Copyright Arizona Capitol Times
A motor vehicle is the lifeline to employment, education, health care, community, fitness and much more for Arizona families. And in the Phoenix metropolitan area – which ranks 173rd nationwide out of 221 cities measured for urban sprawl – it’s incredibly difficult to get around without a car. Phoenix’s sprawl is especially impactful on working Arizonans. About 87% of workers in Phoenix, an estimated 581,000 people, take a personal vehicle to get to work. Getting from point A to point B could be five miles, or it could be 35 miles. In this environment, a license suspension is likely to have long lasting crippling effects. The problem with license suspensions in this environment is one of compliance. When the state forces people to choose between compliance and their ability to provide for their families, the choice is often going to be one of necessity and survival. Of course, the result is drivers driving with suspended licenses. The Legislature had an opportunity to cut into this issue last session with House Bill 2786. Failing to pass the bill was a missed opportunity to provide Arizonans with safer alternatives to statistically ineffective license suspensions. Under Arizona’s current traffic laws, judges can suspend your license for repeated speeding infractions or for one extreme infraction. The department of motor vehicles is required to suspend your license if you accumulate enough traffic points. Unfortunately, suspensions don’t work. Approximately 75% of suspended drivers continue to drive despite a suspension. This failure also puts Arizona’s other drivers at risk, as 19% of all fatal crashes involve an unlicensed or suspended driver. House Bill 2786 offered a solution: speed-inhibiting devices. These devices, also called Intelligent Speed Assistance (ISA), use GPS technology to determine the speed limit of different roadways and then prevent vehicles from exceeding the posted speed limit. ISAs effectively identify different speed limits to allow the vehicle to gradually and safely transition speeds. ISAs also provide solutions to two of the harshest consequences of license suspensions — employment consequences and pedestrian risks. While public transportation offers another option to those with a suspended license, it carries significant safety risks as Arizona had the second-highest pedestrian fatality rate by state per 100,000 population (3.60), second only to New Mexico (4.41). And those deaths are on the rise. Arizona suffered 1,121 pedestrian deaths between 2018-2022, an approximate 43% increase from previous years. This creates safety risks for those trying to utilize public transit, as pedestrians must first walk to a pick-up location to catch a ride. Unfortunately, many Phoenix pick-up locations are situated along “stroads,” or streets that lack safe walking features such as slow vehicle speeds and signalized crosswalks, which explains why 63% of pedestrian deaths nationwide occur on stroads. This leaves license-suspended Arizonans with a limited and dangerous set of options: risk their personal safety, lose their job, or break the law. While improving road safety is an important long-term goal, Arizonans need an answer now. ISA devices have the potential to provide an effective answer. If offered to Arizonans in lieu of a suspension, these devices will allow people to lead productive lives while also offering a pathway toward genuine rehabilitation. While it will not be fun to have one of these devices on your vehicle, for the otherwise suspended driver it is a much better alternative than being forced to choose between your livelihood and breaking the law. Arizona’s House Bill 2786 offered to give a driver facing a speeding-related license suspension the option to adopt a non-overridable ISA at their own expense. While the cost on convicted drivers was a debated topic among legislators in the 2025 legislative session, ISAs are extremely cost effective. While a license suspension may force a driver to pay for costly ridesharing options like Uber or Lyft, averaging $53 per day to get to and from work, an ISA is a much more affordable alternative. ISAs only cost impacted drivers approximately $4/day plus installation fees — a small price to pay to maintain one’s employment and personal freedom. Hopefully the Legislature will reconsider its position on these devices this coming session, and take a closer look at the benefits they can bring if strictly limited to drivers who would otherwise be suspended or revoked for speed-related infractions.
