Vision Zero is an initiative that aims to make all roads safe for all users. Its approach rejects the idea that fatalities and serious injuries are inevitable consequences of mobility on the city’s roads. Vision Zero aims to create a transportation system where no one is killed or seriously injured on Kansas City streets.
Over the past 10 years on Kansas City streets:[1]
783 lives have been lost
3,879 people have been seriously injured
37% increase in injuries and deaths since 2010
Specific groups are at higher risk of dying or being seriously injured in traffic crashes on city streets. Over the past 10 years:
37% of these crashes involved young people
Black people were twice as likely to be killed as white people in crashes
Eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries will not be easy. Only with the efforts of everyone involved in the transportation system – from drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to emergency responders, public engineers, city planners, and elected officials – can the city achieve this goal.
Vision Zero’s approach differs from the way cities traditionally have addressed traffic crashes in these ways:
Traditional/Prevailing Traffic Safety Approach
Vision Zero Traffic Safety Approach
Premise
Deaths are inevitable
Deaths are preventable
Goal
Preventing all crashes
Preventing fatalities and serious injuries
Focus
Perfecting human behavior
Designing a road system that accounts for human error
Responsibility
Individual users: drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists
Shared responsibility: all system designers, operators, and users
Integrating a Vision Zero mindset into traffic safety planning requires a long-term commitment, and Kansas City has made this commitment. In May 2020, the City Council passed the Vision Zero resolution, aiming to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2030 while providing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for everyone. The goals of the Vision Zero resolution are to:
Create safer conditions on roadways for all users
Eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030
Prioritize low-cost, high-impact pilot projects; evaluate outcomes; and gather feedback
Implement the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan and integrate Vision Zero practices into every aspect of planning, design, and engineering
INDICATORS OF SUCCESS
Successful implementation of this Objective will result in a physical environment designed to prevent car crashes that cause injury or death. All pedestrians, bicyclists, and those using alternative modes of transportation will safely navigate throughout the city. People driving vehicles will be more alert to other users of the city’s transportation infrastructure and will be more proactive in preventing crashes.
BENEFITS
No deaths or serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes
Improved equity
Increased rates of walking and biking
Improved access to transit
Slower traffic and less traffic cutting through neighborhoods
Increased economic productivity
CONTEXT
Fatal and serious injury crashes are on the rise in Kansas City, like much of the country. This increase is disproportionately impacting non-motorized road users and disadvantaged communities. Fortunately, there is a significant amount of funding and resources to improve roadway safety. Kansas City has taken many of the initial steps to prioritize safety and secure resources to improve road safety.
Miles of roadway capital projects on high injury network completed (increase)
Number of systemic improvements completed (increase)
People killed or seriously injured in traffic crashes on city streets; in equity areas (decrease)
KEY CONCEPTS
Prioritize Vision Zero in plans and budgets
To eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, the city must apply the fundamentals of Vision Zero in all types of plans. Area plans, the Major Street Plan, and other multimodal plans should prioritize Vision Zero over other transportation considerations. Future Capital Improvement Project (CIP) planning and other funding decisions should consider Vision Zero and focus on improvements in areas that have experienced distress and disinvestment.
Improving safety requires funding for roadway improvements. Unsafe areas are highly concentrated in certain roadway corridors and neighborhoods, especially in transportation-disadvantaged areas and areas where the population is predominantly people of color. Funding for safety projects won’t be effective if it’s widely distributed throughout the city instead of targeted to areas with the greatest need.
Create an environment for safe speeds
Speed drives both the severity and frequency of traffic crashes. Speed is particularly important in crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists. A pedestrian or cyclist has only a 10% chance of dying from being hit by a car traveling at 20 mph. That risk jumps to 50% if a pedestrian or cyclist is hit by a car traveling at 40 mph and to 90% if the car is traveling at 60 mph.
Lowering speeds for drivers is a highly effective way to reduce fatal and severe-injury crashes. The city should pursue actions to decrease speeds citywide by lowering speed limits, posting speed limits more abundantly, installing traffic-calming measures, implementing road diets, and using automated speed enforcement.
Construct safe streets and intersections for all users
How a street is configured and how its traffic is controlled can dramatically increase or decrease the risk of a fatal or severe-injury traffic crash. For example, wide streets with four lanes or more, streets in urban areas with speed limits over 30 mph, and streets without bicycle and pedestrian facilities have a high risk of these crashes. Intersections with traffic signals also have a high risk of fatal and severe-injury crashes.
The city should analyze risk factors, update policies, and implement the Complete Street ordinance requirements to both reconstruct existing high-risk streets and build new streets in the safest configuration possible. All new streets should have high-quality bicycle and pedestrian facilities, such as protected bike lanes and lighting.
New streets should use roundabouts instead of traffic signals where appropriate. New streets should be built with only enough lanes to serve today’s traffic yet preserve right-of-way space in case capacity needs to be expanded in the future.
The city should analyze all existing streets on the High Injury Network and High-Risk Network to consider implementing:
Road diets
New bicycle facilities and sidewalks
Additional safe pedestrian and bicycle crossings
Removal of unnecessary traffic signals, replacing them with all-way stop signs or roundabouts where appropriate
Improving the safety of traffic-signal intersections
Encourage safe user behavior through education and enforcement
A basic tenet of Vision Zero is that everyone involved in the transportation system shares responsibility to make it safe. But system designers, operators, and elected officials have the greatest responsibility. In the past, the focus was on perfecting the behavior of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Today it’s understood that this is not practical or effective. Now the focus is policy, design, and operations.
Of course, road users share responsibility for their safety, and some behaviors are especially dangerous on the roads. The city should conduct educational efforts and work with the KCPD on targeted traffic safety law enforcement. This enforcement should concentrate on areas that have experienced distress and disinvestment and be targeted to the most dangerous behaviors including speeding, aggressive driving, and driving while intoxicated.
COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ACTIONS (CSAs)
Prioritize Vision Zero in plans and budgets
VZ-1
Develop new metrics to prioritize Capital Improvement Projects that include safety and equity as the highest priority.
VZ-2
Update city policies related to safety, including the Traffic Engineering Handbook, the Neighborhood Traffic Calming policy, and the Major Street Plan.
VZ-3
Create a dedicated funding mechanism to address safety on high-injury and high-risk roads.
VZ-4
Adopt and regularly update a comprehensive Vision Zero Action Plan. The plan should include:
Complete Street Design Guide
Detailed data analysis
Public and stakeholder engagement
List of strategies and countermeasures to achieve Vision Zero
Detailed list of specific actions for the city to take to achieve Vision Zero
Create an environment for safe speeds
VZ-5
Decrease statutory speed limits on all local streets to 20 mph and collector and arterial streets to 30 mph. Evaluate all streets in the city with posted speed limits over 35 mph and consider reducing posted speed limits on these streets.
Construct safe streets and intersections for all users
VZ-6
Explore the use of roundabouts in new intersections where safe and feasible.
VZ-7
Construct high-quality bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure throughout the city.
Encourage safe user behavior through education and enforcement
VZ-8
Evaluate use of automated speed enforcement to reduce speeding on High Injury Network streets.
Vision Zero is an initiative that aims to make all roads safe for all users. Its approach rejects the idea that fatalities and serious injuries are inevitable consequences of mobility on the city’s roads. Vision Zero aims to create a transportation system where no one is killed or seriously injured on Kansas City streets.
Over the past 10 years on Kansas City streets:[1]
783 lives have been lost
3,879 people have been seriously injured
37% increase in injuries and deaths since 2010
Specific groups are at higher risk of dying or being seriously injured in traffic crashes on city streets. Over the past 10 years:
37% of these crashes involved young people
Black people were twice as likely to be killed as white people in crashes
Eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries will not be easy. Only with the efforts of everyone involved in the transportation system – from drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists to emergency responders, public engineers, city planners, and elected officials – can the city achieve this goal.
Vision Zero’s approach differs from the way cities traditionally have addressed traffic crashes in these ways:
Traditional/Prevailing Traffic Safety Approach
Vision Zero Traffic Safety Approach
Premise
Deaths are inevitable
Deaths are preventable
Goal
Preventing all crashes
Preventing fatalities and serious injuries
Focus
Perfecting human behavior
Designing a road system that accounts for human error
Responsibility
Individual users: drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists
Shared responsibility: all system designers, operators, and users
Integrating a Vision Zero mindset into traffic safety planning requires a long-term commitment, and Kansas City has made this commitment. In May 2020, the City Council passed the Vision Zero resolution, aiming to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries on city streets by 2030 while providing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for everyone. The goals of the Vision Zero resolution are to:
Create safer conditions on roadways for all users
Eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2030
Prioritize low-cost, high-impact pilot projects; evaluate outcomes; and gather feedback
Implement the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan and integrate Vision Zero practices into every aspect of planning, design, and engineering
INDICATORS OF SUCCESS
Successful implementation of this Objective will result in a physical environment designed to prevent car crashes that cause injury or death. All pedestrians, bicyclists, and those using alternative modes of transportation will safely navigate throughout the city. People driving vehicles will be more alert to other users of the city’s transportation infrastructure and will be more proactive in preventing crashes.
BENEFITS
No deaths or serious injuries resulting from traffic crashes
Improved equity
Increased rates of walking and biking
Improved access to transit
Slower traffic and less traffic cutting through neighborhoods
Increased economic productivity
CONTEXT
Fatal and serious injury crashes are on the rise in Kansas City, like much of the country. This increase is disproportionately impacting non-motorized road users and disadvantaged communities. Fortunately, there is a significant amount of funding and resources to improve roadway safety. Kansas City has taken many of the initial steps to prioritize safety and secure resources to improve road safety.
Miles of roadway capital projects on high injury network completed (increase)
Number of systemic improvements completed (increase)
People killed or seriously injured in traffic crashes on city streets; in equity areas (decrease)
KEY CONCEPTS
Prioritize Vision Zero in plans and budgets
To eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries, the city must apply the fundamentals of Vision Zero in all types of plans. Area plans, the Major Street Plan, and other multimodal plans should prioritize Vision Zero over other transportation considerations. Future Capital Improvement Project (CIP) planning and other funding decisions should consider Vision Zero and focus on improvements in areas that have experienced distress and disinvestment.
Improving safety requires funding for roadway improvements. Unsafe areas are highly concentrated in certain roadway corridors and neighborhoods, especially in transportation-disadvantaged areas and areas where the population is predominantly people of color. Funding for safety projects won’t be effective if it’s widely distributed throughout the city instead of targeted to areas with the greatest need.
Create an environment for safe speeds
Speed drives both the severity and frequency of traffic crashes. Speed is particularly important in crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists. A pedestrian or cyclist has only a 10% chance of dying from being hit by a car traveling at 20 mph. That risk jumps to 50% if a pedestrian or cyclist is hit by a car traveling at 40 mph and to 90% if the car is traveling at 60 mph.
Lowering speeds for drivers is a highly effective way to reduce fatal and severe-injury crashes. The city should pursue actions to decrease speeds citywide by lowering speed limits, posting speed limits more abundantly, installing traffic-calming measures, implementing road diets, and using automated speed enforcement.
Construct safe streets and intersections for all users
How a street is configured and how its traffic is controlled can dramatically increase or decrease the risk of a fatal or severe-injury traffic crash. For example, wide streets with four lanes or more, streets in urban areas with speed limits over 30 mph, and streets without bicycle and pedestrian facilities have a high risk of these crashes. Intersections with traffic signals also have a high risk of fatal and severe-injury crashes.
The city should analyze risk factors, update policies, and implement the Complete Street ordinance requirements to both reconstruct existing high-risk streets and build new streets in the safest configuration possible. All new streets should have high-quality bicycle and pedestrian facilities, such as protected bike lanes and lighting.
New streets should use roundabouts instead of traffic signals where appropriate. New streets should be built with only enough lanes to serve today’s traffic yet preserve right-of-way space in case capacity needs to be expanded in the future.
The city should analyze all existing streets on the High Injury Network and High-Risk Network to consider implementing:
Road diets
New bicycle facilities and sidewalks
Additional safe pedestrian and bicycle crossings
Removal of unnecessary traffic signals, replacing them with all-way stop signs or roundabouts where appropriate
Improving the safety of traffic-signal intersections
Encourage safe user behavior through education and enforcement
A basic tenet of Vision Zero is that everyone involved in the transportation system shares responsibility to make it safe. But system designers, operators, and elected officials have the greatest responsibility. In the past, the focus was on perfecting the behavior of drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists. Today it’s understood that this is not practical or effective. Now the focus is policy, design, and operations.
Of course, road users share responsibility for their safety, and some behaviors are especially dangerous on the roads. The city should conduct educational efforts and work with the KCPD on targeted traffic safety law enforcement. This enforcement should concentrate on areas that have experienced distress and disinvestment and be targeted to the most dangerous behaviors including speeding, aggressive driving, and driving while intoxicated.
COMMUNITY SUPPORTED ACTIONS (CSAs)
Prioritize Vision Zero in plans and budgets
VZ-1
Develop new metrics to prioritize Capital Improvement Projects that include safety and equity as the highest priority.
VZ-2
Update city policies related to safety, including the Traffic Engineering Handbook, the Neighborhood Traffic Calming policy, and the Major Street Plan.
VZ-3
Create a dedicated funding mechanism to address safety on high-injury and high-risk roads.
VZ-4
Adopt and regularly update a comprehensive Vision Zero Action Plan. The plan should include:
Complete Street Design Guide
Detailed data analysis
Public and stakeholder engagement
List of strategies and countermeasures to achieve Vision Zero
Detailed list of specific actions for the city to take to achieve Vision Zero
Create an environment for safe speeds
VZ-5
Decrease statutory speed limits on all local streets to 20 mph and collector and arterial streets to 30 mph. Evaluate all streets in the city with posted speed limits over 35 mph and consider reducing posted speed limits on these streets.
Construct safe streets and intersections for all users
VZ-6
Explore the use of roundabouts in new intersections where safe and feasible.
VZ-7
Construct high-quality bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure throughout the city.
Encourage safe user behavior through education and enforcement
VZ-8
Evaluate use of automated speed enforcement to reduce speeding on High Injury Network streets.
