Here's part one of a bulleted summary of our 2024 BikeWalk North Carolina Transportation Summit main speaker day, Monday, Sep. 23, at the Friday Center, Chapel Hill, NC.
Terry Lansdell, BikeWalkNC Director, opened the summit by identifying the “Safe Systems Approach” as the theme for our 2024 Transportation Summit.
The first 2 featured speakers, each from adjoining New Jersey cities, spoke about how they planned and achieved "Vision Zero" (zero deaths or severe injuries in traffic crashes). Click this link to view a full video of Barkha Patel and Ryan Sharp's talk.
Barkha Patel: Director of Infrastructure, Jersey City, NJ
- Jersey City: 300,000 population., rapidly growing/developing city
- Decisions at highest levels often run counter to improved pedestrian/bike access & safety
- Priority = cars, little attention paid to vulnerable users (pedestrians, bikes, handicapped)
- To make real change, Jersey City targeted Vision Zero
- First, reviewed 2008-2017 crash data
- Mapped high incident/injury intersections
- Focus on taking action in 2018 Action Plan
- Temporary test sites – chalk, traffic tape
- Signs posted at sites
- More than 200 intersections now changed
- Start with pop-up at proposed site – just for a few days to test & prove the concept
- Low cost, high impact
- 1st installation in front of city hall
- Paint, plastic, parking lane – includes some 2-lane bike lanes
- Street cleaning/snow clearing in narrow (bike) lanes
- 2022: 0 street fatalities, 2023: 5 fatalities
- Within 4-5 years, new infrastructure has allowed women, children traffic-safe access to city destinations
- City officials/planners also physically involved – gives 1st hand knowledge of the physical effort required to effect change
- Shift in culture re: road purpose and behavior
- Think about streets differently – “For decades we have building transportation through communities, rather than creating communities through transportation.”
- To counter resistance to change, inform neighborhood/interested parties of intended change, earn trust, get their feedback and buy-in before taking action
Ryan Sharp: Director of Transportation, Hoboken, NJ
- Regional cooperation/connecting communities helps build gravity/momentum for change
- 2019 launched Vision Zero program
- Goal: 0 traffic deaths by 2030
- Result - 0 Terrific deaths on Hoboken streets for 7 straight years
- Vision Zero Action Plan 2021
- To be updated every 5 years
- Uses “Safe Systems Approach”
- Not about personal behavior change but instead about culture change
- Incremental improvements
- People start to like changes & advocate for change on their own
- Stop blaming fallible people, instead take proactive action to minimize severity
- Adopted Complete Streets 2010 through pavement management program with emphasis on low cost solutions
- Paint
- Pedestrian islands
- RRFB
- 5 components of Safe Systems Approach
- Safe Roads – prioritize design for vulnerable users – mode, age, physical ability/handicapped (ADA), economically disadvantaged
- Safe Speeds
- Reduced city speed limit from 25 à 20 MPH
- Safer & smaller vehicles
- Bike Share & micro-mobility
- City fleet – now uses smaller cars, e-bikes
- Safe Road Users
- Involves culture change regarding improved road use behavior
- Post-Crash Care
- How quickly and efficiently can first responders respond to crash sites
- Never-ending struggle/challenge: always innovate & advocate for improved infrastructure & safety
- Not about personal behavior change but instead about culture change
Next: John Bauters: Councilman, Emeryville, CA, and Anna Zivarts: non-driver advocate and author of When Driving Is Not An Option.