Title
Staff Report for a City of San Leandro City Council Resolution to Establish a Vision Zero Policy
Staffreport
SUMMARY AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Staff recommends approval of a City of San Leandro City Council Resolution establishing a Vision Zero transportation safety policy to work towards zero traffic deaths and severe injuries.
BACKGROUND
In the U.S., more than 40,000 people are killed each year, an average of about 100 people per day. These fatalities continue to rise. These tragedies are unacceptable and can be prevented when taking a proactive and preventative approach that prioritizes traffic safety. Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries that is being adopted by a growing number of communities across the globe. Vision Zero was first initiated in 1997 by Sweden as a street safety policy. Over the subsequent decade, many European nations adopted Vision Zero programs and achieved significant fatality reductions. In the last decade, cities in the United States adopted Vision Zero as a policy direction and prepared specific action plans for their communities, including nearby cities of Alameda, Berkeley, Fremont, and Lafayette. Vision Zero has become the official United States Department of Transportation and Caltrans commitment in the last year. The Safe System approach was adopted as the implementation strategy for the national and state Vision Zero goals. The Safe System approach provides tools and strategies to get to zero deaths and severe injuries through creating safe speeds, safe roads, responsive and quality post-crash care, safe road users, and safe vehicles.
Analysis
Implementing a Vision Zero traffic safety policy will require leadership and a commitment to safety, implementation of safe roadways and safe speeds, ongoing transparent use of data, and equitable community engagement.
As a next step, staff proposes to prepare a report documenting current safety statistics and trends, current practices a...
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