Vision Zero Resolution Calls for ‘Holistic Approach’ to Safer Roads
The Mayor and Council set a goal of eliminating traffic-related deaths and serious injuries on Rockville roads within 12 years as they voted unanimously Oct. 15 to endorse Vision Zero, an initiative to create safer streets through improved design, traffic law enforcement and education.
First introduced in Sweden in 1997 as a countrywide response to increasing traffic fatalities and serious injuries, the initiative makes the safety and health of humans the top priority in road network design.
The Mayor and Council resolution “endorses Vision Zero as a comprehensive and holistic approach” to achieving the goal. It calls for guidelines that “identify a combination of equitable engineering, enforcement, education and evaluation, along with associated funding needed for the city to reach the goal toward zero deaths and serious injuries by 2030.”
City staff will work with the Traffic and Transportation Commission, in cooperation with Montgomery County, to develop Vision Zero recommendations and policies that could be adopted by the Mayor and Council by summer 2019. Vision Zero is a priority initiative of the Mayor and Council as part of their goal of creating safe and livable neighborhoods. Rockville would join Montgomery County, Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., and others in adopting such a plan.
Montgomery County adopted a Vision Zero action plan for the county one year ago. The county’s two-year plan sets a date of 2030 to achieve zero deaths, defines activities for county agencies to take to implement the plan, and recommends policy changes at state and local levels. City staff is collaborating with the county to review the countywide plan to determine how it might tie in with Rockville’s proposed plan.
For more information, contact Oleg Kotov at [email protected] or 240-314-8527.