The USDOT’s moonshot plan to stop the dramatic increase in traffic fatalities (“eliminate deaths,” as the headline overstates) involves more gizmos and gadgets. V2X technology supplements the cameras and sensors that many modern automobiles already have by allowing the vehicle to interface directly with infrastructure like traffic signals. The plan is to get auto manufacturers to include V2X technology and then, along with other safety initiatives USDOT is working on yada yada yada, Americans can reach the ambitious goal “to reduce traffic deaths to zero.”
If things go according to plan, there should be “three-quarters of the nation’s intersections equipped with V2X technology in about 12 years.” Remember, we Americans do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard.
V2X technology is certainly nifty, but like nearly every innovation proposed by tech companies, auto manufacturers and the USDOT, the goal is less about safety than it is about enabling high-speed mobility. The article gives an example of where V2X can improve safety — “low-visibility situations or when a driver’s view is obstructed, like around corners” — and then another, much more applicable example, where it improves mobility:
“V2X systems, like the one in Brno, can also be used to give certain vehicles priority. Other use cases include extending that priority to heavy vehicles or trucks so they spend less time idling in city centers.”
When deployed, V2X technology will make it easier for those large trucks and other heavy vehicles to speed through the centers of our cities, not having to waste as much of their time idling. That’s great if you’re the corporate franchisee waiting for a semitrailer to deliver your daily pallet of prepackaged food. It’s less cool if you’re a person living in the city, someone who walks or bikes, visits local shops, makes local auto trips, owns property, or even attempts to own and operate a competitor to the corporate franchisee. If you fall into one of the latter categories, you can sit and wait while V2X technology maximizes the traffic flow of suburban commuters and heavy trucks.
And, quite frankly, you and your neighbors can continue to die at alarming rates. Strong Towns is two weeks away from releasing a report that summarizes our findings from 18 months of examining automobile crashes through the Crash Analysis Studio approach. The top contributing factor: high-speed roadways built through complex urban areas.
Here’s the good news: You can do something about this. People who want to reduce and, ultimately, eliminate traffic deaths can take immediate steps to make that a reality. This isn’t a moonshot and it doesn’t involve someone else developing a new gadget that will fix the problem for you. It involves local leaders, both inside and outside of government, taking prudent, thoughtful and purposeful steps to learn from the crashes happening in their communities and then putting that knowledge to work in the pursuit of safer streets.
Stop waiting for a traffic safety moonshot. Join us at the press conference on October 15 at 11 a.m. CDT to hear from safety experts, local leaders and others already doing this work. If you are a member of Strong Towns or part of a Local Conversation, check your email for an invitation to a special briefing prior to the release of the report. If you’re not a member but want to be notified when the report is available, sign up for our email newsletter.
You can also take the free Crash Analysis Studio course to learn how to start your own studio. You can study past studio sessions, which include videos with transcripts along with findings and recommendations. Of course, you can also get a copy of "Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town" to go even deeper. And, for those places ready for a community transformation around street safety, we’re happy to come to your community or even jump on a Zoom to help you get a new approach started.
There’s no moonshot for traffic safety; there’s just you and the people around you. But that’s enough to change everything.
Charles Marohn (known as “Chuck” to friends and colleagues) is the founder and president of Strong Towns and the bestselling author of “Escaping the Housing Trap: The Strong Towns Response to the Housing Crisis.” With decades of experience as a land use planner and civil engineer, Marohn is on a mission to help cities and towns become stronger and more prosperous. He spreads the Strong Towns message through in-person presentations, the Strong Towns Podcast, and his books and articles. In recognition of his efforts and impact, Planetizen named him one of the 15 Most Influential Urbanists of all time in 2017 and 2023.