TITLE
Recommendation to approve the City’s Safe Streets Long Beach Plan, a policy document that lays out a framework of Keystone actions to guide the City in its efforts to eliminate traffic related fatalities and serious injuries by 2026. (Citywide)
DISCUSSION
On May 24, 2016, the City Council adopted the goal of Vision Zero to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries among all roadway users, including those walking, bicycling, and driving. The City Council action included the following elements:
· Conduct an analysis of corridors and intersections with high bicycle, pedestrian, and vehicle injury accident rates to understand traffic safety issues and to help prioritize resources based on geographic areas and issues of the greatest need.
· Initiate a Vision Zero Task Force comprised of relevant City departments (Police, Public Works, Health and Human Services, Development Services), Long Beach Transit, Long Beach Unified School District, and community members with mobility or urban planning expertise to develop an action plan with clear strategies, "owners" of each strategy, interim targets, timelines, and measurable goals.
· Prepare a Vision Zero document sharing the analytical data and stating the City's goals.
· Provide an (biannual or annual) update to the City Council and community members on the progress made toward each interim target and/or goal.
Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. First implemented in Sweden in the 1990s, Vision Zero has proven successful across Europe and is now gaining momentum in major American cities including New York, Chicago, and Los Angeles.
Each year, more than 40,000 people are killed on American roadways and thousands more are severely injured in life changing traffic collisions. In the first two months of this year, on Long Beach streets, nine individuals lost their lives, including five...
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