By David Pendered
The job posting for Atlanta’s first transportation commissioner calls for experience with implementing Vision Zero, a mobility policy that includes reducing vehicular speed on city streets in order to improve safety for folks not in vehicles.
Atlanta has not formally adopted Vision Zero. But Vision Zero is cited by name on the job posting and is increasingly relevant as Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ administration grapples with issues including:
- Deadly crashes involving electric scooters struck by vehicles;
- Rising tension on the Atlanta BeltLine among those competing for space to safely walk, jog, cycle, skate, ride a scooter;
- A proposed revision of traffic patterns for pedestrians and vehicles in the central business district, home of the city’s convention industry;
- “Smart Cities” technology that aims to create a mobility bubble around vehicles and pedestrians along street corridors, including a pilot program on North Avenue;
- Legacy industrial areas that rely on truck traffic even as they are being retrofitted as places to live, work and play.
Atlanta has stopped accepting applications for the commissioner’s position. The commissioner is to oversee a Department of Transportation the Atlanta City Council voted in June establish. The DOT is to be devised with public input gathered in a community engagement process, and the department is to start work in late 2020, according to the legislation adopted by council
The job posting for Atlanta’s DOT commissioner lists experience with Vision Zero as fifth of 10 items cited on a segment of the wish list titled, Ideal Candidate. The candidate is to have:
- “Demonstrated commitment to championing safety in transportation planning with a preference for candidates with experience implementing a Vision Zero Policy.”
About 40 U.S. cities have adopted Vision Zero, including the coastal anchors of New York and Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Smaller cities that support Vision Zero include Austin, Boulder, Charlotte – and Macon.
Macon embraced Vision Zero as part of the effort that started in 2015 to increase pedestrian safety. The website doesn’t make clear any measures that have been implemented beyond the fundamental step of putting pedestrian safety at the center of transportation planning.
Vision Zero is a fairly new concept in the United States and got its start in Sweden in about 1997.
The premise is that no pedestrian should die from injuries after being struck by a vehicle. A common solution is to reduce vehicular velocity to speeds that don’t kill pedestrians on impact – about 19 mph.
Atlanta has not adopted formally a Vision Zero policy. That’s not for a lack of trying by advocacy groups.
The Atlanta Bicycle Coalition in 2017 included Vision Zero as a plank in its 2017 policy platform. The proposal regarding Vision Zero recommends Atlanta’s mayor and councilmembers:
- “Immediately create a Vision Zero Task Force to create and oversee the implementation of an Action Plan. This task force should draw stakeholders from city departments, transportation-related fields, and community organizations. Ideally, the Task Force would be chaired by the Director of the Department of Transportation.”
Other policy requests include:
- “Secure adequate and sustainable funding for the implementation of the ATL Vision Zero Action Plan.
- “Set aside money in an annual budget specifically for the purpose of Vision Zero and link lives saved to these dollars.”
Interesting.