CMA 2016 #68 · Agenda item attachment · Mar 21 2016

IN CITY COUNCIL March 21, 2016 WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge has for many years been seeking to enhance safety for all users of our public streets, including people who drive, walk, bicycle, and use public transportation, and WHEREAS: The City of Cambridge has for many years promoted the use of sustainable modes of transportation, including walking, cycling, and public transportation, and more recently established a formal Safe Routes to School Program; and WHEREAS: A number of communities across the United States and around the world have begun to adopt a Vision Zero goal, which involves working towards the elimination of transportation fatalities and severe injuries; and WHEREAS: These communities have come together under the banner of the Vision Zero Network (visionzeronetwork.org), which promotes Vision Zero nationally and helps to create information sharing among peer communities; and WHEREAS: Vision Zero involves focusing on improving transportation safety from a public health and harm reduction perspective, an approach that is broadly consistent with the City’s transportation, public health, and community sustainability goals; and WHEREAS: Committing to Vision Zero will reinforce existing sustainable transportation policies and plans, including the Vehicle Trip Reduction Ordinance, the Climate Protection Plan, the Pedestrian Plan, the Bicycle Plan, the Transit Strategic Plan, the Five-Year Street and Sidewalk Reconstruction Plan, and the City’s Community Health Improvement Plan; and WHEREAS: The key City departments involved in transportation are supportive of a Vision Zero goal, including Community Development, Police, Public Health, Public Works, and Traffic, Parking, and Transportation; and WHEREAS: These department have jointly performed a detailed analysis of crash statistics to understand the crash rates and safety issues in Cambridge, to provide a data-driven basis for understanding how safety can be improvement, now therefore be it RESOLVED: That the City of Cambridge goes on record as committing to Vision Zero, with goals of eliminating transportation fatalities and serious injuries, as well as continuing to reduce the crash rates for all modes; and RESOLVED: That the key City departments noted above will develop an initial Vision Zero Action Plan, which will be updated bi-annually (every two years); and

RESOLVED: That the key City departments noted above will continue to develop yearly updates to the crash statistics and safety analysis, which will provide a basis for developing updates to the Action Plan and generally pursue actions aimed at achieving the goals of Vision Zero.