What is Vision Zero?
Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all.
On February 18, 2020, the Tacoma City Council
passed Resolution 40559, committing to
joining the Vision Zero Action Network and committing to a Vision Zero
goal that eliminates traffic fatalities and serious injuries in the City of Tacoma
by 2035. This strategy is an effort to incorporate more emphasis on human safety within our transportation systems. Joining this movement is a pledge to finding new ways to incorporate the principles of safety on our roads.
According to the Vision Zero network, each year, more than 40,000 people — the population of a small city — are needlessly killed on American streets, and thousands more are injured.
According to WSDOT Crash Data, between 2014 and 2018, in cities in Western Washington, the rate of fatal and serious injury crashes increased about 5.4% from the five-year period before 2014 to the five-year period from 2014 onward.
In Tacoma, the crisis of traffic safety is even more stark and the reality more grim. Between 2014 and 2018, there were approximately 17,000 reported collisions on Tacoma’s streets, resulted in 7,700 possible injuries resulting in:
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An increase in fatal and serious crashes twice as high as the statewide average, with an increase of 11.9%.
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Over 400 fatalities and serious injuries – meaning approximately once every four and a half (4.5) days, a family is changed forever because of a serious injury or fatality that occurred on Tacoma roads.
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187 school-aged bicyclists or pedestrians (ages 0 – 19) involved in a collision.
These figures clearly demonstrate a crisis of safety on Tacoma’s streets that must be immediately addressed by the city.
This graphic, provided by the Vision Zero Network, demonstrates the difference between the traditional engineering approach, and the one Vision Zero advocates:
Image credit: Vision Zero Network
We know a proactive approach has a big impact on safety, and look forward to joining cities around the country (including Bellevue and Seattle in Washington), and many more around the world.
This website will share information on our efforts to create and implement a Vision Zero Action Plan, as well as information about steps each of us can take to participate in this important effort to make our community safer for all of us, from young children to our esteemed elders and everyone in between.
Show your support for Vision Zero with printable signs.
Additional Resources:
Tacoma's Local Road Safety Plan (April 2018)
To sign up for Vision Zero Updates, please contact Carrie Wilhelme, Senior Transportation Planner, at cwilhelme@cityoftacoma.org.