ATLDOT Begins Activation of the Vision Zero Acton Plan
Atlanta’s Commitment to ending all traffic deaths
ATLANTA—The work to end all traffic fatalities within the City of Atlanta is now fueled by the Vision Zero Action Plan, now completed by Atlanta Department of Transportation (ATLDOT). The plan focuses on a safe-systems approach to making Atlanta “One Safe City” by protecting vulnerable roads users.
With a generous grant from the Atlanta Regional Commission, ATLDOT collected robust community input and analyzed historical crashes and systemic risks. This effort is the foundation for the City’s first Vision Zero Action Plan, with more than 50 safety countermeasures and 92 action items to guide the ATLDOT’s activities in the coming years.
“Our efforts began in earnest in April 2020 when the Atlanta City Council solidified its commitment to ending traffic violence by adopting Vision Zero and establishing a 25-mile-per-hour default speed limit on many of our city’s streets. And now the real work begins,” said Mayor Andre Dickens who served as chair of the City’s Transportation Committee in 2020.
Atlanta’s Vision Zero Action Plan is dedicated to the memory of Kemberli Sargent, the City’s first Vision Zero Manager who succumbed to her injuries after being struck by a speeding driver while attending a transportation planning conference in Chattanooga, Tennessee, in 2021. “We were fortunate to work alongside Kemberli and witness her passion for safer streets. Kemberli was keenly aware that traffic fatalities constrain the potential of the ‘Beloved Community’ and we look forward to continuing the good fight on her behalf,” said Deputy Commissioner of Transportation, Betty Smoot-Madison.
Within the City of Atlanta, traffic fatalities peaked at 100 people in 2021, according to The Georgia Department of Transportation (GDOT) crash data source, which was the highest annual total in the past 10 years. Since then, traffic fatalities are down 23 percent since 2021 due to efforts made since the City of Atlanta committed to Vision Zero, such as the 25-mph default speed limit to slow vehicle speeds, the “Light Up the Night” partnership with Georgia Power to increase nighttime visibility, and safe streets infrastructure improvement projects now underway.
Through the Vision Zero Action Plan, ATLDOT has updated its High Injury Network (HIN) and our most vulnerable communities. This HIN indicates the highest concentration of fatal and serious injury crashes over the past five (5) years, occurring on less than 10 percent of the City’s surface streets and accounting for about 73 percent of all fatal injuries and serious crashes.
The City of Atlanta’s Vision Zero Action Plan calls for collective action to:
• Reduce risks along the High Injury Network
• Reduce risks within Communities of Concern (neighborhoods with a population significantly burdened by the cost of fatal or serious injury crashes)
• Increase separation or protection for people walking, scooting, and biking
• Incorporate proven safety countermeasures
• Establish and reinforce safe speeds
• Reflect the community’s needs and perception of safety
“The City of Atlanta envisions a safe, equitable, healthy, more livable Atlanta through the deliberate implementation of the Vision Zero Action Plan,” says ATLDOT Commissioner Caviness. “Zero is an attainable goal, and it will take the whole of the ‘Beloved Community’ to make it a reality – Now!”
For more information on the Vision Zero Action Plan, please visit the Vision Zero website https://atldot.atlantaga.gov/programs/vision-zero.
For a copy of this press release click this link.
