Title
Review and Provide Comment on the Draft Vision Zero Action Plan to Eliminate Traffic Fatalities and Severe Injuries by 2040
Body
To: Honorable Vice President Sarah Lewis and Members of the Social Service Human Relations Board
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The City of Alameda (“City”) is seeking feedback on its Draft Vision Zero Action Plan (“Action Plan”, Exhibit 1), which aims to eliminate fatal and severe injury traffic crashes by 2040. Alameda’s Vision Zero policy, adopted in late 2019, requires the City to develop this Action Plan and makes safety the highest priority in transportation efforts. Per the policy, a multidisciplinary Vision Zero Task Force comprised of community members and staff helped guide development of the Action Plan.
The Action Plan, which will be updated once every five years, contains an introduction to the Vision Zero approach; an analysis of ten years of Alameda crash data, including high injury corridor maps; and 50+ specific actions aimed at increasing traffic safety. Staff are releasing the Action Plan for public review this month and plan to seek Council adoption of the final Action Plan by the end of the year.
Equity is a central tenet of Vision Zero, and one of the five goals that organize this Action Plan. By focusing efforts on socially vulnerable areas and making streets safer for vulnerable road users, this Action Plan aims to improve quality of life for underserved people in Alameda.
DISCUSSION
What is Vision Zero? Vision Zero is an international movement with a goal to eliminate traffic crashes that result in deaths and life-changing injuries, which impact not only the victims, but also their families and communities. Vision Zero encompasses all people who use roadways, whether they are walking, using a wheelchair, biking, taking transit, driving, or traveling in an automobile. A Vision Zero approach to transportation planning, design, and maintenance is based on collaboration, accountability, and prioritizing equity. It uses a data-driven approach and focuses on creating safe traffic speeds. With Vision Zero, the City aims to create an environment where human error does not cause death or life-altering injury. This systems approach focuses on “upstream” factors including street design, policies, laws, and operations.
Vision Zero Task Force. Staff first convened the Vision Zero Task Force (“Task Force”) in December 2019. This group comprises of community members such as a traffic violence victim family member, an Alameda Point Collaborative resident, and an AUSD parent/Safe Routes to School champion; representatives from the Transportation Commission and the Commission on Persons with Disabilities; staff from external agencies including Alameda Unified School District, AC Transit, and the Alameda County Public Health Department; and City staff from seven different departments.
Goals and Actions. The Task Force developed five central goals for the Action Plan:
1. Ensure that the Vision Zero Policy and Action Plan are implemented equitably and fairly for all people.
2. Create an institutional commitment to Vision Zero throughout City government.
3. Foster community support and responsibility for the safety of people traveling within Alameda.
4. Reduce motor vehicle speeds and decrease collisions between people driving, riding a motorcycle, biking, walking, or wheeling.
5. Improve the use, collection, and organization of data to allow for evaluation and reporting that fosters transparency and creates trust with all stakeholders and residents.
With guidance from the Task Force, staff and consultants developed over 50 actions aimed at achieving these five goals. See the “Making Our Streets Safer” chapter of the Draft Action Plan (Exhibit 1) for details.
Crash data findings. Alameda’s Vision Zero policy requires the City to use data to prioritize traffic safety efforts and design streets. The Action Plan includes an analysis of ten years of crash data, from 2009 to 2018. Major findings include:
• Each year, an average of two people died, 10 people suffered severe injuries, and a total of 221 were injured in Alameda traffic collisions.
• The top two behaviors most associated severe injury or fatal crashes were:
o Failure to yield to a pedestrian
o Unsafe speeds
• People walking and biking are disproportionately vulnerable in crashes: while they made up 39% of Alameda’s crashes, they were in 62% of Alameda’s fatal and severe injury crashes.
• Improving safety around schools is important: 63% of crashes involving younger victims (ages 18 or younger) occurred within a quarter mile of a school while only 38% of Alameda’s streets are within a quarter mile of a school.
• People in socially vulnerable areas have a somewhat disproportionate risk of severe injury and fatal crashes: 41% of these crashes occurred in a socially vulnerable area while only 30% of Alameda’s roadways are within a socially vulnerable area
The Action Plan also includes High Injury Corridor maps that show the stretches of road with the highest crash densities, weighted by severity. Almost three-quarters of crashes occurred along High Injury Corridors, though they only cover 20% of Alameda’s streets. The City has already begun using these maps to prioritize and plan traffic safety investments, including the 2022-2023 Capital Improvement Plan. The maps are shown in the Draft Action Plan or available at this link: www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero#section-5 <http://www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero>
Relationship to the Social Services and Human Relations Board. With its focus on equity, the Vision Zero Action Plan aims to improve street safety and comfort for the people served by social services in Alameda. The Action Plan contains seven actions aimed at achieving its goal to “ensure that the Vision Zero Policy and Action Plan are implemented equitably and fairly for all people” (see p. 18, Exhibit 1). The five short-term actions follow:
• 1.1. Use the City’s most current Socially Vulnerable Populations map (or other disadvantaged community indicators) to prioritize investments, while also engaging with disadvantaged communities or community-based organizations (CBOs) representing disadvantaged groups.
• 1.2. Continue to use the Vision Zero Task Force as an implementation body, meeting 2-3 times/year. Ensure that the Task Force includes membership and participation from a variety of stakeholder groups, including people of different demographic or socio-economic backgrounds and people who use different modes of transportation. Provide compensation to community members who need it in order to participate.
• 1.3 Ensure that community engagement efforts include tailored messages for vulnerable road users and target all the travel modes people use (walking, biking, wheeling, driving, etc.).
• 1.4. Present annual Vision Zero Status Reports to groups representing disadvantaged communities. Solicit feedback on the Report's equity analysis, including equity of enforcement-related actions.
• 1.5 Through the City Council’s legislative agenda, advocate for an income-based graduated traffic fine structure at the state level, so they do not disproportionately impact people with lower incomes. Evaluate whether the City can play a role in discounting traffic citation fines for people with low incomes.
The Action Plan also emphasizes education and physical changes to the streets in order to encourage safe road behaviors, but this environmental and behavior modification will take time. Because of that, police enforcement plays a role in this Action Plan, focusing on dangerous behaviors associated with fatal and severe injury crashes. The Action Plan also includes actions to mitigate the effects of enforcement measures on disadvantaged communities, and these align with recommendations from Alameda’s Community-Led Committee on Police Reform and Racial Justice. Action 1.5, above, complements recommendations from the Review of Laws that Criminalize Survival Subcommittee. Action 4.11 champions automated speed camera legislation that would enable speed enforcement without direct police involvement, which was also recommended by the Subcommittee on Unbundling Services Currently Delivered by the Police Department.
How to Get Involved. The Draft Vision Zero Action Plan public engagement period will run from July 12 - August 6, and the community is invited to participate via an online survey, flyer, public events, and presentations to community groups and City Boards and Commissions. All information will be available at www.AlamedaVisionZero.org <http://www.AlamedaVisionZero.org>.
Public events:
• Tabling at the Farmers' Market, 710 Haight Ave, Saturday, July 17, 9:00-11:00 a.m.
• In-person and Outdoor Open House, Alameda Ave at Park St, Saturday, July 17, 2:00-5:00 p.m.
• Virtual Public Forum, Via Zoom, Wednesday, July 21, 6:30-8:00 p.m.
Presentations to City Boards and Commissions:
• Civil Service Board, July 7
• Recreation and Park Commission, July 8
• Social Services and Human Relations Board, July 22
• Planning Board, July 26
• Commission on Persons with Disabilities, August 11
• Transportation Commission (Final Action Plan), September 22
To join the mailing list, select “Vision Zero” among the options here: www.alamedaca.gov/RESIDENTS/Subscribe <http://www.alamedaca.gov/RESIDENTS/Subscribe>
Other Vision Zero Accomplishments. Even while staff, consultants, and Task Force members work to develop the Action Plan, staff have worked to reduce severe injury and fatal traffic crashes, including the following:
• Vision Zero Implementation Team. Held regular meetings of this multidisciplinary internal staff group that coordinates ongoing traffic safety efforts.
• Post-collision site visits. Met on-site at the locations of all 2020 and 2021 fatal crashes.
• Street design policies. Wrote street safety policies related to Street Width, Lane Width, Crosswalks, and Bulb-outs, adopted by the Council in early 2020. www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero/#section-7 <http://www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero/>
• Slow Streets. Responded to the pandemic by designating 4.5 miles of streets as low-auto-traffic areas for people to walk, bike, and wheel more safely.
• Major traffic safety projects. Continued work on corridor capital improvements, including completing construction on the Otis Drive Project and securing Council approval for the Central Avenue Project final designs: www.AlamedaCA.gov/SaferStreets#section-4 <http://www.AlamedaCA.gov/SaferStreets>
• High Injury Corridor Daylighting Project. Began implementing this traffic safety project, which improves visibility at intersections on our most dangerous streets: www.alamedaca.gov/HICdaylighting <http://www.alamedaca.gov/HICdaylighting>
• Vision Zero webpage. Created, maintained, and expanded this webpage: www.AlamedaVisionZero.org <http://www.AlamedaVisionZero.org>
• Mailings. Established a Vision Zero mailing list (now with 420+ subscribers) and began sending regular mailings: www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero#section-6 <http://www.AlamedaCA.gov/VisionZero>
• Launched the Street Safety Concern category on SeeClickFix. Community members can now report near-miss experiences where they narrowly avoided a crash, as well as locations where the streets feel unsafe due to speeding or other concerns: <https://seeclickfix.com/us-ca-alameda>
RECOMMENDATION
To review and provide comment on the Draft Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2040.
Respectfully submitted by,
Lisa Foster, Transportation Planner
Rochelle Wheeler, Senior Transportation Coordinator
Exhibit(s)
1. Draft Vision Zero Action Plan