Thank you for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Isobel Cully, and I am a member of the Vision Zero New Jersey Alliance, a coalition of diverse partners, including families impacted by traffic crashes, community members, advocates, transportation professionals and many others. We have come together because every person in New Jersey deserves to be able to travel safely each day, without the risk of death or serious injuries, no matter how or when they travel.

New Jersey’s roads are not safe, and it is killing us.

• Last year, New Jersey had a record-breaking number of people killed on its roadways. We lost 701 people in the state – 247 of them were people walking, bicycling, and rolling. This is the highest number of vulnerable road users killed since 1985.

• That’s not a record we should be aiming to break. And yet, this year, we’re already on track to see 2021’s fatalities surpassed.

What’s crucial to understand, is that all of these deaths are preventable: We —you— have the power to achieve zero traffic deaths and serious injuries if we design safe infrastructure, put safety over speed, engage with communities, and build safe systems.

This isn’t only a question of safety, it is an attack on justice and civil rights.

• Black pedestrians are being disproportionately killed by motor vehicles in New Jersey.

• Wheelchair users are burdened with curb cuts or ramps that – while being ADA compliant – don’t connect to a sidewalk – simply a concrete bridge to nowhere, giving them no choice but to use the road.

• Moreover, a lack of safe alternatives to driving traps and imprisons the most vulnerable residents. Commitment and action is needed to provide freedom of mobility so that everyone can access all the things New Jersey has to offer.

So, what do we need?

We need to aggressively tackle this issue, and we ask the legislature, and ask this Committee, to set aside $750,000 (this estimate is based on other states, counties, and municipalities who have comparable programs) as a Vision Zero line item to do the following:

• First, support the creation of a Vision Zero Task Force that will work with NJDOT and other state agencies to implement policies and projects that will make New Jersey’s roads safer for all users.

• Second, develop a public data portal that allows all New Jersey residents access to crash location data to better understand the safety issues in their communities.

• Third, help police departments transition to the New Jersey Safety Portal, the state’s new crash data platform, to ensure that we have timely and accurate crash data. Currently, less than 4% of police departments have transitioned to this new system.

How the state chooses to build its roads means the difference between life and death.

Thank you very much for taking the time to look over this testimony. The Alliance would appreciate the opportunity for a follow-up conversation once the NJDOT capital program funding breakdown is available.