PRESENTER: Presenter
Garry Ford, Transportation and Capital Improvements Director
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SUBJECT: Title
Presentation and update on the New Braunfels Vision Zero program.
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DEPARTMENT: Transportation & Capital Improvements
BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
Staff will present an update on the development of the New Braunfels Vision Zero Action Plan. Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. Vision Zero is a significant departure from the status quo in two major ways:
1. Vision Zero recognizes that people will sometimes make mistakes, so the road system and related policies should be designed to ensure those inevitable mistakes do not result in severe injuries or fatalities. This means that system designers and policymakers are expected to improve the roadway environment, policies (such as speed management), and other related systems to lessen the severity of crashes.
2. Vision Zero is a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together diverse and necessary stakeholders to address this complex problem. In the past, meaningful, cross-disciplinary collaboration among local traffic planners and engineers, policymakers, and public health professionals has not been the norm. Vision Zero acknowledges that many factors contribute to safe mobility - including roadway design, speeds, behaviors, technology, and policies - and sets clear goals to achieve the shared goal of zero fatalities and severe injuries.
A Vision Zero Action Plan identifies priorities and actionable strategies for roadway safety. The process of developing the plan is critical by aligning stakeholders, including agency staff and elected and community leaders, on traffic safety, policies, and projects. Plans center around the U.S. Department of Transportation's Safe System Approach which includes five elements that create a holistic approach with layers of protection for road users: safe road users, safe vehicles, safe speeds, safe roads, and post-crash care. Additionally, having a Vision Zero Action Plan provides implementation funding opportunities through the Safe Street and Roads for All grant program.