Travis County officials have plans to bring that number to zero.
The overview
During a briefing to county commissioners Oct. 1, Transportation and Natural Resources staff with its consultant Kimley-Horn provided an update on the county's new Safe Streets and Roads For All, or SS4A, Safety Action Plan.
Similar to the city of Austin’s Vision Zero, the county’s SS4A initiative aims to eliminate traffic-related serious injuries and fatalities. The city’s road work improvements in recent years have resulted in a decline in these types of serious accidents.
How it works
Currently, the county is working on its safety action plan, which will identify safety needs and improvement strategies that Travis County and its city partners can implement to eliminate or significantly reduce deaths and serious injuries on roads countywide, Kimley-Horn Transportation Engineer Dan Malsom told commissioners.
A locally adopted safety action plan is required before the county can apply for federal funding that would support these improvements projects. Once the plan is completed, the county can tap into the U.S. Department of Transportation’s $5 billion in funding allocated toward local SS4A efforts.
“It's a little bit of a change from how safety planning and roadway safety engineering has been done in the past in the United States, and the biggest element of that change is that it's really focused on harm reduction,” Malsom said. “... Humans aren’t perfect.”
He said that future safety components will be redundant, meaning that if one part of the system doesn't do what is intended, there's another part of the system in place so that the worst outcomes are avoided.
“Safety needs to be proactive; it can't just be chasing crashes,” Malsom said. “It has to be going out, finding where the issues are and trying to prevent them before tragedy occurs.”
In February 2023, Travis County received a grant to begin work on the safety action plan.
By analyzing traffic and crash data, county staff have worked to identify hotspots and crash trends, with a focus on high crash locations; unprotected users, such as bicyclists, pedestrians and power mobility users; and unincorporated areas.
Travis County is partnering with the cities of Austin, Jonestown, Lago Vista, Lakeway, Manor, Pflugerville, Rollingwood, San Leanna, Volente and West Lake Hills to fully evaluate the county’s transportation network.
The safety action plan will also be incorporated in the Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization’s regional transportation SS4A planning, which spans six counties.
What you need to know
The county has opened public engagement on the development of this safety action plan. The transportation and natural resource department will be conducting pop-up events over the next couple of months.
Residents can find more information on the recently launched website, www.tctxsafestreets4all.com, including an interactive crash data dashboard, further planning information and an online survey for residents to offer their thoughts and concerns.
The first round of public engagement will last through November. A list of projects will be announced by the department in January, followed by another round of public engagement.
The final draft of the safety action plan will be released in February, reviewed by county officials and brought to commissioners court in April. Should the plan be approved, the county will be able to apply for implementation grant funding in May.
Some highlights
Travis County planning and engineering staff have prioritized four focus areas as a starting point to guide in the identification of systemic safety issues. Currently, staff has outlined three focuses for improvements:
- Low ambient lighting
- Occupant participation
- Pedestrian crashes
Staff are also prioritizing intersection-related crashes, as they have historically had the highest number of total crashes—more than twice the amount of the next highest focus area, according to county documents.
Quote of note
“I am happy that we are beginning to take a more collaborative approach. For too long, since I've served on CAMPO, it's been urban versus rural.” Precinct 1 Commissioner Jeffery Travillion said. “At the end of the day, when you've got affordability issues that continue to keep pushing people out, hopefully we can move away from ideological positions and get to more practical positions that serve people.”
