City of Phoenix works to make streets safer for all residents

The City of Phoenix is working to lower traffic-related death and injury through it’s Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan, approved by Phoenix City Council in 2022.

Named Vision Zero for short, this safety program is built around a core philosophy that traffic-related deaths and serious injuries are preventable. The ultimate goal is to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries due to traffic accidents.

Ed Hermes, Chairman of the Vision Zero Street Safety Committee, joined “Arizona Horizon” to share more insight on the program and it’s plans to keep reducing traffic-related death and injury.

“We have some of the most dangerous streets in the country, 200 people a year die on our streets or in crashes. Eight hundred and eighty people a year on average are seriously injured or killed, life-changing injuries. It’s gotten worse unfortunately and we are double the national average in terms of increase of pedestrian deaths. But we’re working on it,” Hermes said.

Vision Zero is centered around five E’s. They are evaluation, engineering, enforcement, education and equity. Hermes shared some insight into the effectiveness of the second pillar, engineering.

“Statistically we know in the City of Phoenix you’ve probably seen some of these areas where we’ve created buffers between pedestrians and cyclists on the one side and cars on the other. We know they work because the statistics show they do,” Hermes said.

Hermes shared what is in store for Vision Zero.

“What to watch for is we’re going to, like I mentioned we’re going to be upgrading our crossings at major intersections now. So you’re going to see more high visibility crossings that are kind of those zebra stripes, or diagonal stripes. With stop bars, you’re going to start seeing those being rolled out. I mentioned some red light cameras and hopefully we’re going to see more, just everyday traffic mitigation in our neighborhoods,” Hermes said.

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