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In 2017 and 2018, San Francisco saw historic lows in traffic-related deaths on its streets. However, every year in San Francisco, approximately 30 people lose their lives and more than 500 are severely injured while traveling on city streets. San Francisco has resolved that even one death is unacceptable, and is committed to stopping further loss of life.
Walking and biking are two modes of travel that have rapidly gained in popularity in New York City (NYC)—in fact, NYC has seen bicycling activity quadruple over the last decade. Contributing to this rise is the “Citi Bike” program, NYC’s bikeshare system, which accounted for nearly 14 million bicycle trips in 2016. However, non-motorized transportation modes are not without risk. In 2013, the city experienced 178 pedestrian fatalities and 134 bicyclist fatalities. The following year, NYC adopted Vision Zero.
Presently, over half of the fatal and severe injury crashes in the Tampa Bay region occur on locally owned and maintained roadways. Traditionally, the Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) has typically spent less than 10 percent of their allocated Federal safety funds on local roads. To aggressively address these fatal and severe injury crashes using a data-driven process, the District 7 (Tampa Bay region) office of FDOT developed and implemented the Local Agency Traffic Safety Program. The program is a coordinated and comprehensive effort to put the available safety dollars to use in reducing deaths and serious injuries on the roadways in the region.
Prior to initiation of the program, the following challenges to allocating safety funding to the local agencies were identified:
A comprehensive approach was developed to assist the local agencies with identifying the safety issues on their roadways, selecting appropriate countermeasures, and applying for funding to make the recommended improvements. The Local Agency Traffic Safety Program was developed to help build a culture of safety throughout the Tampa Bay region and includes:
Ping (Peter) Hsu, P.E.
FDOT, D7 Assistant District Traffic Operations Engineer (Safety)
813-975-6251
Ping.Hsu@dot.state.fl.us
Today's older adults are not only living longer; they are continuing to drive longer than any generation in history. Research suggests older adults can expect to outlive their ability to drive safely by seven to ten years. Florida has a significant number of aging road users with 18.2 percent of its population over age 65. This percentage is expected to grow to 27 percent by 2030, a figure substantially higher than the national average of 19.7 percent.
As an increasing number of older adults drive on Florida's roadways or travel the roads as pedestrians, passengers, bicyclists, motorcyclists, or transit riders, the issue of transportation safety becomes a greater public health concern. In 2013, there were 454 fatalities involving drivers age 65 and older, which is over 19 percent of all fatalities.
The Florida Department of Transportation (FDOT) created a Safe Mobility for Life Program within its Traffic Engineering and Operations Office which quickly expanded as an increasing number of stakeholders became involved with the program. The program originally focused on engineering improvements on the state highway system to compensate for the natural changes that occur as people age. Human factors studies were soon incorporated into the program, in conjunction with the Florida State University Department of Psychology, to gain a better understanding of how traffic control devices are comprehended by all age groups prior to implementation. A training course was later developed and tailored to the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Highway Design Handbook for Older Drivers and Pedestrians to address the unique aspects of Florida's transportation system and take into account competing design practices such as Context Sensitive Design/Solutions and Livable Communities. With an ever increasing number of activities associated with the program, FDOT needed to develop a better solution to integrate its various partners into the program.
FDOT partnered with the Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy at Florida State University to form a statewide coalition. The Safe Mobility for Life Coalition (SMFLC) consists of 27 agencies and organizations who share responsibilities and interests in aging road user safety and mobility.
Activities developed or supported by the Coalition that have helped Florida achieve reductions in aging road user traffic related fatalities and serious injuries include:
The Coalition developed the Aging Road User Strategic Safety Plan, which is incorporated in Florida's Strategic Highway Safety Plan under the At-Risk Drivers Emphasis Area. The Aging Road User Strategic Safety Plan is broken down into 10 key emphasis areas:
The plan includes specific emphasis areas and tracks their progress and implementation to ensure that the overall plan is moving forward.
Safe Mobility for Life Program
Florida Department of Transportation
State Traffic Engineering and Operations Office
605 Suwannee Street, MS 36
Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0450
Gail.Holley@dot.state.fl.us
850-410-5414
Pepper Institute on Aging and Public Policy
Safe Mobility for Life Resource Center
636 West Call Street
Tallahassee, FL 32306
Safe-Mobility-For-Life@fsu.edu
850-644-8145
With help from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Florida DOT formed a motorcycle safety coalition and a Motorcycle Strategic Safety Plan. The safety coalition created a training DVD to call attention to common challenging road conditions including grates, potholes, ridges, steel plates, pavement markings, grooved surfaces, loose gravel, land changes, and drop-offs in work zones.
Marianne Trussell
Florida Department of Transportation
850-245-1504
Marianne.Trussell@dot.state.fl.us
Because the target fatal crash rate had not been achieved on the non-DOT portion of its road network, Michigan recognized that greater focus on local safety projects was needed. The Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) has a policy to distribute a cover letter to regional engineers and system managers strongly encouraging submission of safety projects in the annual call for projects. In addition, to provide more focus at the local level, the 2008 call for projects highlighted the need for local safety projects. As part of the process, MDOT delivered presentations on the SHSP at State conferences to increase awareness and alignment of safety projects with the emphasis areas.
In letters to the county road association and municipal league announcing the call for high-risk rural road and local safety projects, MDOT requires benefit/cost or time-to-return analysis on all project submissions for better alignment with the SHSP. To support local agencies in completing this requirement, MDOT provides a listing of accepted crash reduction factors for commonly submitted projects. The letters also promote submission of non-motorized projects, which aligns with the SHSP’s emphasis area on pedestrians and bicycles. To help with identification of high-risk locations, MDOT provides fatal and serious-injury crash maps by region on the Web site. Regional MDOT staff provides assistance to local agencies on project development when requested to make sure safety projects fit into a SHSP focus area.
By providing local agencies more details on the types of safety projects MDOT seeks, the quality of submittals is improving and safety projects are aligning with SHSP emphasis areas.
Contact:
Jim D’Lamater
Safety Engineer
Michigan DOT
517-335-2224
dlamaterj@michigan.gov
Despite a strong Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) law, New Jersey experienced a continued high volume of teen crashes. As a result, leadership identified young driver crashes as an SHSP emphasis area. The SHSP Young Driver Emphasis Area Team developed three primary strategies and 10 action steps to reduce crashes among this population.
Concurrently New Jersey enacted a law establishing a Teen Driver Study Commission. The 15 member Commission is comprised of representatives of both the public and private sector as well as members of the State legislature. The charge of the Commission is to assess teen driving within New Jersey and recommend ways to reduce fatal and injury crashes. The Commission incorporated all of the young driver emphasis area strategies into their 47 recommendations. These are grouped into seven areas: Graduated Driver License, driver education, driver training, enforcement/judicial, insurance industry, schools, and technology. Recommendations requiring legislative action were presented to the Highway Traffic Safety Policy Advisory Council and the legislature.
The leaders of the SHSP effort successfully partnered with the Teen Driver Study Commission and achieved agreement to move the SHSP strategies forward through the Commission. Although agencies receiving public funds are prohibited from lobbying, the private sector members of the Commission have been able to successfully champion bills included in the Commission’s recommended policy initiatives.
Contact:
Pam Fischer
Director, Division of Highway Traffic Safety
New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety
609-633-9272
Pam.Fischer@lps.state.nj.us
Located in central Connecticut and responsible for 63 miles of roadway, the Town of Portland is a small community of under 10,000 residents that faced serious safety concerns regarding vehicle speeds and limited opportunities for safe walking and cycling. To address these concerns, a grassroots Complete Streets Group (CSG) wrote the Complete Streets Policy and got the Town’s elected leaders to formally adopt it in 2016. The CSG then started working with Public Works and the Town Engineer to plan, design, and construct safety improvements.