Vision Zero: A Commitment for Our Communities
In the world of transportation engineering, planning, and construction, numbers take on a variety of contexts. Construction budgets fall in the millions (or even billions). Annual average daily traffic (AADT) volumes in the thousands or tens of thousands. For a significant initiative, planners can receive hundreds of community member comments. And traffic signal timing adjustments increase corridor efficiency by minutes.
In Vision Zero planning, the only acceptable number is none at all—no loss of life on our transportation system is acceptable. Yet, when reviewing reams of crash data, it’s easy to get lost in statistics and forget the gravity of each loss.
Last November, I mourned with fellow community members at Denver’s candlelight vigil for World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims. At the same time, I virtually supported our client partner Miami Dade County’s first annual memorial event from afar. Both events served as poignant reminders of what Vision Zero challenges us to do—put names and faces to the statistics that often dominate our work.
About The Author
Jenny Godwin, AICP
What is Vision Zero?
The concept of Vision Zero is not new. In fact, Sweden first adopted it as the country’s official road policy in 1997. More than 50 communities across the United States have committed to Vision Zero. Consor has offices in most of these communities and has supported many of them in their Vision Zero efforts. Unfortunately, the need for immediate action to improve safety outcomes only continues to grow across the nation where the fatality rate per capita far exceeds that of most European cities.
Motor Vehicle Crash Deaths—United States and 28 Other High-Income Countries, 2015 and 20219—rate per 100,000 population. Source: National Safety Council.
The heart of Vision Zero planning is proactive, not reactive. Our client partners can’t afford to, nor do they want to, wait to install life-saving infrastructure after the loss of life has occurred. Creating and improving transportation networks for walking, biking, scooting, driving, taking transit, and using mobility devices fosters connected and vibrant communities. They want parents to feel safe allowing their children to build independence by riding to school and seniors to feel confident using a crosswalk in their neighborhood.
As anyone who has lost a friend or family member in a traffic crash knows, no amount of money can offset their absence. Embarking on the path to building safer roads and encouraging safer behavior recognizes that humans make mistakes. A well-designed system slows speeds and offers protection so that a mistake or slip in judgment does not end a life.
Grant Funding for Safety Planning
Luckily for jurisdictions interested in Vision Zero planning, there’s a groundswell of state and federal support through grant funding opportunities. The most applicable and well-funded federal program ($5 billion over five years) from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) is Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A), which provides funding for:
- Planning and demonstration activities to:
▪️ Launch communities on that first critical step to develop a Comprehensive Safety Action Plan (CSAP)
▪️ Enhance an existing CSAP through supplemental planning activities, such as conducting road safety audits (RSAs), collecting data, reporting progress, engaging stakeholders, or analyzing equity
▪️ Fund demonstration activities to test projects and strategies informing a CSAP, such as feasibility studies, pilot programs, and Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Device (MUTCD) engineering studies - Implementation Grants, which implement projects and strategies, including infrastructural, behavioral, and operational activities
The SS4A grant program accepts applications annually, with a single application window for Implementation Grants (in spring) and three staggered application windows for Planning and Demonstration Grants (during spring and summer). Eligible applicants include metropolitan planning organizations, counties, cities, towns, and other special districts that are subdivisions of a state, as well as certain transit agencies, federally recognized Tribal governments, and multijurisdictional groups.
The map of SS4A grant awards to date offers a compelling spread of communities nationwide invested in addressing traffic safety concerns. Once communities are awarded funding to develop a CSAP, the US Department of Transportation outlines eight components of a successful plan, including:
- An official public commitment (in the form of a resolution, ordinance, etc.) made by a high-ranking official or governing body (depending on the community this may be the Mayor, City Council, Tribal Council, etc.)
- Formation of a planning structure (a group committed to overseeing the CSAP’s development and monitoring progress)
- A robust safety analysis (which often leads to mapping a high-injury network)
- Engagement and collaboration (to learn from community members’ experiences)
- Equity considerations (to make sure that underserved communities are identified and engaged)
- Policy/process changes (focused on improving transportation safety)
- Strategy and project selections (a prioritized list with deployment timeframes)
- Progress and transparency (reporting back on key performance indicators)
Our Approach to Vision Zero
Consor has completed 49 Vision Zero Plans, Crash Analyses & Recommendations, and Safety Improvement Evaluations. Our team is also currently supporting communities across the country as they develop a CSAP unique to their needs, concerns, and community context.
An actionable CSAP generates a list of prioritized projects and strategies, teeing the public agency up to apply for SS4A’s second funding pool of implementation dollars. Eligible grant activities may focus on speed management, quick-build safety projects, safe routes to school, education efforts, intersection improvements, or upgrades to pedestrian or bicycle facilities.
Customized, data-driven crash analysis forms the backbone of CSAP development. Following the initial crash data cleaning process, our team develops heat maps to identify trends and hotspots. Community to community, there are commonalities between areas of concern, but each area’s crash picture and countermeasure opportunities have unique elements. Pausing to ask “why” and digging deeper into crash patterns and involved users is an important step in the process.
Developing the high-injury network (HIN) offers a targeted roadmap for addressing the worst offender roadways and allows for integrating a community’s safety priorities, by applying additional “weight” to crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians. Consor specializes in developing an additional future-thinking component, the high-risk network (HRN). The HRN identifies unsafe streets by analyzing existing contextual roadway factors (such as vehicle volumes, speeds, and intersection control). It proactively addresses safety issues by identifying roadways with no recorded crashes but where near misses occur. Prioritizing improvements in these areas can prevent serious injuries or fatalities altogether.
Furthermore, CSAP development relies on community experts—residents, parents of schoolchildren, those who work or recreate in the area, etc.—to share their stories and concerns. Participants may include bicyclists sharing where they have experienced close calls with motorists, residents sharing speeding concerns in their neighborhoods, or parents outlining where they feel unsafe walking with their children. This engagement blends mapping exercises with on-the-ground outreach, talking with community members at farmer’s markets, block parties, and coffee shops.
Proactive Community Engagement
Communicating progress and building trust with community members is critical. In 2023, Consor supported Miami-Dade County in acquiring a Community Traffic Safety Grant from the National Safety Council. On behalf of the County, Consor worked with ESRI to download/clean countywide crash data related to incidents where a person was killed and seriously injured . Together, we developed an interactive, public-facing data dashboard. This tool enables residents, municipal leaders, policymakers, and planners/engineers to:
- Track crash stats over time
- Understand areas of concern (as along the HIN, or within an individual neighborhood)
- Prioritize improvements to make their municipalities safer for all who live, work, and play in this diverse county of nearly 2.8 million residents.
Miami-Dade County Vision Zero data dashboard.
Everyone Deserves to Arrive Safely
Whether traveling to work via bus, carpooling to a child’s soccer game, or driving to a weekend getaway with family, we all deserve to reach our destinations and loved ones safely. Unfortunately, though vehicle safety features continue to evolve, fatality rates are trending in the wrong direction. Fatal or serious injury crashes involving vulnerable users—pedestrians, bicyclists, transit riders, and people with disabilities—are on the rise. Vision Zero encourages thinking holistically and developing meaningful partnerships to provide safer roadway design, safer speeds, and safer behaviors. Consor is committed to supporting our client partners and communities in securing funding and grants, identifying locations of concern, generating life-saving strategies, and moving safety goals and planning efforts from design to construction. Together, we’re helping agencies and communities secure the grant funding needed to bring these strategies to life—because everyone deserves safe travel, and together, we can make Vision Zero a reality.