Respond to prefers-color-scheme dark in app web views

Follow section front redirects in Spectrum

Enable NLP source in PCS for load testing

Switch off the News Alerts Survey Widget when we have enough responses

Poll to determine if new LUF updates are available

Allows the winning A/B test variant to be turned on without Spectrum deployment

Show infinite scrolling sections in Assembler MultiView

Show option for NLP article summaries in Action Bar

Show NLP summaries collection recirc on article pages

A general feature flag for Recipe Features that aren't yet released

Feature flag for media team features that aren't yet released

Use new Orca video player for preroll plugin in Spectrum

Show the snow tracker (instead of the heat tracker) on Spectrum

Joey Gallo returns, but Nats endure another quiet offensive night

Walter Johnson’s jersey from 1920 showdown with Babe Ruth sold at auction

Bryce Harper, Joey Gallo and a bond forged by baseball since they were kids

Zelensky’s chief aide flexes power, irks critics — and makes no apologies

IDF recovers bodies of 3 Israelis killed on Oct. 7

With its energy network nearly destroyed, Ukraine already fears the winter

Book Tour: At home with Amor Towles

In photos: The scene in Houston after severe storms killed at least 7 people

Deadly storm blasts Houston

Blue Origin to fly again as space tourism struggles to get off the ground

Why this company’s biggest fans turned against it

Boeing delays spaceflight again as it continues to struggle with leak

How Jim Jordan tried to connect the dots on Biden’s $8 million book deal

‘Never Trump?’ ‘Never Biden’ voters might loom larger.

Ukraine gamble pays off: Republicans face little backlash in primaries

She finished chemo then got a medical degree: ‘The dream is real now’

Puppy abandoned with heart-rending note is adopted, named Minerva

Man, 91, shocks tiny firehouse with $500K gift: ‘Nobody knew how much I’d saved’

Biden’s false claim that inflation was 9 percent when he took office

Did Obamacare ‘massively’ increase the cost of health care?

The world’s coolest hotels want to tell you a story

Cruise ships to return to Baltimore two months after bridge collapse 

Some cruise prices are about to get a little more clear

At campus protests, ‘DO NOT TALK TO THE MEDIA’!

CNN gets a presidential debate — and a much-needed win

Netflix will air NFL’s Christmas games, a major step for streaming service

Russia shows resilience. There is more to do for Ukraine.

Trump promises tax cuts and fewer rules. CEOs shouldn’t fall for it.

Tariffs against China hamstring the transition to a clean energy future

Carolyn Hax: Is it weird to ask other people to care about you?

Ask Amy: Can’t a single woman eat alone without interruption?

Miss Manners: Miss Manners: Gag gift falls flat

Trump

Evelyn Hockstein

Making a right turn on red could go the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2018/10/26/uber-lyft-pick-up-zones-coming-dc/?utm_term=.527a1dc2ecbe" target="_blank">way of curbside parking</a> in some parts of the District as city officials intensify efforts to reduce traffic deaths and make the capital a more walkable city.

But does banning right turns on red (RTOR) really save lives? Or is it a feel-good measure that could create additional gridlock and pollution — the opposite goals of a sustainable city — with no appreciable effect on safety?

Last week, D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser announced a renewed commitment to Vision Zero, an international initiative intended to eliminate traffic deaths. The reset came after a series of deadly crashes, involving 12 pedestrians, three bicyclists and a person riding a scooter, that pushed this year’s total higher than in all of 2017. Bowser and other city officials outlined several steps, including a plan to eliminate right turns on red at about 100 intersections.

D.C. Mayor Bowser unveils reset of Vision Zero campaign as traffic deaths surpass 2017 total

Greg Billing, executive director of the Washington Area Bicycling Association, said he was pleased to see the renewed attention to Vision Zero. The beauty of the initiative is its simplicity in insisting on an uncompromising metric: It doesn’t matter what a city has done, or what other considerations are taken into account, if people are still getting killed in traffic, he said. He urged the city to do more and with greater urgency, such as creating more bike lanes. Regarding right turns on red, he said his group would prefer a citywide ban, as New York City has.

“We just say, when a red light is red, don’t go — don’t go in any direction,” Billing said. “Turning right on red is dangerous for people. It’s dangerous for drivers and for pedestrians especially.”

This map shows the worst D.C. intersections for pedestrian safety 

But John B. Townsend II, a spokesman for AAA Mid-Atlantic, said he believes eliminating the right turn on red would be counterproductive. Better engineering design would be preferable than getting rid of right turns on red, he said.

“This might sound counterintuitive, but banning turns or creating a no-turn zone in the District is unlikely to increase traffic safety in the nation’s capital. It would likely decrease it,” Townsend said. He said some<a href="https://archives.sfmta.com/cms/rhomepd/documents/DPT_right_turn_on_red.pdf" target=_blank> research</a> suggests that collisions could increase with a ban on all of these turns, because drivers then have to wait for green — and those vehicles would be moving at full speed. “So you are creating an even greater risk for vulnerable users.”

Right turn on red became national policy as a result of the 1973 Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries oil embargo and subsequent energy crisis, when gas prices were soaring and gas lines were spreading.

In 1975, Congress passed the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act, which pushed states to allow right on red turns as a condition of receiving federal funds. Its aim was to reduce delays, auto emissions and fuel consumption. The law also said the maneuver should be allowed only to the extent that conditions allowed it to be done safely, which generally ruled out intersections near schools or with heavy pedestrian traffic, poor sight lines or other hazardous configurations. By 1980, all 50 states and the District permitted the maneuver. Some went further and allowed left turns on red, too.

Several studies, especially an oft-cited 1982 report co-authored by a researcher for the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS), reported a hair-raising increase in crashes among the early states that had adopted right-on-red. The study — which looked at early adopters vs. states that had yet to allow the turn — found that crashes increased by 20 percent overall in states allowing right turns on red and by as much as 79 percent in urban areas. Many of those crashes involved pedestrians.

But a 1995 review of national and state data by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that right turns on red had a negligible impact on the risk of traffic deaths. The review noted that earlier studies also occurred when making a right turn on red was a relatively new concept to many drivers. The review also suggested caution in reviewing the findings of earlier studies, including the 1982 IIHS study, because of their statistical limitations, including small sample sizes and incomplete data on the crashes themselves.

Data in the earlier research, for example, counted crashes at intersections where a right turn on red was permitted — but also where, owing to gaps in reporting, it was impossible to know whether the crashes occurred when the light was red or green at the time. That is, some of the crashes might have occurred after a vehicle had stopped at the red light and then turned right, and some accidents might have occurred when the vehicles were turning right on green.

What the 1995 NHTSA review found was during a four-year period, an average of 84 crashes occurred every year in the United States at intersections where a right turn on red is permitted — or 0.2 percent of all 485,104 crashes in the same period. Because the national data could not say whether a right turn on red had been made, it was possible the number of fatal crashes at those intersections was even lower, the paper says.

When looking at data from four states — which included information on whether the vehicle was going right on red when the crash occurred — the NHTSA review found even a smaller rate of crashes involving deaths or serious injury in connection with the maneuver: 0.06 percent. In Maryland, for example, there were 102 crashes involving a right turn on red that caused injuries — and zero deaths — out of 48,972 crashes from 1989 to 1992.

D.C. crackdown aimed at protecting pedestrians -- sometimes from themselves

Traffic engineers in San Francisco studied the problem, too, on an even more granular scale. In research prepared in 2002 for the city’s governing body, the writers found that only 0.45 percent of crashes involved someone making a right turn on red. The report also noted that these findings were in line with a 1956 study of San Francisco intersections, which found 0.3 percent of collisions occurred when someone was making a right on red. Both the 2002 and the 1956 study concluded that, if anything, making a right turn on red was no more dangerous than making a right turn on green.

And while there’s little research quantifying how energy-efficient right turns on red are, it’s clear the maneuver offers some savings on fuel and emissions, according to the Energy Department and others. Discovery Channel’s MythBusters and the Boston Globe have reported on how companies such as United Parcel Service save money by taking routes that maximize right turns. Although UPS’s experience isn’t, strictly speaking, about making right turns on red, it suggests that the maneuver is more fuel-efficient than idling at a traffic light.

All of which suggests that the District’s renewed push for safety is wise and overdue, including its reassessment of the safety of making right turns on red. But the research also suggests that the best path is the one the city is on now, which is taking the middle of the road.

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2018/10/31/shocker-halloween-creates-higher-risk-pedestrian-deaths/?utm_term=.611605fb554d" target=_blank>Shocker: Halloween is one of the riskiest days for pedestrians, new study shows</a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2018/10/25/rats-are-sure-support-metro-proposal-expand-food-sales/?utm_term=.300c1f361320" target=_blank>Rats are sure to support Metro proposal to expand food sales </a>

<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/transportation/2018/10/24/how-is-future-granny-going-get-where-she-needs-go-how-about-you/?utm_term=.e5e7ccc86477" target="_blank">How will older Americans get around in the future? AARP has some ideas</a>

Pray for Us Sinners: The Hail Mary Murder

Yale University

Fredrick Kunkle is a reporter on the Metro desk. He has written about transportation, politics, courts, police, and local government in Maryland and Virginia.

Fredrick Kunkle

washpost

the-washington-post

18th Street in Adams Morgan 

For The Washington Post

The Washington Post

staff

name

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/transport

iptc-media/disaster_accident_and_emergency_incident/accident_and_emergency_incident/transport_accident_and_incident/road_accident_and_incident

iptc-media/disaster_accident_and_emergency_incident/accident_and_emergency_incident

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice/justice_and_rights

iptc-media/crime_law_and_justice

iptc-media/science_and_technology/research

iptc-media/science_and_technology/technology_and_engineering

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance

iptc-media/science_and_technology

iptc-media/disaster_accident_and_emergency_incident

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/transport/road_transport

iptc-media/disaster_accident_and_emergency_incident/accident_and_emergency_incident/transport_accident_and_incident

iptc-media/economy_business_and_finance/economic_sector/transport/traffic

client-blocklists/Client List: Morgan Stanley KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Amazon KWs - EXCLUDE ALL 

client-blocklists/Client List: Becton Dickinson KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Boeing KWs 2021- INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Nomura  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Bed Bath & Beyond KWs - INCLUDE ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Exxon Mobil  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/T. Rowe Price KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Microsoft KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Affluent_legacyaux_eqw

client-blocklists/Ford/Lincoln KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

advertising/B2_Automotive Interest 2.5.15_legacyaux_jqs

client-blocklists/HBO KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Bank of America KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Diageo - Johnnie Walker KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Optum KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Inpixon KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Apple TV+ KW – INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Business_legacyaux_hws

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T KWs 2021 - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Congressional Elections_legacyaux_r48

client-blocklists/Client List: Eli Lily KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/WaPo: Combined Disaster Keyword List - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Data Center Buyer_legacyaux_80A

advertising/B2_Design Engineering_legacyaux_i6w

advertising/B2_Entrepreneurship_legacyaux_sqb

client-blocklists/Client List: Purina KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_Finance_legacyaux_jfq

advertising/B2_Government & Policy_legacyaux_mza

advertising/B2_Health and Beauty_legacyaux_3fv

advertising/B2_Holiday_legacyaux_o3u

client-blocklists/GEICO KWs - INCLUDES ANY_4.26.21

client-blocklists/BP KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/ESG

advertising/B2_Infrastructure_legacyaux_vr5

advertising/B2_Investing Gurus 2.12.15_legacyaux_14h

client-blocklists/National Instruments KWs - INCLUDES ANY

advertising/B2_LGBT & Same Sex Marriage_legacyaux_l3o

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T Digital Divide  - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Samsung 2021 KWs - INCLUDE ANY

advertising/B2_Personal Finance_legacyaux_b8h

advertising/B2_Politically Active - DO NOT REMOVE_legacyaux_lmp

advertising/B2_Politics and Policy_legacyaux_pay

advertising/B2_Politics_legacyaux_8f3

advertising/B2_Positive News_legacyaux_hlt

advertising/B2_Retirement Planners 2.12.15_legacyaux_k9i

advertising/B2_State Governments_legacyaux_4lq

advertising/B2_Summer Travel_legacyaux_1ot

advertising/B2_Women's Beauty_legacyaux_9jv

advertising/B2_Young Professional / International Businessman_legacyaux_r5x

client-blocklists/Client List: GEICO KWs

client-blocklists/Client List: KPMG KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Novo Nordisk KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Siemens KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Facebook KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Cisco KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: AT&T ALT KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Mercedes KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/FX Excludes All Disney

client-blocklists/Client List: PMI KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Boeing KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: Navy Federal Credit Union NFCU KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 12.23.20

client-blocklists/Client List: Google KWs - INCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Philip Morris KWs - INCLUDES ANY 

client-blocklists/Dupixent neg kws - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Capital One KWs 2 - INCLUDES ANY - 1.4.21

client-blocklists/Bank of America Merrill Lynch KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Google PG KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Chase KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/Client List: Office Depot KWs - INCLUDES ANY

client-blocklists/Client List: ETrade KWs - EXCLUDES ALL

client-blocklists/ExxonMobil 03312021 KWs - INCLUDES ALL

prism://prism.query/site,/local/traffic-commuting&limit=20

Local Transportation

"Washington Post traffic provides real-time, live traffic updates, incident reports and road conditions for the DC metro area, including Northern Virginia and Maryland.

Fast, informative and written just for locals. Get The 7 DMV newsletter in your inbox every weekday morning.

D.C., Md. & Va.

The Washington Post offers breaking local news, weather and traffic information for the DC, Maryland and Virginia metro areas, plus information about school districts, crime, government, religion, the lottery,restaurant reviews and obituaries.