Archives for April 2016

At least 17 American cities have committed to Vision Zero to eliminate traffic fatalities. In addition to ramping up education and enforcement, these efforts require road designers to rethink streets and intersections in ways that minimize risks to non-motorized users. This often means correcting issues resulting from a strict, decades-long focus on vehicle movement.

The language of Vision Zero itself—with the goal to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries—communicates a more ambitious approach to street safety and rests on the basic understanding that these serious losses are preventable.

“If 30,000 people were killed each year in the US by a curable illness, we would call it a public health crisis,” wrote Arielle Fleisher in The Central Role of Public Health in Vision Zero, a case study exploring how cities are using public health tools to advance their Vision Zero efforts. (See http://bit.ly/25X0WJQ). “We would deploy resources, vaccines and interventions to address the spread and bring the death toll to the only acceptable level: zero. Yet, every year 30,000+ people are killed in preventable traffic collisions in this country. Vision Zero asks us to see those traffic deaths like polio or cholera: epidemics that, with an urgent health framing and public response, can be eradicated.”

Cross-departmental collaboration is a critical foundation to a successful Vision Zero commitment. In its “Collaborating Across Departments to Achieve Vision Zero” case study, the Vision Zero Network examines some of the specific ways Vision Zero cities San Francisco, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C. and New York City are restructuring their collaboration in long-lasting ways to take meaningful action for safe streets. See: http://bit.ly/1OoqBU3

Also, ”Communications Strategies to Advance Vision Zero” looks at early-adopter cities New York City and San Francisco’s approaches to communicating about Vision Zero to garner attention and influence behavior at all levels of society. See: http://bit.ly/1rp98Q9

Finally, the Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) has launched its Vision Zero Initiative that will initially focus on large and medium-size cities. They are establishing a task force to enhance its relationships with other entities working toward Vision Zero goals, and will develop a Vision Zero Toolbox of urban-focused resources and best practices for traffic engineers to help implement next generation road designs for modern, multi-modal cities. See: http://bit.ly/29YE4TD

These and other resources are available at the Resource Library of the Vision Zero Network. The library contains
sample Vision Zero resolutions, action plans, case studies, communications campaigns and more from cities in the U.S. and around the world. Visit: http://bit.ly/2aapKbZ

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has released a proposed rulemaking outlining new national performance measures to assess travel reliability, congestion, and emissions: the National Performance Management Measures; Assessing Performance of the National Highway System, Freight Movement on the Interstate System, and Congestion Mitigation and Air Quality Improvement Program.  It calls for an increased level of consistency, transparency and accountability in establishing and achieving targets for performance impacting congestion, system reliability, freight movement and economic vitality, and environmental sustainability. State DOTs will be expected to use the information and data generated as a result of the new regulations to make better informed transportation planning and programming decisions. The new performance aspects of the Federal-aid program would allow FHWA to better communicate a national performance story and more reliably assess the impacts of Federal funding investments.

Effect of Electronic Device Use on Pedestrian Safety: A Literature Review is a downloadable report from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). It examines pedestrian distraction, driver distraction, and pedestrian-vehicle interaction due to the use of electronic devices. A very limited number of studies have investigated the effect of electronic device used by pedestrians and drivers on pedestrian safety.

NHTSA recently released its Advancing Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety: A Primer for Highway Safety Professionals. This primer is a reference for an integrated and comprehensive effort to improve pedestrian and bicycle safety and support broader transportation-related goals. It summarizes the most promising infrastructure treatments and behavioral programs for addressing specific safety problems and highlights how these approaches can be combined and implemented. It also identifies opportunities for various agencies to collaborate and combine their respective approaches and funding for a more comprehensive program. See http://bit.ly/1tvsBk9

The National Complete Streets Coalition has released the Best Complete Streets Policies of 2015 report. Each year the National Complete Streets Coalition analyzes, scores and ranks newly passed Complete Streets policies. In 2015, communities passed a total of 82 Complete Streets policies. These laws, resolutions, agency policies, and planning and design documents establish a process for selecting, funding, planning, designing, and building transportation projects that allow safe access for everyone, regardless of age, ability, income or ethnicity, and no matter how they travel. The report describes the 16 best comprehensive Complete Streets policies adopted in 2015 and the process for evaluating those policies.