Sonoma County Vision Zero Data Dashboard
What is the Vision Zero Data Dashboard?
Sonoma County was awarded a $660,000 grant in May 2019 to start a Vision Zero program to increase traffic safety. Vision Zero is an approach to transportation that seeks to achieve the goal of zero fatalities and severe injuries. This data dashboard is one of the County's first steps in developing the Vision Zero program.
The data dashboard shows major patterns in crash data from around the County, and provides the ability to overlay other relevant data layers to contextualize the crash data. Click the button below to start exploring with the dashboard now. (The dashboard is best viewed with a larger screen.)
Or, scroll down to see some trends that have been found in the data.
Fatal and severe crashes in Sonoma County increased through 2017, but have started to decrease over the last few years.
Traffic crashes as a whole have begun to decrease, with the most pronounced trend in the City of Santa Rosa.
Click a legend item to toggle any chart layer on or off. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System.
However, these patterns reflect more than just numbers in a chart—the burden of traffic fatalities is felt deeply by our communities. The map below shows the locations of all known fatal crashes that have occurred since 2015, and some information about those who were killed.
Map of traffic fatalities 2012-2023, showing victim characteristics. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System.
Crash data is sourced from the Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS). Crash data managed by local jurisdictions not reported to the California Highway Patrol Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) may not appear in this StoryMap or the Vision Zero Data Dashboard.
Pedestrians and bicyclists are disproportionately at risk.
Throughout the County, 4% of commuters walk or bike, but these modes make up 19% of deaths. Similarly, motorcyclists represent 9% of deaths, but only 1% of commuters.
Pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists are disproportionately at risk of fatal crashes, relative to their commute mode share. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System, American Community Survey.
Nighttime crashes are more likely to result in deaths and injuries.
However, there are more crashes of every severity level during the day.
Similarly, there are more crashes on weekdays, but more fatalities and injuries on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. Slightly more injury crashes are reported during summer months.
Click a legend item to toggle any chart layer on or off. To see only fatal and severe injury crashes, turn off the "Complaint of Pain" and "Visible Injury" layers. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System.
Driving Under the Influence is the leading cause of traffic fatalities.
DUIs are the most common primary collision factor, and are responsible for more deaths and serious injuries than any other factor.
Additionally, solo crashes (involving only one vehicle) and DUIs are closely related. More than half of DUIs are solo crashes, and over 40% of solo fatal crashes are DUIs.
DUIs have caused 140 deaths and more than 300 serious injuries since 2008. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System.
Higher speeds mean more crashes, more injuries, and more deaths.
After DUIs and improper turning movements, unsafe speeds are the #3 cause of traffic deaths. However, unsafe speeds for the conditions are only a part of the story. High-speed roads, regardless of whether the driver is traveling above the speed limit, are a risk factor throughout the County. Travel speeds of 40-45 mph see a notably elevated rate of fatal and severe injury crashes relative to lower speed roads.
Crash data includes freeway crashes. Speed values are modeled speeds from the travel demand model, with posted speed limits where modeled speeds are not available. Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System, SCTA Travel Demand Model, Sonoma County Road Centerlines.
Rural areas bear the burden of fatal and severe crashes.
Compared to urban areas, crashes in rural areas are disproportionately severe (i.e., more likely to result in a fatal or severe injury). Rural areas also carry the majority of fatal and severe injury crashes in the County.
Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System.
Equity Priority Communities
The Metropolitan Transportation Commission defines regional “Equity Priority Communities” by identifying concentrations of low-income households, minorities, single-parent families, rent-burdened households, senior population, and other demographic factors. These areas are disproportionately affected by traffic safety concerns. While only about 9% of roadway mileage throughout the County is in or adjacent to these areas, approximately 26% of fatal and injury crashes occurred in Equity Priority Communities.
The US Census Bureau identifies areas of concentrated poverty. SCTA has summarized these areas for Sonoma County by identifying Census Block Groups where at least 30% of households earn 200% or less of the federal poverty level. Like “Equity Priority Communities”, these areas are also disproportionately affected by traffic safety concerns. While only 29% of roadway mileage throughout the County is in or adjacent to these areas, approximately 44% of fatal and severe injury crashes and 48% of all injury crashes occurred in these areas.
Source: Transportation Injury Mapping System, Metropolitan Transportation Commission, American Community Survey 2018 Table C17002
What is happening throughout the County to achieve Vision Zero?
Cities around the County and the County itself are actively working on addressing traffic safety concerns on our roads. The map below displays some of the recently funded, in progress, and completed safety projects.
Note: data compilation ongoing.
Survey Results
Between September and November 2021, Sonoma County collected feedback from nearly 2,500 community members about traffic safety. Respondents mapped their daily travel patterns and identified “Danger Zones,” or areas where they did not feel safe walking, biking, or driving, as well as “Safe Spots” or areas identified as being safe locations to travel. Over 1,000 respondents placed nearly 7,000 points using an interactive online mapping tool identifying these areas and locations . As expected, there is substantial overlap between identified Danger Zones and the High Injury Network (HIN) with roughly one third of locations that people identified as Danger Zones located on the HIN. However, the locations that respondents marked as Danger Zones were also strongly determined by their home locations. The median distance between a respondent’s reported home location and locations they called out as Danger Zones or Safe Spots was around one mile.
Respondents also shared perceptions of traffic safety more broadly in the County. When asked about the most important traffic safety issues facing Sonoma County, the top three responses were poorly maintained roads, bike lanes, and sidewalks (311 respondents), speeding (308 respondents) and distracted driving (292 respondents).
When asked what measures are most important to make Sonoma County safer for all road users, 67% of respondents selected, “More enhanced safety features like protected bike lanes, and streets designed to slow traffic”. In comparison, 24% selected, “More enforcement and harsher penalties for speeding, DUI, and other infractions” and 10% selected, “More education and outreach to teach people safe habits.”
The survey yielded responses from all over Sonoma County. The jurisdictions with the most responses were Santa Rosa (316), Petaluma (194), and Windsor (126).
Perceived Safety
This heat map shows the locations where respondents felt safe walking, bicycling, or driving. Zoom in to see more granular data for each jurisdiction. People commonly choose these locations due to the presence of crosswalks, sidewalks, and physical separation from vehicles. Scroll down for some examples of locations where people felt safe along with their explanations for why they identified these locations as Safe Spots.
The Santa Rosa Creek Trail is a paved multi-use pathway that connects downtown Santa Rosa to neighborhoods to the west.
The Greenway is amazing, can we have more bike paths that allow for uninterupted (ie not constant stop/starts) - this is how you get people to ride more.
A recent road diet and traffic calming have helped pedestrians and bicyclists feel safer traveling through Downtown Petaluma.
Road diet made it so much easier to cross street.
Traffic downtown on Petaluma Blvd. and Kentucky is generally traveling at a safe speed.
Windsor Road runs in front of Windsor High School with wide sidewalks and bike lanes connecting to neighborhoods to the south.
This stretch of Windsor Road south of Windsor River Road is great because of wide sidewalks on both sides.
The road is wide and easily accommodates all of the activity.
Well maintained sidewalks and traffic calming make the McDonald neighborhood in Santa Rosa easy and safe to navigate by foot or bike.
13th St is another good cross neighborhood route. Better crossing at 4th St would be appreciated.
Most of the McDonald neighborhood has nice sidewalks and crossing conditions for pedestrians.
Perceived Danger
This heatmap shows the locations where respondents did NOT feel safe walking, bicycling, or driving. Zoom into to see more granular data on each jurisdiction. Common reasons people listed for choosing these locations were speeding, sidewalk gaps, inadequate lighting, and the absence of crosswalks. Scroll down to see some examples of locations where people felt unsafe and their explanations for why they identified these locations as Danger Zones.
There is significant overlap between peoples perceived danger and the results of the crash analysis. Roughly one third of locations that people identified as Danger Zones were along the HIN. The perceived danger data may also help identify locations where low crash numbers reflect people—particularly people walking and bicycling—avoiding that area rather than it being safe
High traffic volumes and the lack of bike lanes make the intersection of Sebastopol Road and Dutton Avenue in Santa Rosa difficult to navigate by bike or foot.
This intersection is such an important thoroughfare, but it's crazy with cars, very sketchy on a bike
Hay autos que circulan demasiado rápido y el pavimento está en muy desgastado, hay grietas en todo el camino.
The downtown Healdsburg area around Plaza Park experiences heavy foot and auto traffic leading to car/pedestrian conflicts and the lack of bike lanes and racks make this area less attractive to bicyclists.
How about a Bicycle Lane so that we can ride to the Plaza (our Community Gathering place) and "Park/lock" our bikes in safe rack?
Cars making left turns at this intersection often miss pedestrians in the crosswalk.
Heavy auto traffic and speeding make the intersection of Lakeville Hwy and D Street in Petaluma difficult to cross on foot or bike.
This is one of the scariest intersections in town. Waiting at this light as a pedestrian I always feel like cars heading north on Lakeville are going to crash into the light pole. This intersection needs a barrier on the sidewalk to protect pedestrinas and cyclists!
Lakeville has a “bike lane” but it’s not protected and people drive too fast. It’s terrifying for biking and walking.
It has no striping and D Street is one lane each way with bollards in the middle between the two streets. Lakeville Street uses sharrows but is used by semi trucks, buses and personal vehicles and trailers
A network of bicycle and pedestrian pathways and lanes connect different parts of Rohnert Park. Maintenance issues can make it less comfortable to use these facilities
My daughter can’t ride her skateboard to school because the creek path needs to be repaved
The intersection of Sonoma Highway/Hwy 12 and Farmer’s Lane in Santa Rosa represents an important connection between neighborhoods to the north and south and commercial areas in the vicinity. Heavy traffics, high speeds, and wide crossings make this intersection difficult to cross on food or bicycle.
El carril de bicicleta desaparece y los autos ocupan todo el espacio.
Another super important intersection that feels like biking or walking through a highway onramp.
The feedback provided by community members helped shape the strategies and actions included in the Sonoma County Vision Zero Action Plan. The Plan prioritizes the issues most important to Sonoma County residents, including the construction and maintenance of high quality walking and bicycling infrastructure and the prevention of speeding and distracted driving. Along with crash data from the Vision Zero Data Dashboard the locations identified by respondents will also help inform future efforts to address traffic safety at the local level, such as Local Road Safety Plans (LRSPs) . See the Vision Zero Action Plan to see what all Sonoma County is doing to eliminate traffic deaths and severe injuries and take the pledge to show your support.
Click the button below to start exploring with the dashboard now. (The dashboard is best viewed with a larger screen.)
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