This article has been updated since it first appeared in print.
City officials, friends and family members of pedestrians killed on Richmond’s streets gather Jan. 29 for a vigil at City Hall. (Photo by Jay Paul)
In a city trying so hard to become a pedestrian-first metropolis, December offered a brutal reminder: Richmond is nowhere close.
“In the past three weeks, we have had six pedestrian traffic-related deaths,” said Mayor Danny Avula during a press conference at City Hall on Jan. 8. “And as we look back over 2025, we had a total of 13 pedestrian deaths.” (Another pedestrian, Virginia Living Associate Editor Hope Cartwright, lost her life Feb. 16 in a hit-and-run incident at Second and East Cary streets in Richmond.)
“We cannot treat traffic deaths as normal, and we cannot accept that losing your life while walking, crossing the street or heading to a bus stop is just part of living in a city,” said Avula, surrounded by city leaders and law enforcement.
Richmond’s recent growth spurt, along with a reduction in traffic stops by police post-George Floyd, might be contributing factors, in addition to the city’s long-running game of catchup when it comes to pedestrian infrastructure, Richmond Police Chief Rick Edwards says.
“Downtown, the infrastructure’s in place. What we’re seeing in South Side, because South Side is where we’re growing, there are apartment complexes that have never been there: thoroughfares like Semmes Avenue, like Broad Rock Boulevard, like Hull Street,” Edwards says. “The infrastructure is not there to accommodate walkers.”
Traffic enforcement has also decreased since 2020, partly due to changes in the law and partly due to declining officer ranks. In 2021, Edwards says, traffic stops declined by 70% in the city. The numbers have been improving recently, though. “We’re getting back into the swing of things,” he says.
Data courtesy Richmond’s Vision Zero, Henrico and Chesterfield police departments
While the city has budgeted for more officers, Avula noted, that’s not the only issue. “The challenge has actually been, ‘How many officers can we bring on?’” the mayor explained. “We know that RPD has been operating under capacity. ... It is really finding people, getting them through the academy and adding them to the police force.”
Although the number of traffic deaths in 2025 (not including pedestrians) was down compared to the recent high of 26 in 2022, it still far outpaces the city’s Vision Zero goal of having no fatalities by the year 2030. Launched in Richmond in 2017, Vision Zero is a global strategy to eliminate traffic and pedestrian fatalities and severe injuries while promoting safe and equitable motoring.
To focus attention on the need to improve pedestrian safety, the city has dubbed 2026 the year of the pedestrian. According to the mayor, new initiatives include fast-tracking a dedicated Department of Transportation within the Department of Public Works.
“This new Department of Transportation will be charged with creating a street network that serves people of all ages and abilities,” Avula said at the press conference. “This department will serve as the cornerstone of our Vision Zero commitment [and] will be charged with designing safer streets through evidence-based traffic calming measures, coordinating across agencies to make sure that we reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries, and engaging communities to make sure that safety improvements reflect the local needs and ultimately build public trust.”
During a press conference at City Hall on Jan. 8, Richmond Mayor Danny Avula outlines the city’s plans to improve pedestrian safety. (Photo by Scott Bass)
The city has secured $750 million in discretionary transportation funding, to be used in part to combat traffic fatalities and pedestrian deaths, Avula said. Some $37 million will be used to transform parts of Hull Street Road, which is part of the city’s high-injury network — a list of streets where many traffic fatalities happen. The upgrades include adding more sidewalks, shared-use paths, dedicated bus lanes, pedestrian hybrid beacons and crosswalks.
Avula characterized the Hull Street Road plan as “changes that calm traffic while giving people more options to move throughout the city. And many of you have driven over our 400 speed tables. We are not done improving the built environment, and we will not stop.”
Andy Boenau, who has been working at DPW as a transportation engineer since November 2023 and has studied and written extensively about traffic and urban planning issues, is leading the new transportation department. He and others inside DPW regularly examine the reasons traffic accidents and deaths occur, and he sees a common thread.
“One hundred percent of the traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries are speed-related,” Boenau says. “When something moves fast, it has energy. The faster something goes, the much bigger its energy gets — exponentially. When a crash happens, all that energy has to go somewhere. It doesn’t disappear. It goes into bending metal, breaking bones and hurting bodies.”
Despite the number of traffic and pedestrian fatalities in 2025, Boenau wants residents to know that the city’s overall statistics have actually improved.
“Richmond is, overall, experiencing a decrease in serious and fatal crashes,” he says. “We attribute that decrease to a combination of the following factors: new traffic calming measures and changes to the built environment deployed across the city, our expanded safety camera program, vehicle fleet technology advances, and reduced drug overdose deaths. Driving while impaired contributes to a significant number of serious crashes.”
