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Adopt a Vision Zero Resolution.
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Staff: |
Department: |
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Colleen Willger, Director |
Planning |
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Bergen Watterson, Transportation Planning Manager |
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Jordan Powell, Complete Streets Specialist |
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Overview: At the September 29th, 2021 Council Work Session, Town staff presented information about the impact a Vision Zero strategy could have on Chapel Hill. Vision Zero is a strategy that reframes how we examine and react to roadway crashes. Vision Zero considers traffic deaths and serious injuries to be preventable, and that policy and street design should prioritize safety rather than vehicular speed and efficiency in order to lessen the severity of crashes. Safety of vulnerable road users is integral in transportation decision-making.
By adopting the Vision Zero resolution Town Council can set the tone and direction for the Town’s transportation-related decisions through an official commitment to policies and practices that prioritize the safety of all road users in Chapel Hill.
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Recommendation(s): |
That the Council adopt the Vision Zero resolution.
Key Issues:
At the September 29th, 2021 Work Session, Council provided the following feedback:
• Add a ‘Be It Resolved’ to the resolution that memorializes the interest in prioritizing the safety of vulnerable road users in the development review process, including but not limited to Traffic Impact Analyses incorporating accurate analysis that prioritizes safety of vulnerable road users.
• Conduct data analysis (Chapel Hill residents, non-Chapel Hill residents, demographics, etc.) on drivers involved in speeding and failure to yield citations and crashes.
• Interest in planning for e-bike revolution and the impacts that will have on bike/ped, bike/e-bike, e-bike/car conflicts on roads.
• A way to decrease speeding on our roads is to lower the speed limits and narrow the lane widths.
• How do we look at structural issues (street infrastructure) in low-income communities based on historical disinvestment?
Fiscal Impact/Resources: There are no fiscal impacts associated with adopting this Vision Zero resolution. The Town has grant funding from the Governors Highway Safety Program (GHSP) to support Vision Zero activities - $67,000 in FY20-21 and $64,450 in FY21-22. The resolution would charge staff with updating the Pedestrian Safety Action Plan with recommended safety projects and cost estimates that would help the Town reach the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries by 2031.
Where is this item in its process?
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Attachments: |
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• Resolution |
A RESOLUTION ADOPTING A VISION ZERO STRATEGY TO HELP ELIMINATE TRAFFIC DEATHS AND SERIOUS INJURIES BY 2031 (2021-10-13/R-2)
WHEREAS, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, each year approximately 40,000 people are killed in traffic collisions in the United States; and
WHEREAS, from 2016 to 2020, three people died, five suffered severe injuries, and 135 experienced minor injuries while walking or biking on streets in Chapel Hill; and
WHEREAS, one death on Town streets is one too many, and Town and departmental leadership are dedicated to strategies that aim to eliminate deaths and serious injuries on streets in Chapel Hill; and
WHEREAS, seniors, children, people of color, people with disabilities, people in low-income communities, and vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and bicyclists face a disproportionate risk of traffic injuries and fatalities; and
WHEREAS, Vision Zero is a public health-based traffic safety strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries using a data-driven, multi-disciplinary and safe systems approach that also increases safe healthy equitable mobility for all; and
WHEREAS, the Vision Zero strategy is a tool to unite stakeholders such as Transportation, Police, Public Health, UNC, Transit, neighboring municipalities, NCDOT, developers, and others.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the Council of the Town of Chapel Hill that the Town of Chapel Hill hereby adopts a goal of eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2031; and endorses Vision Zero as a comprehensive and holistic approach to achieving this goal.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town declares that Vision Zero is the town-wide guiding principle for transportation, planning, the design of streets and sidewalks, the maintenance of public rights-of-way, and traffic enforcement.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Council requests that the Town Manager establish an interdepartmental staff Vision Zero Executive Committee charged with establishing a shared understanding of Vision Zero, reviewing progress on the Town’s Vision Zero goals, as established in the Town’s Pedestrian Safety Action Plan (2019), and updating this Action Plan with proposed safety projects and associated cost estimates for the Town to reach the goal of zero deaths and serious injuries by 2031.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Town Council accepts the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) guides <https://nacto.org/publications/design-guides/> as nationally accepted best design practices, and that the Planning Department and Public Works Department shall evaluate and recommend modifications to existing roadway standards and policies.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Vision Zero principles will be integrated in the development review process, including Traffic Impact Analyses, through thorough analysis that prioritizes the safety of vulnerable road users.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that Vision Zero will be implemented in an equitable manner accounting for historic inequities in transportation and safety investments across the Chapel Hill community.
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the safety of all road users shall take priority over vehicular level of service and throughput, and safety of vulnerable road users shall be given top priority in transportation decisions.
This the 13th day of October, 2021.
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The Agenda will reflect the text below and/or the motion text will be used during the meeting. |
presenter
By adopting this resolution, the Council adopts a Vision Zero strategy to help eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2031.