Senate District 9 starts on the east side of Newark (east of Route 72) and then extends east to include part of Pike Creek, all of Christiana/Churchman’s Crossing and to the west side of Newport. (If you are not 100% sure whether you live in Senate District 9, you can search here using your address.) If you live in this district your choice on November 8 to represent you in the Delaware Senate is between the incumbent Senator Jack Walsh and his challenger Brenda Mennella. Using a multiple choice format, we asked these two candidates to share their views on four questions related to traffic safety in Delaware. Here’s how they answered:
1) In May the 151st Delaware General Assembly voted unanimously to approve the Everyone Gets Home resolution (SCR 94). SCR94 called for reducing traffic fatalities in Delaware to no more than 100 people each year and tasked state agencies to meet that goal by 2025.
Mennella: “Progress in reducing traffic fatalities is possible and elected state officials have an important role to play in holding state agencies accountable for meeting traffic safety goals.“
Walsh: “Progress in reducing traffic fatalities is possible and elected state officials have an important role to play in holding state agencies accountable for meeting traffic safety goals.“
2) There is significant disagreement among transportation professionals about how limited resources for government traffic safety efforts should be allocated.
Mennella: “All types of crashes need to be addressed but greater resources should be allocated to reducing fatal crash types compared to property damage and injury crashes.”
Walsh: “Resources should be allocated to reducing all types of crashes (property damage, injury and fatal).”
3) Traffic safety professionals often describe their work in terms of the ‘3 Es’ (education, enforcement and engineering).
Mennella: “Everyone makes mistakes but in a well-engineered system good infrastructure both encourages safer behavior and also prevents human fallibility from turning into human fatalities.“
Walsh: “No infrastructure – no matter how cleverly designed – can be expected to prevent crashes in the face of reckless or stupid human behavior. Education and enforcement therefore are our most important tools for improving traffic safety.”
4) Many of Delaware’s deadliest roads – including Dupont Highway, Coastal Highway, Kirkwood Highway and Pulaski Highway – have become deadlier over time as commercial development along those roads has increased the number of potential conflicts between vehicles, and between vehicles and pedestrians, entering and exiting driveways and changing lanes either to enter or after exiting driveways.
Mennella: “DelDOT should partner with counties to consolidate driveway entrances and exits onto busy, high-speed, multi-lane highways.”
Walsh: “DelDOT should use all of its available authority to consolidate driveway entrances and exits onto busy, high-speed, multi-lane highways.“
5) 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 152nd General Assembly?
Walsh: “I will continue to work with DelDot to help improve traffic safety by investing in new technologies that will preempt a collision or near miss along our most traveled roads. DelDot and its partners in highway safety are constantly working to combat traffic fatalities and serious injuries on Delaware roadways through multiple efforts, such as the 2021-2025 Delaware Strategic Highway Safety Plan, as one death on our roads is too many. This Plan, developed through multi-agency coordination, has nine emphasis areas and provides a framework to reduce fatalities and serious injuries resulting from crashes on Delaware’s roadways. This plan has placed an emphasis on traffic safety and has impacted many roads in my Senate District. We need to continue to make our roadways safer by providing better lighting, safer pedestrian crosswalks and safe bike lanes for our riders. The ultimate goal is to make bicycling safe and convenient by reducing traffic congesting and the air pollution it causes thus improving quality of life for all. I will continue to work with our bicycling advocates to try to find ways to make our state roads more bike friendly.”
