House District 6 covers the suburban communities immediately north of Wilmington from Foulk Road in the west to the Delaware River. (If you are not 100% sure whether you live in House District 6, you can search here using your address.) If you live in this district your choice on November 3 to represent you in the Delaware House is between the Rae Krantz and Tanya Hettler. Using a multiple choice format, we asked these two candidates to share their views on five statements related to traffic safety in Delaware. Ms. Hettler did not respond but Ms. Krantz’s answers are here:
1) I voted for, or agree with, the Truth in E-Bike Marketing Act (HS 1 for HB 439), which prohibits commercial sellers from advertising high-speed electric motorcycles using terms like “electric bicycle” or “e-bike” and requires clear written disclosures regarding a vehicle’s legal classification, power, and licensing requirements.
Krantz: “Agree”
2) I voted for, or support, the recently passed HB 363, which allowed the default speed limit on streets in residential districts to be lowered to 20 mph.
Krantz: “Agree”
3) Single-vehicle run-off-the-road crashes account for over a third of Delaware’s fatal crashes. To address this, I would support legislation complementing HB 363 that lowers the default speed limit on low-volume rural roads (e.g. “tar and chip” roads) below the current 50 mph threshold.
Krantz: “Agree”
4) To further reduce traffic crashes on rural roadways, I support making Delaware’s rural road network more “self-explaining” using road surfaces and roadside design that convey a continuous visual message to drivers, providing more effective guidance than intermittent signage alone.
Krantz: “Agree”
5) To reduce crashes at intersections, I support the use of single-lane urban roundabouts and engineering those roundabouts to be slow speed junctions, keeping vehicle speeds under 20 mph at all potential collision points.
Krantz: “Agree”
6) Is there anything else about your record as an elected official, your experience or your views that you think is relevant to improving traffic safety in Delaware for the people you wish to represent in the 154th General Assembly?
Krantz: I personally am a biker, primarily as a mode of transportation. I bike my kids to school regularly, and also routinely face the choice of deciding whether or not to bike somewhere based on the perceived safety of the roadways to bikers on my route. I helped co-found Strong Towns Wilmington, driven in large part for my desire to have more accessible roadways and, by extension, more vibrant communities. I am passionate about our communities being connected and walkable, and, as has been stated on much of my campaign literature, making “streets for people, not just cars.” I want our streets to be safe for all the various forms of transit that a human can select, and bikes are a large part of this. This passion of mine overlaps with my desire to have clean air for us all to breathe, as increasing the ability for more people to use bikes as transportation does as much or more for our overall environment as increasing the usage of larger electric vehicles.
All that to say, there is more we can and should do to increase the safety of our roadways for people using bikes as transportation. I’m excited to be part of this work.
