photo by: City of Lawrence

A temporary traffic installation at the intersection of 13th and Connecticut streets demonstrates a potential design for a bicycle boulevard.

The initiative that’s aiming to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injury accidents in Douglas County might be called “Vision Zero,” but make no mistake: it’s really about seeing things more clearly.

It’s certainly about helping drivers see things around them — like with pedestrian islands that make it easier to see people who are walking or biking. But it’s also about helping planners to see the trends behind accidents — such as the fact that only a small percentage of roads account for the majority of serious crashes in Lawrence — and to envision new kinds of roads that encourage safer behavior.

Jessica Mortinger, a transportation planning manager with the Lawrence-Douglas County Metropolitan Planning Organization, sums it up like this: “What can we do so when drivers or other users make mistakes, it doesn’t cost them their lives?”

That’s a problem that’s grown more urgent over the past decade. As Forbes reported earlier this year, more than 44,000 Americans died in 2023 because of traffic crashes — a number that might be down by 4% from 2022 but is still much higher than a decade ago, when 32,744 Americans were killed in car crashes.

According to data from the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, between 2020 and 2022, Douglas County’s age-adjusted mortality rate due to traffic injury was 9.5 per 100,000 population. Already this year, multiple crashes in Douglas County have led to deaths: Three people were killed in a crash on April 3; just a few weeks later, one person was killed and three people were taken to hospitals on April 24.

As Mortinger and stakeholders from Lawrence, Eudora and Baldwin City work toward creating the Vision Zero master plan for road safety in the county, they’re getting some help from the federal government in the form of a $160,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All grant. And Mortinger said it’s important to keep in mind that the goal is a road system that’s safe for pedestrians, bicyclists, motorists and everyone else who might use it.

“It doesn’t matter if you are driving, walking, biking or rolling in an assistive device. You deserve a safe system to be able to get where you want to go and arrive home to your family,” Mortinger said.

• • •

As Mortinger and the rest of the Vision Zero Plan Steering Committee work to develop an action plan for the region, the first step has been analyzing data around fatal or serious injury crashes.

Mortinger said her team pored over crash reports to find patterns of why the crashes occurred. Along with looking at factors that may have led to the crash — the weather on the day, time of day and driver errors — it was just as important to figure out where those crashes occurred.

According to a presentation from her team, 65% of fatal and serious injury crashes in Lawrence occurred on just 6.5% of the roadways. In the smaller cities of Eudora and Baldwin City, the results were also stark: half of all injury crashes in Baldwin City happened on just 1.1 miles of road, while 25% of serious injury crashes and 32% of all injury crashes in Eudora happened on 1.5 miles of roadway.

Mortinger said getting that type of bird’s-eye-view data can help identify areas to improve the roadways so that when people make mistakes on the roads, the risk of serious harm is minimized.

One of the biggest factors in reducing fatal or injury crashes is creating better-designed roads. Mortinger said methods like lane narrowing, lane reduction and “geometric improvements” — ways of reshaping roadways to change potentially dangerous driving behaviors — are proven countermeasures that prevent serious crashes.

As an example of some geometric improvements, Mortinger cited work around 23rd Street in Lawrence as steps the city has already taken. At the intersection of 23rd and Iowa, newly built pedestrian islands near right turn lanes make it easier for drivers to see pedestrians and help calm the traffic speed. Additionally, Mortinger said limiting some turning movements on 23rd Street to the east of Massachusetts Street helps reduce left turns across multiple lanes that are more likely to lead to serious accidents.

Subtle changes like that can make a big impact, and Mortinger said those are the types of solutions that the Vision Zero Plan would advocate for.

“We changed how people moved on the roadway,” Mortinger said. “Those improvements made those roadways safer.”

• • •

Another key focus of the Vision Zero Plan is reducing pedestrian injuries and fatalities, another stat that has been on the rise nationally.

A report from the ​​Governors Highway Safety Association found pedestrian fatalities have increased by 77% over a decade-long period from 2011 to 2021. That report also said 47 pedestrians were killed across Kansas in 2022.

Vicki Collie-Akers, an associate professor in the Department of Population Health at the University of Kansas Medical Center and a representative with Lawrence-Douglas County Public Health, said that creating safe infrastructure for pedestrians and other modes of transportation is an important goal of the Vision Zero plan.

Collie-Akers, who is part of the Vision Zero steering committee, said a key reason why pedestrian and cyclist fatalities could have increased is the design of cities. With much of the design in some cities prioritizing the space for cars, it can mean that options for other forms of transportation like walking or biking are not quite as available. Collie-Akers thinks a key function of Vision Zero is making sure those other forms of transportation are accessible and safe for people who want to use them.

“(Vision Zero) is working towards better balancing the interests of cars and pedestrians and cyclists so we support all forms of transportation,” Collie-Akers said.

Collie-Akers said there are lots of creative design options for safer pedestrian ways or bikeways, citing some communities that protect bike lanes with curbs or planters.

Hilary Carter, a commissioner on Lawrence’s Multimodal Transportation Commission and part of the Vision Zero steering committee, agrees with Collie-Akers in looking to provide a variety of options.

Carter said she thinks some of the improvements the city is currently making, like the ADA Transition Plan and the planned multimodal redesign of Ninth Street, have created momentum for more pedestrian safety and are projects that benefit everyone.

“When you do sidewalk and protective bike infrastructure, it increases safety for everyone, including drivers,” Carter said.

• • •

Members on the committee understand that the plan sounds daunting.

Collie-Akers said she understands how people could be hesitant to see these drastic-sounding changes come through. The details of the Vision Zero plan can be a big departure from the norm and can lead to lots of construction and new forms of transit. Collie-Akers thinks the team has a big task to help people who are hesitant to change to “appreciate the value-add” of possible changes.

“That’s part of the journey for the Vision Zero group,” Collie-Akers said.

The committee working on the Vision Zero plan has a long way to go, but Mortinger said her team is on track to provide a plan to the city by the end of the year.

Mortinger noted the federal funding provided to the committee has been important for a jumpstart to creating the plan, and she thinks it leverages the city’s ability to do more projects than local or state funding alone.

Mortinger said she also recognizes that much of the work the city is currently doing for safety purposes “intertwines” with the Vision Zero plan she’s tasked with creating. Her hope is the plan can prioritize projects for the best safety outcomes for all.

Carter also said that communities across the country like New York City, Austin and Minneapolis have seen drops in fatalities of pedestrians and cyclists, but it’s not just large cities making strides on it. Carter cited Lincoln, Neb. as a smaller community working toward Vision Zero, and she hopes everyone can come together in Lawrence to help lead the way for this goal across the Midwest.

“Lawrence is a great community and a great candidate for doing (Vision Zero),” Carter said. “I hope it’s something everyone supports.”