A.G. Gancarski
If you feel like you’re taking your life in your own hands on Jacksonville’s roads, you’re not alone. The stats show that Duval drivers are among the most imperiled in the country during rush hour rides.
Per a study from Moneygeek, Jacksonville has the seventh-most dangerous commute in the U.S., and the most dangerous in Florida. Jacksonville beats out Miami, Tampa and Orlando when it comes to fatal crash rates, which number 0.5 per 100,000 residents in the Bold New City of the South.
Just 0.01 separates Jacksonville from fifth place Albuquerque, New Mexico, on the list.
This risible ranking is no real surprise, sadly.
This year alone, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles reports that 80 people have been killed on local roadways, with 5,260 crashes with injuries.
Mayor Donna Deegan has rolled out corrective actions.
The city’s Vision Zero plan seeks to eliminate traffic fatalities and cut injuries in half within the next decade, as part of what the report released last month calls a “cultural shift that prioritizes safety in transportation planning, enforcement, and everyday behavior.”
The city has identified dozens of intersections where accidents are more likely to happen. In an effort to remedy those conditions, capital budgets will eye traffic calming, pedestrian and bicyclist infrastructure improvements, and speed management. Slowing down cars, the logic goes, will make people more aware.
Jacksonville isn’t the only city to rank on one of these lists. When it comes to commute “agony,” Miami is ninth in the country, using a metric that factors in average commute time and speed drop.
