Sacramento announced a “Vision Zero Transportation Safety Initiative” Wednesday and said the city would shift more focus to rapid street safety improvements amid an ongoing crisis of fatal crashes.
Speaking at a news conference Wednesday, City Traffic Engineer Megan Carter said that the new Vision Zero initiative would center the work of the previously announced quick-build “Transportation Safety Team.” The City Council approved the $4.6 million quick-build team in March. The supervising engineer for the six-person team, Carter said, would likely start in January; two new traffic investigators will start over the next two months. The original target start date was July 1.
Most crash deaths are preventable with changes to infrastructure and policy. With that in mind, the city made a Vision Zero pledge in 2017 to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2027. Since then, data released by the Sacramento Police Department show that more than 350 people have died after collisions on city streets. At least 29 people have been killed this year. The new initiative will focus on proactive, low-cost improvements that do not rely on years of planning and approvals and unreliable competitive grants…