LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Tuesday approved a plan to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths in unincorporated areas of the county, setting a goal of zero fatalities by 2035.
Supervisors Hilda Solis and Janice Hahn co-authored the motion to enhance street safety, saying traffic deaths had jumped by nearly 28% countywide from 2013-2017, with 3,400 lives lost. More than 10% of those people were killed on roadways in unincorporated communities.
In 2017, the board committed to a “Vision Zero” program, focusing on system fixes and managing vehicle speeds as the most effective way to reduce deaths. A detailed action plan was drafted last year and then circulated for public comment prior to Tuesday’s vote.
The plan will be co-led by the departments of Public Works and Public Health.
“Vision Zero is an innovative initiative that will promote healthy communities and will protect both pedestrians and drivers,” Solis said. “Vision Zero will enhance the quality of life of our neighborhoods by ensuring that our roads are safely designed to keep local residents free from danger while they are walking, running, or driving on our streets.”
Countywide, vehicle collisions are the leading cause of death for children between the ages of 5 to 14, and the second leading cause of death for residents between the ages of 15 to 24.
The action plan — Vision Zero Los Angeles County: A Plan for Safer Roadways –– identifies various safety improvements to be implemented over the next five years, including installing high-visibility crosswalks and pedestrian head-start signals. Pilot programs will be launched at three or more high- collision corridors.
Hahn said the county will rely on community input.
“Vision Zero is not only a plan to build projects that will save lives, it’s a plan to engage communities so that the projects we build are ones they support and make sense for their neighborhood,” Hahn said.
Data from the street safety pilot programs will be reported back to the board in 90 days.
–
Vic says
Vision Zero sounds like a good name for Rex’s plan for Lancaster.
Laughing says
How about more patrol officers?
Dummies run the stop signs, run red lights, distracted by phones, distracted by conversation with passengers, drunk, exceeding speed limits by 10s of MPH!
No sign or paint is going to stop the fools.
Patrol officers will help.
Also more speed humps, not bumps but the big table tops, would help in residential neighborhoods.
AV Illegal says
Nope…they are planning on defunding the police, starting with a 10% cut to LASD. Look for it on your November ballot.
If the GOOD citizens of the Nation were not to be harmed…..I say let’s do a 24 hour period with no police. I bet it would only take 3 hours or so, but advertise it as 24 hours without police. No responses, no 911, no anything. Unfortunately, too many innocents would be the targets.
AV Illegal says
The only way this is going to become a reality is if A.O.C.’s green new deal rids all roads of motor vehicle traffic. Since she will have also rid the country of methane producing bovines, there won’t be any accidents related to riding a cow either.
What a joke…..reduce fatalities to 0% and still have motorized transportation. Get a grip.