At its February 11, 2020 meeting, the Salinas City Council passed a Resolution adopting a Vision Zero Policy, and directing city staff to develop a Vision Zero Action Plan. “Vision Zero” is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all. It is a movement that began in Europe and spread to American Cities, rooted in the philosophy that no loss of life due to road crashes is acceptable or inevitable and therefore sets the goal of reducing fatalities and severe injuries to zero. Vision Zero is a multidisciplinary approach, bringing together diverse and necessary stakeholders to address this complex problem. Vision Zero acknowledges that many factors contribute to safe mobility, not just roadway design, but also speeds, behaviors, technology, and policies, and sets clear goals to achieve the shared objective of zero fatalities and severe injuries.

To develop the Vision Zero Action Plan, City staff compiled 10 years of collision data, and created maps using geographic information systems (GIS) technology to display and filter collision data to help illustrate spatial patterns and trends. Collision data was collected from the Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS), Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) and local police records between the years 2009-2018. This data-driven analysis helped reveal collision trends and patterns in collision type, driver factors, roadway features, vehicle factors or environmental conditions.

Through the GIS map making process, a High Injury Network (HIN) was identified as part of a Vision Zero Action Plan. This was a critical step because it identified roadway segments where high frequencies of fatal or severe injury collisions occur. The Salinas HIN consists of only 12% of the city’s street network. This process suggests that the City can take a much more focused approach to making investments in safety improvements on a small percentage of the City’s streets.

The Vision Zero Action Plan refines the HIN further, and GIS map making was used to develop emphasis areas for road corridors and at intersections with the greatest number of killed or seriously injured (KSI) collision records. Infographic maps were created to illustrate collision trends, notable collision types and notable primary collision factors using all of the available collision data from 2009-2018. These Emphasis Areas include High Collision Corridors, High Collision Intersections, Pedestrian Involved Intersections, Bicycle Involved Corridors, Alcohol Involved Corridors, and Near Schools.

The highest collision corridors are as follows:

1. East Market Street, from Sherwood Drive to North Sanborn Road
2. Williams Road, from East Alisal Street to East Boronda Road
3. East Laurel Drive, from Natividad Road to North Sanborn Road
4. Boronda Road, from US 101 to Natividad Road
5. East Alisal Street, from Front Street to North Sanborn Road
6. North Main Street, from Market Street to Casentini Street
7. West Laurel Drive, from North Davis Road to North Main Street
8. North Sanborn Road, from Del Monte Ave to East Boronda Road
9. East Laurel Drive, from North Main Street to Natividad Road,
10. Sanborn Road, from US Highway 101 to East Laurel Drive

The highest collision intersections are as follows:

1. Sanborn Road at Freedom Parkway
2. Sanborn Road at Garner Avenue
3. Boronda Road at North Main Street
4. North Main Street at West Bernal Drive
5. East Laurel Drive at Granada Avenue
6. Williams Road at Del Monte Avenue
7. East Alisal Street at Griffin Street
8. East Market Street at North Maderia Avenue
9. East Laurel Drive at Constitution Boulevard
10. East Market Street at Kern Street

The highest pedestrian involved intersections are as follows:

1. Sanborn Road at Garner Avenue
2. East Alisal Street at Griffin Street
3. North Main Street at Lamar Street

The highest bicycle involved corridors are as follows:

1. East Market Street, from Sherwood Drive to North Sanborn Road
2. West Laurel Drive, from North Davis Road to North Main Street
3. Natividad Road, from East Laurel Drive to East Boronda Road

The highest alcohol involved corridors are as follows:

1. East Market Street, from Sherwood Drive to North Sanborn Road
2. East Laurel Drive, from Natividad Road to North Sanborn Road
3. Williams Road, from East Alisal Street to East Boronda Road

The highest collisions near schools are as follows:

1. Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary
2. Sacred Heart School
3. Alisal High School

Following the adoption of the Action Plan in August 2021, the City began actively working to advance recommendations for the emphasis areas into real safety improvement projects. The City has allocated $400,000 towards developing the Alisal Vibrancy Plan: Streetscape Master Plan. The Streetscape Master Plan will build upon the work from the Alisal Vibrancy Plan, and refine Alisal’s major commercial corridors, specifically East Market Street, North Sanborn Road, East Alisal Street, and Williams Road further into more tangible final streetscape concepts. These four streets represent the 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 10th highest collision corridors in the Vision Zero Action Plan. These corridors also contain 6 of the 10 highest collision intersections identified in the Action Plan. The City has finished procuring a consultant to develop the concepts and will be kicking off the 32-week project schedule soon.

Additionally, by building upon the work done to develop the Action Plan, the City was recently able to secure four grant awards totaling over $10.7 million to fund critical safety improvements identified in the Vision Zero Action Plan. The City was awarded just under $1 million in Active Transportation Program (ATP) funds to make pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements in front of Alisal High School, the number 3 highest collision corridor near a school. The City is also set to receive at least $8.1 million, and possibly up to $14 million pending availability of ATP funds for the Harden Parkway Path & Safe Routes to School, whereas Harden Parkway is part of the High Injury Network. The City was also successful in securing $248,000 in Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) funds to improve North Main Street at Lamar Street, the number 1 highest uncontrolled intersection identified in the Action Plan. Lastly, the City was also awarded $1.3 million in HSIP funds for the San Juan Grade Road Sidewalk and Street Light Improvements Project, which was identified as part of the High Injury Network. By bringing in outside revenue sources, all four of these projects are now on track to be constructed within the next few years. The initial cost to develop the Vision Zero Action Plan was less than $80,000, and it has now brought in over $10 million in grant funds, demonstrating that good planning can pay dividends.

The Vision Zero Action Plan is intended to be a living document which will routinely be updated every 4 to 5 years. Next year the Plan will be turning 3 years old, and the City will begin the process of updating the Vision Zero Action Plan.