As part of passage of an otherwise pretty good looking Transportation Master Plan, the San Marcos City Council has adopted a recommendation to develop a Vision Zero goal to end traffic deaths and sever injuries, develop a task force, and adopt a Vision Zero Action Plan by 2023.
Texas leads the nation in traffic deaths, with ten people dying on an average day. Texas rural areas suffer extreme high levels of crashes and deaths per capita, while our growing cities have their own dangers, including particularly dangerous streets for pedestrians compared to other US cities.
The US Department of Transportation has adopted a goal of ending traffic deaths across the nation in the next thirty years. The Federal Highway Administration has substantial resources available to local governments wanting to pursue a zero deaths vision. A growing number of cities across the nation are developing Vision Zero Action Plans and beginning to reduce traffic deaths, even with growing populations.
The Texas Strategic Highway Safety Plan – adopted in 2017 – includes a recommendation that local governments or the state itself “adopt a Safe System (Vision Zero) approach to reduce the consequences of human error” specifically as one of the countermeasures to reduce deaths for older road users.
As of today, only two governments in Texas – the cities of Austin and San Antonio – have adopted Vision Zero Action Plans to end traffic deaths and severe injuries. However, we have also been involved in discussions with local officials in Houston, Fort Worth, Corpus Christi, Dallas, and Laredo considering adopting Vision Zero strategies.
Of the ten largest cities in the nation, Houston, Dallas, and Phoenix are the only ones left without a Vision Zero Action Plan. Our goal for 2019 is that at least ten additional Texas governments begin or adopt Vision Zero Action Plans. Support Vision Zero Texas today to help us empower more local leaders to adopt meaningful Vision Zero strategies.
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