Why Baltimore wants to be more like Hoboken when it comes to road safety

Targeted police patrols. More automated cameras. And less red tape for restriping roads and placing crosswalk barriers.

Baltimore’s transportation department wants it all in the name of safer roads.

The Baltimore City Department of Transportation’s new draft Vision Zero action plan, now available online, makes 11 recommendations, including better managing and sharing of traffic and crash data with police and beefing up traffic enforcement to target the worst offenders.

The goal — reaching zero deaths and serious injuries on Baltimore’s roads by 2041 — is lofty. Across the nation, tens of thousands of people die on the roads every year, and a new report from insurance company Allstate lists Baltimore as the third-most likely U.S. city for drivers to get into collisions, behind only Boston and Washington, D.C.

But city officials hope that with renewed focus, Baltimore can go the way of Hoboken, New Jersey — which, although it’s a much smaller city, is held up as a national model after committing to Vision Zero and recording nine straight years without a traffic death.

The plan has been in the works since 2024 and comes on the heels of two fatal traffic crashes that shook communities in East and West Baltimore.

On June 20, a young child and a 19-year-old scooter rider were struck and killed by drivers in separate incidents just an hour apart.

“Incidents like what happened [June 20] make me terrified to raise my daughter here, quite frankly,” said Shayna Rose, a Baltimore City transportation planner and the department’s lead on developing the draft Vision Zero Action Plan presented Friday.

Much of the plan focuses on a small batch of roads known as the High Injury Network — thoroughfares like Belair Road and Orleans and Pratt Streets — that make up 7% of the city’s road network but see the majority of serious and fatal crashes. And as the share of pedestrian fatalities increases around the country, the plan builds on city policy that aims to keep people who are on foot protected.

Rose said transportation officials need to find ways to more quickly add safety protections on these roads, including extending and protecting crosswalk entrances with physical barriers. She highlighted that the section of Pratt Street where 3-year-old Jordan Bright was killed on June 20 had previously been identified for a safety improvement project.

The same is true for Washington Street in East Baltimore, where the driver of an SUV struck and killed 19-year-old Morgan State freshman Brandon McMurrin while he was riding a scooter that same day. The city has been planning to reduce Washington Street’s two car lanes to one and add a protected bike lane on Washington Street for years, but has yet to make the change.

The plan also calls for issuing stronger penalties for repeat traffic offenders. In a public survey conducted as part of the Vision Zero plan, respondents chose the lack of enforcement of existing traffic laws as their principal concern and expressed a general desire for stricter, targeted penalties.

Some who attended the draft plan’s unveiling last week said they’ll wait to feel hopeful, fearing Vision Zero could be just another report that gets left on the shelf.

“If some of these plans had been implemented, we may not have lost a life or two,” said Amril Hamer, an organizer with Baltimore Families for Safe Streets, an organization that supports crash victims and their families.

At least 478 people died on Maryland’s roads in 2025, according to the state’s crash data dashboard. In Baltimore, 11 of the 43 who died were pedestrians.

Baltimore City Councilman Jermaine Jones expressed his support for the shift in approach, and added that it was critical to engage each impacted community as the transportation department pitches changes in their neighborhoods.

Residents can leave comments and feedback on the draft report on the transportation department’s website here. Officials will finalize the draft plan by the end of the summer.