Vision Zero, Three Years Later: Has It Reduced Crashes?

Recently, Vision Zero ATX held its third annual Day of Remembrance Vigil to call for a regional approach to address the rates of car and pedestrian accidents on Austin roads. Family members of traffic accidents gathered to honor the lives of the more than 60 lives lost on Austin roads so far this year.

Just last month alone, at least eight people died in car accidents. Three of those victims were members of the Latulippe family, a family visiting Austin on vacation when their Fiat was struck by a drunk driver in a Prius. Only one member of the family, a 10-year-old girl, survived the accident.

At the Day of Remembrance Vigil, Mayor Steve Adler highlighted groups including Vision Zero, Bike Austin, Walk Austin and Families for Safe Streets Central Texas for their efforts in reducing the rates of fatal accidents in Austin.

Vision Zero’s History and Future

Vision Zero is not limited to Austin. It is an international initiative that hopes to bring the number of people who die in car accidents to zero by 2025. It is divided into five strategic initiatives:

• Education – creating a targeted public education campaign to bring awareness to the problem and potential solutions
• Engineering – bolstering key initiatives for which Complete Street Design, Traffic Engineering and Transportation and Land Use Planning can have the largest impact on the problem
• Evaluation – Collecting, analyzing and sharing data to determine causes of accidents and the best solutions
• Enforcement – Helping law enforcement focus their efforts on accident hotspots
• Policy – advocating public policy that has the greatest impact on the problem

Vision Zero’s goals are ambitious, but important, and have had some impact so far on the rate of accidents in Austin. If you have been injured in an accident in Austin, speak to a personal injury attorney.