Easton traffic dashboard gives residents detailed look at crash trends

EASTON — Residents can now easily access traffic statistics online thanks to a new traffic dashboard released by the town last week.

The Easton Interactive Traffic Dashboard allows users to view up-to-date vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle data from 2018 to the present.

It includes maps, charts and filters that allow users to see crash information based on time of day, where the crash took place and the weather circumstances. Residents can find specific information on categories such as drunk driving, Route 50 and distracted driving incidents.

Easton Police Chief Alan Lowrey said it will be a valuable resource for the community to better understand where an alarming number of accidents or traffic citations may happen.

“We are focusing on making transportation safety in Easton better,” Lowrey said. “We’re trying to take a methodical approach, a thoughtful approach to it. … Here is a resource, here’s a transparent resource to see what is going on in the town where you live.”

Ron Engle, a former town council member, helped spearhead the project, along with the Washington College Geographic Information Systems Program and the Maryland Highway Safety Office. Engle has a background in law enforcement and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Sean Lynn, the GIS program manager at Washington College, presented the tool to the Easton Town Council on Monday.

“Hopefully it allows the folks here in the town to be able to get the information quickly,” Lynn said.

Ever since the pandemic in 2020, Lowrey said it’s been hard to recruit officers. With limited human resources but a need to improve traffic safety, Lowrey began to think about solutions from an “engineering” standpoint.

“An officer sitting at a location, the impact ends soon after the officer leaves,” he said. “Engineering (and) other means are more of a 24-hour solution.”

Lowrey added that it’ll help not just residents, but his team of officers as well. The department will be better-equipped to answer questions such as, “How many of these are left turn-related? How many of these are red light-related?,” Lowrey said.

The dashboard is a step in completing a Strategic Highway Safety Plan for the town. Engle, Lowrey and Mayor Megan Cook have been working to develop the plan.

Lowrey said a Strategic Highway Safety Plan will open up the ability for the town to acquire grant funding. He pointed to Salisbury as a local jurisdiction that has embraced the state’s “Vision Zero’ initiative that was passed by the state legislature in 2019.

“Behind it is the notion that you try to reduce fatalities and serious injury accidents down to zero,” Lowrey said. “It’s a pretty big goal, a really difficult one.”

According to Lowrey, a plan outline for Easton will be completed in about a month. Engle told council members on Monday that a lack of data was perhaps the “biggest problem” for the town in terms of developing a highway safety plan.

Engle said the dashboard will be a “strong compliment” to developing the plan in line with the Vision Zero initiative.

“I would hope by fall that we’re at a place where we can present a finalized plan before the council with a pretty good idea that they’re going to approve it,” Lowrey said.

The interactive traffic dashboard can be accessed by visiting https://eastonmd.gov/196/Police and clicking on the dashboard image.