OKC strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities gets green light

The Journal Record

By: Kathryn McNutt July 19, 2023

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma City Council voted Tuesday to implement Vision Zero, a strategy to eliminate traffic fatalities through better design. A U.S. Department of Transportation grant will provide $800,000 under its Safe Streets and Roads for All program for the development of a comprehensive safety action plan. The city will provide a $200,000 local match. Vision Zero differs from traditional transportation system design, which considers traffic deaths to be inevitable, said Justin Henry, city transportation program planner. “It embraces the idea that traffic deaths are preventable,” Henry said. “It’s that humans make mistakes and that we need to design for those mistakes to be survivable.” According to a traffic safety study, traffic collisions in Oklahoma City and traffic injuries both decreased 6% from 2018 to 2021, but fatalities increased 34%, Henry said.

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