Public shapes Vision Zero plan to reduce traffic fatalities

OKLAHOMA CITY — The largest and most comprehensive plan for greater traffic and pedestrian safety that the City of Oklahoma City has ever launched comes in the form of the Vision Zero Action Plan.

Developed in collaboration with the international Vision Zero non-profit and utilizing $1 million drawn from grants and transportation funding, the plan has taken shape over the past two years to identify particularly dangerous OKC streets, enforcement improvements, public works priorities, and more.

Vision Zero is not a City budget or project proposal, however. It’s a plan meant to set and direct policy thinking and approaches to infrastructure and enforcement, with some of the considerations potentially funded through existing MAPS projects, the upcoming General Obligation bond, or other City departments and funding sources.

Crashes on Oklahoma City roads are on the rise. Traffic deaths increased by 34%, with 99 fatalities in 2021. Most traffic fatalities occur on streets where speeds are 45 miles per hour or above, or streets with limited street lighting.

— From the Vision Zero Plan for the City of Oklahoma City

Following an extended public comment period and an initial presentation to the OKC Planning Commission, officials have been tooling and tightening the plan in anticipation of a Planning Commission vote on January 23rd, one step closer to the massive set of safety guidelines and considerations becoming official City policy.

“This plan really puts more tools on the shelf,” said Justin Henry, transportation program planner with the OKC Planning Department. “We’ve identified our most dangerous corridors, and we go into the minutiae on those, but we also have more systemic countermeasures, things like roundabouts, pedestrian crossings, and even street resurfacing. So the real hope is just in layering all these things together.”

High Injury Network

Chief among the plan’s 150+ pages is the identification and study of seven OKC corridors that make up the city’s “High Injury Network,” the roads that pose the greatest danger to drivers and pedestrians alike.

As presented in the plan, those roads include:

  • NE 23rd Street from I35 to N Bartell Rd.
  • NW 23rd Street from N Ann Arbor Ave. to N I44.
  • Mustang Road from Reno Ave. to SW 59th St.
  • SW 44th Street from I44 to Johnston Dr.
  • S Pennsylvania Ave. from SW Grand to SW 59th St.
  • NW 10th Street from County Line Rd. to N Rockwell Ave.
  • NW Expressway from N Council Rd. to N Wilshire Blvd.

“Those seven are where we really get into the weeds in the plan and really go into detail on all the little things that need to happen there,” Henry told Free Press.

For the roads in that High Injury Network, the proposed Vision Zero plan outlines a lengthy selection of potential safety improvements and beneficial projects, with each assigned a score for how well it can be expected to reduce injuries and fatalities on those streets.

Vision Zero
This stretch along the Northwest Expressway from N. Council Road to N. Wilshire Avenue is included in the Vision Zero Plan. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Without a doubt, the highest-scoring projects across the board would be new medians, median barriers, and pedestrian “refuge islands” in the center of roadways.

The full plan goes into even greater detail for potential improvements on those streets.

“We actually discuss ways to fix individual problematic areas on those roads,” Henry said, “but outside of that High Injury Network, we’re also taking a real systemic look at the entire city’s roadways and considering things like enforcement strategies and infrastructure and even post-crash care across the city.”

Enforcement

Henry said that, throughout the public comment period that included in-person outreach events and an online comment form, one element came up repeatedly from Oklahoma City residents.

“We were really surprised by just how many of the comments were about enforcement,” he said. “It was a lot of people saying ‘there are red light-running problems at this intersection’ or ‘I see a lot of speeding here’ or ‘nobody ever signals at this intersection,’ and all of that stuff is also very useful for us.”

police
OKCPD patrol car (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

Part of developing the Vision Zero plan, according to Henry, has been bringing police and enforcement departments to the table to discuss practical ways to more effectively use enforcement for traffic safety.

That meant sharing many of the repeated complaints and comments collected from citizens with police so that they can take a more targeted approach to enforcement in those areas, sometimes maintaining a more consistent presence at certain problematic intersections.

But they’ve also been considering some more advanced new enforcement enhancements going forward.

“One that’s still being debated internally is the possibility of red light cameras,” Henry said. “We’re not sure exactly how state statutes might limit us on that, but the City Manager has been interested in doing some research into it and seeing if we can try some more technology at intersections to help in those areas.”

Continued outreach

Throughout the multi-year process of developing this first Vision Zero plan for Oklahoma City, Henry said he’s been struck by the public’s willingness to engage with the issue of pedestrian and traffic safety in our city and to speak up about problematic areas and potential solutions.

In some cases, the comments they heard from citizens opened their eyes to issues around the city that were so straightforward and easily handled that they didn’t need to wait for the Vision Zero plan to be approved to address them.

Vision Zero
A stretch of NE 23rd Street east of the Oklahoma Capitol. (B.DICKERSON/Okla City Free Press)

“We did a Ward 7 town hall and someone told me they’d seen some accidents on Kelly just because the weeds were overgrown at an intersection and people couldn’t see when they were pulling out,” Henry explained. “So the next day, I just put that in to the Action Center and they got Code Enforcement out to get it trimmed back. So we didn’t even need to wait for the plan for that.”

In that way, Henry feels that the City’s Vision Zero efforts have already begun to effectively improve traffic safety. But, he also believes it could be worth the City’s time and resources to continue that same kind of on-the-ground outreach even long after the plan is approved.

“We’ve just gotten this good, actionable data from people that’s allowed us to really address some things,” he said. “Which has helped us understand that maybe we should be doing this kind of outreach all the time.”

Next steps

The Oklahoma City Vision Zero Action Plan returns to the Planning Commission for a final vote on January 23rd. 

If approved, it will go before the Oklahoma City Council later, where it’s expected to be given another public comment period.


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Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.