Washington, DC, to send personalized messages to 100,000 high-risk drivers to cut down on traffic deaths
Asher Notheis
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Washington, D.C., is starting a program next month that will send personalized messages to drivers with a history of traffic violations and road accidents in the Washington area.
The program is Washington D.C.’s latest effort to lower traffic crashes in the city, and is being led by the D.C. Department of Transportation and The Lab @ D.C., which is a part of the D.C. government. Drivers who are considered by the city to be more likely in a car accident will be messaged by the city, reminding them to follow and obey traffic laws, according to the Washington Post.
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“The goal is to create awareness, regardless of whether or not anybody has signed off for specific alerts,” said Sam Quinney, director at The Lab @ D.C.
A list of 100,000 high-risk drivers has been developed by the city, with some people on the list both a letter and a text message, while others will only be messaged either by a letter or a text message. Recipients of these messages can choose to stop receiving these messages once the first round of messages has been sent out.
This new program is part of Vision Zero D.C., which is an initiative that pledged in 2015 to eliminate city traffic deaths by 2024. However, this goal has been deemed ambitious by officials, who expect to have a revised goal and plan released by 2024.
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“This is the first effort we know of that combines the use of predictive modeling to identify drivers and then behaviorally informed messages to prompt them to drive more safely,” said Bianca Lugo Lewis, a communications director of the Office of the City Administrator.
The data from this program will be collected over the course of one year, and researchers will assess if recipients of these messages reduced their risk-taking driving as they collect the information.