IMPLEMENTATION STRATEGIES
By incorporating a mix of short-term, low-cost interventions and long-term infrastructure upgrades, the city can test innovative solutions, address critical safety needs, and build public support. These strategies serve as a roadmap to guide decision-making, prioritize resources, and ensure sustained progress toward safer streets for all.
Implementation Strategies outline the key actions Fort Worth will take to achieve Vision Zero, translating recommendations into tangible steps. This section provides a framework for executing safety improvements through demonstration projects, capital investments, policy actions, and community education.
CAPITAL PROJECTS These are larger projects that serve the long-term goals of a Safety Action Plan. Therefore, costs are higher, and more design and planning are required. While quick build projects focus on temporary measures, capital projects are permanent changes to the roadway. Capital projects may be former quick build installations that have proved to be effective in improving safety and are ready for long term implementation. Typical examples include traffic calming, enhanced pedestrian lighting, or bike lane installation. Capital projects can help connect Vision Zero projects with other realms of enhanced transportation like transit.
DEMONSTRATION PROJECTS Quick build projects can be used to demonstrate the potential of roadway improvements in a relatively fast and cost-effective way. While typically limited to temporary “paint and plastic” type projects, these initiatives can still have an immediate impact on roadway user safety. Due to their typically low cost, these kinds of projects can be used for communities to experience and explore designs before they become permanent, creating not only an engagement opportunity, but likely a better end design. And by including community members in their design, demonstration projects can also serve as a motivational tool for alternative commuting modes. In Fort Worth, for example, using paint and temporary materials to create bulb-outs (curb extensions) to slow vehicle speeds and shorten pedestrian crossing distances at key intersections could be used to demonstrate how these kinds of safety treatment can be effective at achieving easy wins.
POLICY ACTIONS AND TOOLS Changes to policy require enabling legislation or local ordinance to support the implementation of specific decisions or actions. Policy changes can be used to establish permanent guidelines in which the city will follow as it implements infrastructure improvements. Improving policies for VRUs (vulnerable road users) can be as simple as evaluating local codes regarding sidewalks or jaywalking. More expansive policies, such as a citywide Complete Streets Policy, will require the institutionalization of its approach, such as retraining engineers, planners, and project managers. Policy tools can also be used for the prioritization of underinvested and underserved communities, a vital element of any Safety Action Plan or approach to achieving Vision Zero.
COMMUNITY EDUCATION Safe streets in part rely on user behavior, which is influenced by a user’s understanding of the transportation system in which they are participating. Knowledge of traffic safety issues and their countermeasures equips communities with an awareness of the network around them and allows for more valuable input into the decision-making process. Community education can be provided in the form of education guides, safety campaigns, or neighborhood events. Through the education of users, a culture of safety can be promoted, changing the norms around traffic safety.
| 74
Made with FlippingBook - Share PDF online