Road Safety Plan

R O A D S A F E T Y P L A N

El Paso County is working with a consultant team and local stakeholders to develop a local Road Safety Plan, including law enforcement, emergency responders, engineers, public outreach specialists, and advocates. The Road Safety Plan will guide the county and partner agencies in implementing recommendations based on an innovative data-driven approach to traffic safety. Whether taking public transit, walking, driving, or riding as a passenger in a vehicle, the Road Safety Plan with help make county roads safer and reduce serious injuries and deaths.

As part of this effort, El Paso County has conducted a detailed analysis of current safety and crash trends in the region to understand where, why, and how crashes occur. This analysis also included input from the public regarding their road safety concerns. The conclusion was that the top five contributing circumstances of fatalities and serious injuries on El Paso County roads are:

Speeding – Drivers not following safe or legal speed limits. Intersections – Drivers not paying attention to signs, signals, or other motorists at intersections. Lane Departures – Drivers driving off the road or into someone else’s lane. Seatbelts - Drivers or passengers not wearing seatbelts. Impaired – Drivers operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

Based on the analysis, the Road Safety Plan will include the following strategies to address the contributing circumstances of fatalities and serious injuries on El Paso County roads:

Education campaigns about the importance of following speed limits, wearing seatbelts, and not driving while distracted or impaired. Encourage people to get excited about road safety with marketing campaigns, special events, or contests. Encourage drivers to wear their seatbelts, follow speed limits, and not drive while impaired or distracted. Engineering enhancements to road configurations, signs, signals, etc. Enforcement of traffic laws to help change driver behavior and reduce unsafe driving practices. Evaluation of ongoing data and trends to continue to address contributing circumstances to keep our roads safe.

The next step in the process is to present the draft of the Road Safety Plan to the Highway Advisory Commission for review and feedback and then to the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners for consideration.

El Paso County has a comprehensive website to share information with the public throughout the Road Safety Plan process that includes a dashboard displaying results from El Paso County’s crash data analysis. The public can visit https://www.epcsaferroads.com to stay informed about upcoming Road Safety Plan meetings, presentations, and updates.