Page 9 - Sonoma County Gazette June 2019
P. 9

PEDESTRIANS cont’d from page 8
Between 2010 and 2016 there were 1,163 collisions involving bicycles in the county, with 12 resulting in fatalities, and 855 collisions involving pedestrians, with 52 resulting in fatalities.
   Brittany Lobo, a health information specialist with the Department of Health Services, says that her department would take the lead on connecting various local departments around the traffic safety goals. SCTA would create an online data dashboard to display information about fatalities.
Although Vision Zero programs have been passed in large cities across the country, Sonoma County’s proposal to include multiple cities and unincorporated county land within the program could be unique.
“This is the only proposal we’ve seen that proposes bringing together multiple jurisdictions,” Lobo said. As well as offering data to small cities, the data dashboard would display information about rural roads where fatality rates can also be high.
Because some transportation funding agencies now ask whether applicants have Vision Zero policies, the program could also make Sonoma County cities more competitive for future funding opportunities, Lobo said.
Decisions about the Caltrans Sustainable Communities Grant are due in Spring 2019, but as of writing, Caltrans had not announced the winners. The proposed program would cost $760,634 with about $100,000 coming from local matching funds.
 If the Vision Zero program is successful, it could help the county achieve multiple other goals. For instance, the county intends to reduce carbon emissions by increasing the number of bicycle and pedestrian trips taken from 8.4 percent of total trips in 2010 to 15 percent by 2040.
However, if residents don’t consider active transportation options safe or efficient, they will continue to drive.
Due to the massive number of variables in a traffic system, progress under
Vision Zero is not quick or guaranteed.
San Francisco launched its own Vision Zero program in 2014 with a goal of eliminating pedestrian deaths by 2024. Although the fatality rate stayed flat for the first two years of the program, the rate dropped significantly in 2017.
  Vision ZERO Cities
A Vision Zero City meets the following minimum standards
- Sets clear goal of eliminatin traffic fatalities & severe injuries
- Mayor has publicly, officially committed to Vision Zero
- Vision Zero plan or strategy is in place. Mayor has committed to doing so in a clear time frame.
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