2024-019 - Santa Ana Vision Zero Plan

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A 2019 research study by the New York City Department of Trans- portation (NYCDOT) entitled "Distraction Shouldn't be Deadly" found that "cell phone use by pedestrians does not appear to be dispro- portionately contributing to fatal pedestrian crashes," and that "despite growing concerns, NYCDOT found little concrete evidence that de- vice -induced distracted walking contributes significantly to pedestrian fatalities and injuries" Consequently, traffic safety solutions have too often focused on per- fecting human behaviors through strategies like licensing, testing, road user education, and media campaigns. But in the Vision Zero frame- work, the road safety problem isn't the individual but rather the flaws in the transportation system. Those flaws mean, for example, that dis- tracted drivers in cars and road users have to share the road in unsafe conditions. Systemic Safety and the FHWA The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has taken a leading role in implementing Vision Zero or "Systemic Safety." They promote taking a "Safe System approach to road safety" — a holistic view that requires people to think about the road system in its entirety, from infrastruc- ture projects to government agencies. This refers to understanding how the whole system operates, including "upstream factors" such as design guidelines, public participation, policy, and vehicle regulations, and how all influence transportation -related fatalities and serious inju- ries. Safe Systems focus on the most vulnerable road users, which are people walking and biking, and utilizes effective, low cost measures that can be systematically implemented citywide. One of the ways cit- ies are implementing this is by creating steering committees and task forces with representation from all the different agencies involved. Proposal for a New Traffic Safety Framework In 2023, authors David Ederer, Rachael Thompson Panik, Nisha Botch- wey, and Kari Watkins wrote a paper called "The Safe Systems Pyra- mid: A new framework for traffic safety." The paper moves away from the "6 Es of traffic safety," citing what they call the "false equivalence of education and engineering." They postulate that although educa- tion measures are effective, they are not as effective as widespread engineering measures in reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries. They also stress the importance of policies and programs that focus on public health, land use, and above all, equity. The paper could be called "Energy and Equity" due to its focus on what they call "energy," from energy amounts in size of vehicles to energy in types of vehicles, explaining that "there is less latent energy in a bicycle than a car." This Plan will do its best to make recommendations in line with the thesis of the paper. 1.2 Equity -minded Strategies This Plan intends to mobilize disadvantaged and underrepresented groups in order to implement policies and programs to create a better active transportation network to serve these populations. This is partic- ularly important in Santa Ana, where 55 percent of the population do not have access to a vehicle and 37% of census tracts are considered disadvantaged per Senate Bill 535. Throughout the community out- reach process, community members shared a variety of recommen- dations and concerns related to ensuring that the planning process was done in an equitable manner. These recommendations were or- ganized into the following five categories: 1. Focus on street improvements that make the streets safer for our most vulnerable residents, such as children and senior citizens. (i.e., accessibility, mobility, and permeability) 2. Have a formula to prioritize which streets or areas to improve first (e.g., based on need, high number of collisions, excessively large street widths) 3. Have standard guidelines to proactively prevent and mitigate dis- placement that may result from transportation projects (i.e., housing development and affordability and street widening) 4. Focus on more education and less enforcement strategies to en- courage improved behaviors (i.e., public safety) 5. Assess the impacts of Vision Zero infrastructure improvements on the surrounding community and prioritize projects that provide the most benefit. Priority was given to promote a wider range of mo- C