Safer Streets for Charlotte

Every day, Team Charlotte works together to create a high-energy, hyper-connected city by utilizing innovative education, engineering and enforcement strategies that keep our community safe.

Representatives from government and law enforcement agencies, hospitals, interest groups and beyond are working together to create a variety of safe ways for people to move around the city and connect with each other.

Angela Berry, traffic safety manager in the Charlotte Department of Transportation, is heading the task force charged with implementing Vision Zero, a collaborative, data-driven initiative to enhance safety and eliminate traffic-related deaths and severe injuries in our community.

Over the past 10 years the City of Charlotte has seen explosive population growth, adding close to 200,000 more drivers, pedestrians and cyclists to our streets, paths and intersections.

“I think the fact that we’re a growing city means that now is the right time for Vision Zero for us,” Berry said.

Working together for action

Currently, the task force is building a Vision Zero action plan that will guide the city’s efforts to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injury crashes to zero by 2030. The task force intends to put this plan to work.

“The action plan isn’t an action plan that needs to be developed and set on a shelf,” said Berry. “It needs to be a true action plan that our community partners with us on and helps us monitor each other and hold each other accountable.”

In order for the action plan to be effective, however, collaboration is key.

Tasks such as data analysis and problem-solving require teamwork across departments and among the community, as skill sets are properly leveraged to understand patterns and correlations — both environmental and behavioral — in crash incidents, identify solutions, and see impact on a personal level.

With this in mind, CDOT called upon the city’s Office of Data & Analytics, which cultivates and participates in citywide projects that include problem-solving with data. Through their partnership, city staff members have been able to dive deep into CDOT and Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department crash data, as well as pull in experts from the city’s Innovation & Technology department and Atrium Health’s injury prevention center, all to paint a holistic picture around crash incidents and trends. Ultimately, this work will allow the community to drill down and find specific solutions to specific problems.

“That’s really all we’re trying to do,” said Rebecca Hefner, data analytics manager for the Office of Data and Analytics, “connect additional people with additional expertise to the project in a way that provides better information from which they can plan their resource allocation, in this case specifically counter measures for crashes.”

Building a safe and vibrant community

While work on the action plan progresses, Team Charlotte also continues its daily work to enhance safety across the city. From maintaining the city’s 2,455 miles of streets to monitoring 760 signalized intersections, safety isn’t just a goal, it’s a way of doing business.

Additionally, $48 million in 2018 Community Investment Plan (CIP) bonds are allocated for transportation capital funding, including:

• $30 million for sidewalk and pedestrian safety
• $2 million for Vision Zero
• $4 million for the Bicycle Program
• $2 million for Bryant Farms Road
• $3 million for intelligent transportation systems
• $4 million for traffic control devices

But beyond even these decisive actions, the city is ambitiously taking another step further to not only create a reality of safety, but a sense of place.

Currently, 13 percent of all land in Charlotte is in the public right of way, meaning there is ample opportunity to integrate placemaking into the city’s capital projects. Team Charlotte is enhancing our physical environment and creating vibrant neighborhoods and shared public spaces through such programs as decorative traffic signal cabinets, decorative signs and the Adopt-A-Street program.

Ambassadors for Vision Zero

All of Team Charlotte will play a key role in spreading the message of Vision Zero. Events are taking place across the city in September and October so neighbors can have a voice in the Vision Zero action plan. The city is connecting with the people in spaces where they already gather — at events like Open Streets 704, public libraries, community centers and at the city’s Meet & Eat events — and asking them to share their experiences on our streets using a digital interactive map. City staff members are encouraged to visit the Vision Zero web page to find an upcoming engagement event or to access the interactive map.

It also matters how Team Charlotte demonstrates safety in day-to-day life.

“It’s being intentional about our daily behaviors, about using the crosswalks and if you use the crosswalks, to wait for the signal to change to give you the walk signal,” said Berry. “Just model good behavior for ourselves, for each other as coworkers and model good behavior for your family.”