Together, we can achieve zero traffic deaths in El Paso. The Vision Zero Action Plan is our roadmap to ensure El Paso streets are safe for people of all ages and abilities. The road ahead won’t be easy, and it won’t be quick, but we will stand firm in our resolve to improve safety and reach zero traffic deaths and severe injuries.
Vision Zero is El Paso’s goal to eliminate roadway injuries and fatalities. Together, we can protect everyone, from our pedestrians to our passengers! The launch of Vision Zero in El Paso, with the development of the Vision Zero Action Plan, signifies the city’s commitment to urgently address the crisis of traffic crashes.
El Paso is a safe place to live, but too many of our residents, visitors, and workers are injured or killed while walking, driving, rolling (using a wheelchair or other mobility device), biking, or using public transportation. Between 2016 and 2020, 124 pedestrians were killed in El Paso, which ranks the city as the 18th worst metro area for pedestrian fatalities in the United States.
Our Vision Zero Action Plan is a roadmap to change course in El Paso. This plan outlines critical steps and strategies needed to keep our roads safe. This will not be easy. It will take bold leadership, investment in our transportation system, and a new way of thinking about roadway design to enact lasting change. This Action Plan is a necessary undertaking to achieve a future where children can safely walk to school, community members feel comfortable riding their bikes to the park, and more.
Our message is clear: any loss of life, due to traffic, is unacceptable. El Paso’s renewed focus on safety is paired with an unprecedented federal investment in safety. The Action Plan allowed El Paso to receive the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant , along with access to countless other federal and state grant opportunities.
You can also view our progress and interact with our dashboard by clicking on the button below.
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El Paso City Council have pledged their commitment to passing policy and funding street improvements.
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Key stakeholders in our community, neighborhood associations, businesses and the school districts have taken the pledge and are sharing their ideas for a safer El Paso.
We need your ideas, enthusiasm, and your commitment to always follow the rules of the road.
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Vision Zero refers to the idea that we can create safe streets and roads in our city, eliminating traffic injuries and deaths. Over time, the rate of traffic fatalities has grown in the United States. Now, over 40,000 people are killed in traffic crashes every year. For too long we’ve accepted crashes as inevitable—often referring to them as accidents. But together, we have the power to prevent crashes before they occur.
Vision Zero is a new way of approaching safety. Vision Zero operates on the acknowledgment of the many factors that contribute to safe mobility and uses a safe systems approach to address traffic deaths as a public health crisis. Though we all have the responsibility to follow the rules of the road and drive, walk, and bike carefully, mistakes happen. Our transportation network should be designed so that when mistakes do occur, everyone can walk away safely. The safe systems approach involves breaking down silos and barriers among stakeholders and professionals and ensures decisions and data are transparent to the public.
Vision Zero believes everyone has the right to safe travel and prioritizes people with less choice about their transportation options, based both on ability and access to opportunities.
Vision Zero was pioneered in Sweden in the 1990s, and has since been adopted by dozens of cities and regions around the world. Vision Zero advocates have worked tirelessly over these decades to celebrate the successes and learn from the failures. Now it’s El Paso’s time to join the network of peer cities, including many across Texas, connected by a common goal.
Whereas traditional road safety strives to modify human behavior and prevent all crashes, the Safe System approach also refocuses transportation system design and operation on anticipating human mistakes and lessening impact forces to reduce crash severity and save lives.
Vision Zero is a constellation of policies, programs, research, and infrastructure projects aiming to improve roadway safety. The Vision Zero Action Plan serves as the backbone of the program. The El Paso Vision Zero Action Plan will inform opportunities for immediate and incremental change.
The Vision Zero Action Plan provides clear guidelines, target goals, and funding strategies to enact change.
This is a commitment from high-ranking local officials to work toward zero traffic deaths and fatalities. This sets the tone and urgency toward the Vision Zero program.
The Vision Zero Taskforce is a group of expert stakeholders who oversee the decisions and outcomes from Vision Zero. Typically, members of the public are included in the taskforce or on a separate civilian advisory board.
The crash analysis identifies the most important roadway characteristics, behaviors, and locations of crashes in order to prevent future crashes from occurring.
Equitable and inclusive community engagement will inform professionals as to what people in El Paso are experiencing on the road.
Detailed recommendations to identify actions that the City of El Paso and its partners can take to reduce traffic deaths and severe injuries organized around the 5 Es: Engineering, Education, Encouragement, Enforcement, and Evaluation.
This includes transparent data analysis, such as a public dashboard, transparency on decisions and processes, and transparent outcomes, such as a yearly report card.
Reducing speed is the single most important factor in reducing the most serious traffic crashes. Roadway design, speed limits, and education work together to manage speeding.
Improving visibility includes improving lighting, making crosswalks and lane markings more visible, and improvements at intersections.
Providing separated places for people to walk and bike reduces conflicts with people driving.