For over 60 years, experts in the transportation field have considered traffic-related injuries and fatalities inevitable. But now, a new line of thought is emerging.
Durango Multimodal Manager Devin King discussed “Vision Zero,” a Federal Highway Administration initiative that could change how municipalities’ plan for traffic crashes, at a Durango City Council meeting earlier this month. The idea is to make injuries and fatalities so unlikely they don’t happen at all.
That sounds like a lofty goal, but it’s rooted in strong reasoning.
“One fatality or serious injury is too many,” King said. “There’s a lot of times that people ask, ‘If a serious injury or fatality is OK, how many of you are comfortable with (that)?’ And most people struggle to answer that question, because it’s zero, right? We shouldn’t be comfortable with that.”
Historically, the United States’ approach to traffic-related fatalities was that they’re unavoidable and people just need to accept that. But drivers, pedestrians and cyclists aren’t perfect, he said.
King said Vision Zero adopts a comprehensive “safer system” approach that accounts for roadway design, traffic enforcement, emergency response and education. The idea is if one of those factors fails, the others are strong enough to prevent the loss of life.
He borrowed a metaphor from the FHA that transportation safety is layered like a stack of Swiss cheese. If a traffic incident passes through one “hole in the cheese,” other holes aren’t aligned in a way the incident can progress through each layer toward the worst outcome.
If a road’s design doesn’t prevent a crash from occurring outright, it might still make the crash less disastrous than it could have been. If that fails, emergency response will get an injured person proper care in time to prevent their death, for example.
He said over the last 60 years, traffic-related pedestrian deaths have risen, indicating that something is wrong. The cost of a single death to a community can reach $655,000, he added.
Since 2019, 11 fatalities have occurred in Durango, including one death on Animas View Drive last year, King said.
Should the city adopt a Vision Zero goal, it would become eligible for FHA grants incentivizing cities to reduce traffic-related injuries and fatalities.
“The Federal Highway Administration has made this a priority,” he said.
King said the city needs an action plan if it adopts a Vision Zero goal. That includes drafting a plan and passing a resolution adopting it. The city is in a good position because its multimodal transportation plan was recently updated to act as an action plan, but it’s missing that zero death goal.
Such a resolution would have to establish goals, strategies and a timeline of achieving zero deaths, he said.
After the passage of a resolution, the city would next have to update its land-use codes and street design standards. From there, physical implementation of those revisions to the city’s transportation network would be necessary.
“The Federal Highway Administration has recently adopted a Vision Zero goal,” King said. “The Colorado Department of Transportation has a ‘moving toward Vision Zero’ goal. Denver has adopted Vision Zero. Albuquerque did. Boulder has.”
He said each organization’s plan is different from others’ when it comes to timelines and exact goals. But if the city should further consider adopting a zero traffic fatalities vision, there are Western models from communities large and small to look toward.
cburney@durangoherald.com
