Executive Office Building, 101 Monroe Street, CAO CR
Good morning! I am pleased to present my Two-Year Vision Zero Action Plan toward eliminating severe and fatal collisions on our County roadways.
Vision Zero plans recently have been adopted in several American cities.
Now, Montgomery County will become one of the first counties in the United States to adopt Vision Zero.
Between 2010 and 2016, Montgomery County has prevented 250 severe collisions and 33 fatal collisions through my Pedestrian Safety Initiative, compared with the previous five-year average.
Even so, annually between 2012 and 2016, an average of 35 individuals lost their lives and 400 were severely injured on roads in Montgomery County.
That is why I am broadening our good work by presenting to the Council my plan, “Vision Zero: No Traffic Deaths by 2030 in Montgomery County.”
I want to recognize the Pedestrian, Bicycle, and Traffic Safety Advisory Committee as well as our departments of Transportation, Police, Fire and Rescue Service, Public Information, County Stat, and all the other departments and community organizations that contributed to this very thoughtful plan.
I also want to recognize the Montgomery County Council, which adopted the resolution for Vision Zero.
This plan reflects our strong commitment to continually upgrade our efforts to further improve safety. It reflects the need to design and implement strategies for our diverse communities.
Under this plan, the county is putting resources in place to reduce severe and fatal collisions on County roads by 35 percent for vehicle occupants, bicyclists, and pedestrians, by November 2019.
In the plan, 41 action items articulate how we can expand our priority safety efforts.
These action items are organized into five key areas: Engineering, Enforcement, Education and Training, Traffic Incident Management, and Law, Policy and Advocacy.
While carrying out this two-year plan, we will continue to collect additional data and work with the public and key stakeholders to develop a systematic ten-year plan to eliminate fatalities and severe injuries on our County roadways by 2030.
At the same time, we will continue working with the state of Maryland to reduce severe injuries and fatalities on state roads in our County.
Vision Zero is an audacious goal. It is one that we can all embrace and champion together in order to bring to zero the number of heartbreaking deaths and serious injuries due to traffic collisions. We have made progress. With Vision Zero, we can do even better.
Thank you.
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Release ID: 17-113