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In a much-anticipated report, Mountain View has laid out a series of recommendations for the city to reach its ambitious goal of reducing severe traffic injuries and eliminating all traffic fatalities by 2030.
The report, which describes high crash locations and priority areas, integrates two plans – the city’s Vision Zero Action Plan and its Local Road Safety Plan, which is based on state and federal guidelines.
“These two plans have similarities such as setting a clear goal and vision, which is to improve safety. But they differ in approach and recommendation,” said Transportation Planner Priyoti Ahmed, who presented a draft of the report to the Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee (BPAC) on March 27.
Both plans focus on severe and fatal collisions at specific locations. But the Local Road Safety Plan takes into account other locations with similar land use and roadway factors. It also hones in on infrastructure improvements, whereas Vision Zero uses a multidisciplinary approach that largely addresses road safety through education, encouragement and enforcement.
Together, the two plans have helped the city conduct a holistic crash analysis and develop recommendations to address problem spots in Mountain View, Ahmed said.
The committee commended the report for its scope and depth. But they questioned why it has taken so long to get to this point, and raised concerns that the city still has a long way to go before reaching zero fatalities by 2030. Committee member Valerie Fenwick asked why the process has taken so long, noting that the Vision Zero plan was adopted in 2019.
Transportation Manager Ria Hutabarat Lo attributed the delay to staffing shortages and work overloads, as well as the intricacies of addressing each item on the list.
To these points, Committee member Lada Adamic questioned whether it was possible to implement a more efficient roll-out of the road safety measures. “What needs to be done is kind of clear. Project to project, they don’t look that different … Is there any way to just plan it all and design it all and then do it all?” she asked.
The committee also pressed for more status updates to track projects in different stages of development. This would help reassure the public too that the city is making progress towards its Vision Zero goals, Adamic said.
Public commentors weighed in on the report as well, with suggestions focused on improving road safety for bicyclists and pedestrians. A call for “no right-turn on red” topped the list of requests.
“Localities like Menlo Park restrict right turns during school hours, and I believe that Palo Alto does too. And it seems like one of the most straightforward operations that we can employ,” a Mountain View resident said.
The city’s report discussed no right-turns on red but did not make a specific recommendation for it. If implemented, it would need to be location specific and addressed on a case-by-case basis, Ahmed said.
The possibility of more autonomous vehicles on the city’s streets, as well as the introduction of personal delivery devices or “bots” in bike lanes and sidewalks, featured as another topic of concern, with Fenwick advocating for more direction on how these developments fit into the city’s road safety plans.
The committee also raised questions about the city’s data collection methods and how it may not capture the full range of traffic collisions in the city. Committee member Terry Barton described an incident of a student being knocked off their bicycle from a vehicle collision. A police officer did not fill out a report because there were no visible injuries at the time, he said.
“Is there a way to make it a policy that if the bike is in fact knocked over, we assume there are injuries and take the report and data,” Barton said. “So, it’s not a near miss. It’s a collision at that point, but we’re not getting that in the data if there’s no police report.”
The city plans to incorporate the committee’s feedback in its report and will present another draft to the Council Transportation Committee in the spring. A final version of the report will be submitted to the City Council in the fall for consideration and adoption, according to the staff memo.
Vision 0 has 0 probability of being successful. If there is any doubt, just look at trains, every year there is a fatality on the train tracks in this area. Now somehow with cars there will be zero, ridiculous, it will not happen until all the cars are automated.
Dave is correct. Until we enforce mobile phone usage laws, won’t happen. Can’t drive one block on el Camino without seeing someone touching their phone. No one is scare of MVPD because they stopped writing tickets.