Safe Streets and Roads for All Application
A collaboration between MetroPlan Orlando and its member counties and municipalities.
A Busy, Flourishing, Challenged Region
More than 2.16 million people call the 2,500-square-mile MetroPlan Orlando region home, and almost a million new residents are expected over the next 25 years. Add to that visitors coming to the area -- upwards of 75 million a year -- and it becomes clear: The safety issues Central Florida is experiencing today will only worsen without significant intervention and investment.
Regional leaders are committed to improving safety, but resources in our growing communities can be scarce. We also need to make up ground for inequities that have built up through the years in many of our disadvantaged communities. For MetroPlan Orlando's grant application to develop a Vision Zero Action Plan, we relied on our strengths in partnership to build a collaborative team.
Our three counties -- Orange, Osceola, and Seminole -- are joined by 21 of 22 municipalities in this effort to make our region's roads safer for everyone.
One of our partners, the City of Orlando (depicted in white in the map at right), has already adopted a Vision Zero Action Plan and is applying for implementation funding. While not officially part of this grant application, the city's experiences will help guide our efforts in developing the regional plan.
To reach zero as a region, our top-down, bottom-up approach would encompass all regional roads where the most fatalities occur. It also would identify safety countermeasures to create a system of safe local streets. MetroPlan Orlando is committed to working with all agencies within the region to develop Vision Zero Action Plans. A SS4A grant can help us sketch an overall vision for the region, which our partners will bring to life with localized details for each of our unique communities.
USDOT Historically Disadvantaged Communities & HUD Opportunity Zones
Almost half (42%) of the residents in the MetroPlan Orlando area live in census tracts designated by the U.S. Dept. of Transportation as Historically Disadvantaged Communities, and 26 of those census tracts also qualify as U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development Opportunity Zones.
Historically Disadvantaged Communities are shown in light green in the map to the right, and are depicted in dark green if the tract is also the site of an Opportunity Zone.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau (Census Tracts, 2020)
Safety Overview: Crashes, Deaths & Injuries
Despite a focus on transportation safety, our trends are moving in the wrong direction.
Central Florida has grown rapidly and has historically relied on car-centric development patterns to serve the mobility needs of residents. This has created an environment with a variety of unsafe conditions. Chief among these: high vehicle speeds on roads with many pedestrians, bicyclists and transit riders.
Our regional Vision Zero Action Plan will help us save lives by elevating our safety efforts and providing a best practice, safe system approach for infrastructure, policy, design, and community engagement.
Where Are People Dying on the Transportation System?
Fatal crashes are occurring throughout the region, not just in concentrated locations. This points to the need for systemic solutions through the Vision Zero Action Plan.
We’ve seen an overall upward trend in fatalities on the transportation system in the past several years. Again, this points to a need for an all-encompassing plan that will help turn this trend in the right direction as we work to eliminate deaths on our transportation system.
Source: Signal 4 Analytics
Staying Safe is More Difficult for Underserved Communities
Because many historically disadvantaged communities have been impacted by higher speed roads, they have more safety concerns. With 42% of the region’s residents living in underserved communities and 65% of fatal crashes occurring in these areas, there is a disproportionate burden on the most vulnerable.
Here’s what we see in many historically disadvantaged communities:
- High density residential development next to high-speed highways, not connected to adjacent land uses, forcing activity to the busy roadway
- More people reliant on walking, biking, and riding transit to get around
- Lack of infrastructure to support walking, biking and transit modes, like sidewalk gaps and protected crossings spaced too far apart
In far too many cases, where a person lives increases their risk of dying on Central Florida roads. That’s why equity will be a vital part of our regional Vision Zero Action Plan.
The map to the right depicts fatal crash hot spots in historically disadvantaged communities in the MetroPlan Orlando area from 2016 through 2020.
Staying Safe is More Difficult for People Walking and Biking
The most vulnerable users of our transportation system, people walking and bicycling, are more likely to die on Central Florida roads. Only 2% of all crashes involve a pedestrian or bicyclist, but people walking and bicycling account for more than 30% of our fatalities.
National reports, such as Smart Growth America’s Dangerous by Design, have consistently ranked the Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford Metropolitan Area as one of the most dangerous places for pedestrians in America. Our regional Vision Zero Action Plan will help our region shed this undesirable designation.
Source: Signal 4 Analytics
The map to the right depicts fatal bicycle and pedestrian crash hot spots in the MetroPlan Orlando area from 2016 through 2020.
Prepared for Action -- Heading for Zero
Our region’s leaders are aware of safety challenges and have engaged for years in a sustained effort to reverse the trends. Today, we have much of the structure in place to win this fight, but we need more resources to stay ahead of the demands of our expanding population.
Our residents expressed their concerns about the safety of cyclists and pedestrians on the region’s roads in our 2021 public opinion survey. Respondents connected speed and safety, with 79% agreeing lower speeds mean safer roads for everyone. At the same time, nearly one in five respondents reported driving 10, 15, 20, or even 25 mph over the speed limit most of the time.
It is clear that our safety problems will continue without strong leadership and intervention. We are ready to take up the challenge to get to zero fatalities, and we eagerly await the extra support that a SS4A grant could supply in making safety more equitable and reliable for those who live in Central Florida and those who visit.
Please visit MetroPlanOrlando.org for more information.
