Near the end of 2015, Bellevue City Council endorsed Vision Zero with a goal of reaching zero traffic deaths and serious injuries by the year 2030. In September, Bellevue started working on a Vision Zero Action Plan. The ultimate goal is to produce a set of strategies, performance indicators, and an implementation matrix with timeframes, costs, and potential funding sources. In other words, the foundation for a set of projects to achieve zero deaths and serious injuries by 2030.

This work will be based on the following core pillars: community engagement, assessment of collision data, coordination with existing policies, and best practices assessment.

Community engagement

For community stakeholders, Bellevue will hold a public workshop on past Vision Zero successes and solicit input on proposed strategies. The city also has an online questionnaire open for comment through February 11th .

. The transportation commission will carry out regular briefings to ensure continuity through the plan development process.

The city council will gauge receptivity of the goals prior to finalizing a report.



Partner agencies will hold two strategy sessions, which include the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) and Washington Traffic Safety Commission.

Bellevue will build upon prior efforts, including an online wikimap of the public’s road safety concerns and personal pledges for safety (like the one below).

“As a person, I pledge to minimize driving to keep my family and community safe.”

Assessment of collision data

Bellevue plans to leverage collision data from the 2006-2017 timeframe, visualized in map and chart form, to determine roadway characteristics and behavioral factors that contributed to deaths or serious injuries.

A publicly accessible Crash Map Portal is already available (as seen below).

Crash Map Portal. (City of Bellevue)

Based on collision data, Bellevue will suggest a proactive, systems-based approach to safety, rather than reacting when something undesirable happens.



Coordination with existing policies

Bellevue will coordinate with road safety strategies in engineering, education, encouragement, evaluation, equity, and enforcement; and

Leverage police department data reflecting trends in citations issued, photo enforcement (especially before/after enforcement impacts).

Best practices assessment

Bellevue will inventory visions, goals, principles, strategies of adopted action plans from other communities.

The city is particularly interested in “street designs that emphasize safety, predictability, and the potential for human error, coupled with targeted education and data-driven enforcement efforts,” according to the Action Plan Scope of Work.

The final report is due out this summer.

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Anton Babadjanov Anton has been living in the Pacific Northwest since 2005 and in Seattle since 2011. While building technology products during the day, his passion for urban planning and transportation is no less and stems from a childhood of growing up in the urban core of a small European city.