COLLECTION OF DATA FOR BENCHMARKING / ANNUAL REPORT

Description

Data collection is important to gauging trends of roads and determining solutions to problems that are be occurring. Data collection can help identify potential solutions based on the amount of traffic on a roadway, the context of the area, or the types of crashes. Vision zero is about a data driven process to reduce deaths and severe injuries to zero. Without data and benchmarks to assess what is working and what isn’t, some efforts would be futile.

Considerations

Elected officials should be the ones to set the commitment to data collection when making the commitment to Vision Zero. Data provides the only fact-based evidence to understand whether a tactic or strategy is truly working. It is important to remember that all information regarding crashes should be recorded – not just vehicle crash data. The surrounding area context plays a large role in why accidents might be occurring more frequently, even if traffic volumes are not high. Weather could also play a factor. Therefore, it’s so important to document this information to determine if it was truly human error, environmental, or a design flaw.

Additional information can be found in the Data Collection and Benchmarking handout here

Education Description

Education is the best way to increase awareness and change behaviors. Although the educational aspect relies on individuals to become more aware of their surroundings and adopt safe practices into their day-to-day lives, education can begin at young ages and continue throughout life.

Continued education over time can have a longer lasting effect and reduce crash rates. It is important that education is not just “car” specific. Walking and bicycling and encouraging different safety tactics such as wearing a helmet or looking both ways before crossing the street is important to teach people, especially at a young age. There are numerous organizations that have developed safety programs to incorporate lessons into activities at school. Some of tactics include:

/ At school for children and teenagers to learn about safety

/ Making a roadway safety class part of school curriculum

/ Providing teachers with proper training (in schools and driver’s education)

/ Offer parents information to reinforce ideas in their homes

/ Parents leading by example when children are around

/ Providing supervision at crossings and other necessary locations

/ Pedestrian skill training sessions open to the public

/ Education that continues throughout all primary and secondary education

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

This site contains a number of great facts and statistics that can be used to educate the public. There is a video about safely walking in a community that is for all ages. There is also 10 Walking Safety Tips that can be put on a laminated card to hand out at “Night’s Out” events. 9 Driving Safety Tips that law enforcement could use when issuing a warning citation to remind drivers of some of the dangers of driving. There are also walkability checklists, how to create walkable communities, how to be a safety advocate and so much more.

How To Become A Vision Zero Recognized City Or Community

Besides creating a plan or adopting a resolution, some communities may decide to become a recognized Vision Zero Community. According to the Vision Zero website, there are criteria that need to be met in order to become a recognized community with a Vision Zero Action Plan or Strategy:

/ Community sets a clear goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries among all road user within a set time frame.

/ Publicly, the Mayor or legislative body, officially commits to Vision Zero within a set time frame and directs appropriate city staff to prioritize the work.

/ A Vision Zero Action Plan/Strategy is adopted, or the legislative body has committed to creating one in a set time frame and it will focus on being data driven, equitable, and include a process for community input.

/ Key Community Departments, such as public works, planning, public health, and law enforcement, are actively engaged as leaders and partners in the process to develop the Vision Zero Plan, implementing it, and evaluating and sharing progress.

/ A Vision Zero Task Force, including the agencies listed above, as well as community leaders, nonprofits, and stakeholders meet regularly to lead and evaluate efforts.

Enforcement Description

The laws established by the legislative body are only effective if the people using the roadways believe there are consequences associated with breaking them. Motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians alike should have an understanding of the laws and the repercussions of breaking them. There are two twos of deterrence, general and specific. General deterrence occurs when users obey the rules of the road because they perceive that there is a significant risk of being caught and penalized if they do not follow the rules. Specific deterrence occurs which users break the rules of road and is punished and stops breaking the rules because of the punishment. So, the punishment itself was the deterrence and not the rules themself. Most police departments want general deterrence because they do not have the resources to have officers on the road all the time to catch motorists breaking the law. To promote general deterrence through enforcement police should focus on:

/ publicizing events where officers will be on the roads to look for violations to ticket

/ have a quiet campaign that Is unpredictable and difficult for motorist to avoid (i.e. dui checkpoint)

/ a mix of highly visible and less visible activities

/ continued over a long duration

A part of enforcement, however, must be education. Enforcement influences behavior. Therefore, if drivers are being punished for their actions there should be a component of education that will focus on bringing about awareness of the impact of the behavior not only in that immediate instant, the enforcement, but afterward in the follow up, the education. This cannot be just for the motorist who disobeyed the law, but for those who were with the motorist.

Considerations

Enforcement is a necessary part of roadway safety; however, officers cannot be present on every roadway or intersection. Because of this, police should work with the engineering department and focus on those intersections or roadways that have a higher incident of crashes, tickets, and complaints for speeding. Police could focus their attention and resources to have a greater impact and improve awareness and safety. Typical enforcement actions for police to target include:

/ blood alcohol limits

/ speed limits

/ disobeying traffic signals or signs

/ hands free

/ seatbelt use

/ helmet wearing

/ driver license expiration/plate expiration

/ vehicle roadworthiness

Penalties Description

Crashes occurs for several reasons including poorly designed roads, distractions in the vehicle, or weather conditions. Lack of enforcement could be also be a factor. Even if a person is ticketed for speeding, it doesn’t have a lasting effect, and there is a likelihood that a person could speed again and just not be caught. Police officers hope that when they issue a ticket or a warning that a driver will slow down and obey the law.

Sometimes, increasing the fines for a weekend for speeding in a section of road is a great way of working towards encouraging people to pay more attention and obey the law.

Likewise, sometimes rewarding people for obeying the law can also create awareness and force others to change their behavior. Once such situation occurred in Seattle. A police officer was about to retire, and he decided to give drivers who stops to let people cross in the cross walk a $10 gift card from a local restaurant. In one hour, 34 people were rewarded for their behavior and three years later it became part of Seattle’s Vision Zero initiative where this program was targeted for several different locations including an elementary school, a busy bridge crossing, and a bike lane downtown.

Considerations

Increasing penalties means increasing enforcement. Most police departments do not have the resources to station police offices or safety officials at key intersections or known “speed” zones. Many communities have turned to technology to automate that function, but it has not been without controversy.

Many communities have placed automatic speed signs that tell a user how fast they are driving through a neighborhood. This hope is that this device will deter drivers from speeding through the neighborhood when they realize how fast 30 miles per hour really is. Other communities are thinking about automated speed enforcement implementation. The City and County of San Francisco conducted a survey in 2015 of cities from around the country and reported the findings and lessons learned in this document here.

For many communities though, the most important lesson for any penalty whether it be from a police officer, through technology, a penalty or reward, engaging the public early and educating them about the options are key to the success of any safety program.

Funding Description

Funding for any infrastructure project is a major hurdle in any community, let alone for the enforcement of laws. Public agencies prioritize funding resources based on a variety of criteria including cost, safety, available funding, location of project, complexity, etc. Identifying yet another plan to create can oftentimes lead to lack of support even though principals like vision zero are critically important.

Education and creativity are critically important as well as funding to bring about the support of elected officials in the implementation of vision zero tactics and strategies. Whether it is creating a plan, or incorporating principals and goals into an existing plan (see Section on Plans) flexibility on the part of professional engineers, planners, public health officials, and community activists will be needed to think outside the box to figure out ways to fund vision zero projects.

While vision zero has historically been approached as a transportation led endeavor, linkages to public health have been critical. In some cities, such as New York, San Francisco, and Chicago, vision zero has been identified as a public health crisis since it is the leading cause of death. While the purpose of this was to complete more research, it can also be used to secure funding to make improvements where that research can be linked directly to health issues, especially in underserved communities.

Private-public partnerships are also encouraged for both vision zero initiatives for things like creating a plan, enforcement, or public outreach or for specific countermeasures and working with a developer to change a design to be more pedestrian friendly. This could be a win-win situation where an area of the community becomes more accessible and pedestrian friendly and the developer achieves a higher return on the investment because the process was quicker, property values increased, and the community supported the project. Other design elements to consider include streetscape enhancements, providing shared parking, bike parking, transit stops, or adding sidewalks/multiuse trails in a place where none exists is something that local governments should explore as opportunities arise. Even if the time is not right to develop the improvement at the time, setting the funds aside (called fees in lieu of) is an opportunity to make the improvement in the future.

Considerations

Funding can come from many different sources the community’s general fund, specialized funds like Tax Increment Financing Districts (TIF), Local Option Income Taxes (LOIT), state and federal funding such as grants and low interest loans, and community nonprofit grants such as community foundations, banks, major employers. For many of these funding sources some type of plan is needed that shows future improvements. Having a dedicated fund for different implementation strategies, specifically related to transportation, and linked to a capital improvements plan is also very beneficial for a community.

There are numerous opportunities for a community to take advantage of, but what is required is for someone to research these opportunities. Some state and federal dollars and already allocated through the MPO, which is prioritized and allocated through the MPO’s Long Range Transportation Plan and Indianapolis Regional Transportation Improvement Program . Many of the state, federal, and community grants have numerous requirements that must be met. Some might have a dollar amount match, some might be only construction, some might focus on a specific aspect such as sustainability or children and schools, and there could be a time frame under which the funds must be used. In some case, grants could be paired with one another to be used as a match. The fine print must be read carefully!