Vision Zero

vision zero advocates holding signs

At the core of the worldwide Vision Zero movement is the belief that death and injury on city streets is preventable – in other words, that traffic crashes aren’t accidents but include many contributing factors — roadway design, speeds, behaviors, technology, and policies. Vision Zero sets a clear goal of achieving safe mobility for all by eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

The Hillsborough TPO, along with our local governments, acknowledged the historically high number of people being hurt and killed on Hillsborough County streets. With the community’s support, the Hillsborough TPO embarked on creating a Vision Zero Action Plan.

The plan had four action tracks:

  • Paint Saves Lives
  • One Message, Many Voices
  • Consistent and Fair
  • The Future Will Not Be Like the Past

As progress was being made in each action track [click here for the Two-Year Progress Report], it was clear that an additional action plan was needed to specifically focus on speed.

Of the top 50 high injury corridors, eight were further studied to identify short and long-term street treatments to improve safety and mobility.

In an effort to reach teenagers with safety messages that resonated with them, the Hillsborough TPO hosted a video contest for students to participate in. The catalyst for this initiative was the death of several high-school students who were killed walking to school. Students were instructed to submit a video no longer than 30 seconds highlighting basic rules of the road such as crossing at crosswalks and not walking, biking, or driving distracted. Ethan Huggins and Zuriel Cousin of Blake Highschool were selected as the winners and had their compelling video widely distributed as a part of our multijurisdictional public safety campaign. One lesson we can all learn from their advocacy: You are never too young to make a positive change in your community!