Phoenix needs to design better streets, says chairman of Vision Zero Street Safety Committee

The city of Phoenix is trying to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries through the Vision Zero Road Safety Action Plan. The plan seeks to analyze data to make Valley streets safer.

As part of the initiative, officials monitor intersections and other areas where serious fatal and injury crashes commonly occur. The name vision zero comes from the ultimate goal to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries due to traffic accidents.

Ed Hermes is the chairman of Phoenix’s Vision Zero Street Safety Committee. Speaking on PBS’ "Arizona Horizon," he said the city has some of the most dangerous streets in the country with about 200 people dying in crashes every year.

“It tells me that we need to engineer our streets better. We need to design our streets better because they’re becoming more dangerous," he said.

Hermes says as cars get heavier and drivers are more distracted than ever, he thinks one way to address the issue is to separate pedestrians and cyclists from heavy traffic.

“In the city of Phoenix, you’ve probably seen some of these areas where we’ve created buffers between pedestrians and cyclists on the one side and cars on the other. We know they work because the statistics show they do," Hermes said.