PALM BEACH COUNTY, FLA (October 17, 2023) — DDEC Traffic Engineer Uyen Dang was in attendance at a special gathering with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, elected officials, and public policy enthusiasts, hosted by the Forum Club in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Roads. Bridges. Concerns over recent attacks in the Middle East, and more were up for discussion by Secretary Buttigieg, who outlined his vision and work as administrator of the Department of Transportation.
“We are hard at work to ensure that we are investing in a roadway safety strategy that includes safer vehicles, safer streets, safer speeds, safer people—drivers, motorists—and a better standard of post-crash care,” he said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates that 42,795 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2021.
“We have an extraordinary alliance coming together of players because it can’t just be the federal government,” said Secretary Buttigieg. “I’m talking about local communities designing a better future.”
Secretary Buttigieg pointed to the latest round of Safe Streets 4 All Grants destined for many municipalities to design safer roads. He lauded the program, adding that it funded planning, not just construction, and empowered local leaders to make important decisions about what is best for their streets.
Notably, the Secretary shared that as former Mayor of South Bend, he looked to the City of West Palm Beach for inspiration for Safe Streets initiatives.
“By the way, I should note that when I was Mayor (of South Bend, Indiana), we set out to design safer roads,” he said. “We drew on the experience of West Palm Beach and the conversion of two-way streets that we learned a lot from. And now we’re trying to help cities across the country do it.”
Prior to founding DDEC in 2019, Ms. Dang served as the City of West Palm Beach Traffic Engineer. Under Ms. Dang’s leadership, DDEC has implemented a wide range of road safety initiatives and design improvements, with a Safe Systems approach, for municipal governments. She has successfully written close to $ 100 million in grants, including Safe Streets 4 All grants.
The Secretary praised the merits of a Safe Systems approach when designing or upgrading streets.
“We converted our streets in South Bend to two-way, narrowed them, slowed them down a bit. It takes a little bit of political courage to talk about making anything go slower on purpose,” he said.
“But what happened was, yes– the commute between one end and the other end of our city went from 10-minutes to 11-minutes. But, now they probably wouldn’t have it any other way. Because now, instead of a chain of (stoplights)… It made the traffic there operate at a human pace and made it, therefore, more comfortable to be on the sidewalk, which meant that coffee shops and restaurants were more likely to put tables out, which meant more of a flourishing economic life downtown.”
The Secretary detailed the priorities he sees as key to the effectiveness of the U.S. transportation system which include, but are not limited to, making it safer, using it to support equitable growth of our economy, utilizing innovation to make our vehicles and streets safer for people, to name a few.
Secretary Buttigieg was sworn in on February 3, 2021, as the 19th Secretary of Transportation. He served as Mayor of Sound Bend, Indiana from 2012 – 2020.
“I chair the Citizen Advisory Committee for the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency to advocate for safety initiatives, like Vision Zero, throughout Palm Beach County,” said Uyen Dang.
“I’m so proud of the 13 municipalities in Palm Beach County that have a Vision Zero policy including the Village of Wellington, City of West Palm Beach, and City of Boca Raton, which have received funding from Sec. Buttigieg’s initiatives.”
For more information on Vision Zero, visit the Palm Beach Transportation Planning Agency website.
