TAMPA, Fla. — City, county and state transportation leaders are trying to eliminate preventable traffic deaths, and they’re asking for the community's input.
Hillsborough County neighbors came out Tuesday night to help refine ideas presented by VisionZero — a transportation safety initiative. Some neighbors are worried that growing congestion will make the roadways more dangerous without intervention.
“People are getting hurt,” one woman said. “It’s mostly the speed, and it’s the people that are not obeying the laws.”
Leaders working with VisionZero say the goal is to increase safety and comfort for all motorists, pedestrians and cyclists. They presented potential upgrades that included reducing left turn conflicts, installing wider and buffered sidewalks and improving connectivity between streets.
The Vision Zero movement is the belief that death and injury on city streets are preventable with an overall goal of "eliminating all traffic fatalities and severe injuries."
The presentation on Tuesday focused on Sligh and Waters Avenues in Tampa.
“There’s been 10 fatal crashes in the last five years on the two streets and dozens of serious injury crashes,” said Ian Lockwood, a Livable Transportation engineer with Toole Design group.
Lockwood says the next steps will be identifying funding, getting designs drawn up and ideally implementing their Tier 1 solutions.