As a lifelong Austinite I’ve seen this city grow at an alarming rate. Our traffic has never been as bad, nor has our rent been so high. I can sit here and whine about the rise of cost of living, the genderfication, the eye-sore corporate sponsorships dominating our local music festivals, but I’m not. I’m going to talk about the biggest problem we’ve had this year – traffic fatalities.
Ever since the 2014 incident where an inebriated driver plowed through a group of pedestrians, road safety has been a big concern for the Austin Police Department. Unfortunately that concern doesn’t seem to translate into actually having safer roads. Traffic fatalities are up over 50% in 2015 and we still have three months left.
This trend can be attributed to a few things, but the overpopulated roadways and poor infrastructure are leading the way for bad wrecks.
I hope our city takes these facts seriously and 2016 isn’t a year we’re going to dread.