Bicyclist and pedestrian crashes and the resulting deaths and serious injuries are a serious concern for Martin County. Florida has consistently had the highest pedestrian and bicyclist fatality ratio in the United States; Martin County’s percentage of pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities continue to surpass the State’s percentages. Approximately 15% of traffic fatalities within the last two years in Martin County is a pedestrian or a bicyclist. This data underscores a need to improve bicycling and walking conditions in Martin County. Within the last two years the MPO Policy Board adopted the Complete Streets: Access to Transit Study and the Vision Zero Plan to assist with improving safety.
Over the past five years, Martin County welcomed 10,000 new residents and the number of annual visitors continues to climb. Over the same time, there were more than 8,000 crashes on road in Martin County. Of these crashes, 351 resulted in death or serious injury. The Martin MPO is committed to the safety of all users of the Transportation System. For this reason, the MPO developed and adopted a Vision Zero Plan in June 2022.
Goals & Principles
Vision Zero is simple in its mission:
Eliminate traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries in Martin County. Achieving this goal will require a change in culture because business as usual is generating preventable injuries and deaths every year in Martin County.
The culture change for Vision Zero is grounded in eight key principles:
The work towards Vision Zero is imperative. While the goal is simple, the path to achieve the outcome is challenging and will require a complete reversal from a business-as-usual culture; to build, maintain, and manage the transportation system in Martin County.
Why is the vision imperative? Because even one traffic related death is one too many.
Yet the trends are going in the wrong direction and must change. Traffic crashes in Martin County are increasing and the number of serious injury and fatal crashes over the past five years has remained steady. The cost is loss of loved ones, friends, and co-workers as well as the lasting and debilitating impacts on daily life. The commitment to Vision Zero will save money and lives.
Focus Areas
The Vison Zero Action Plan outlines and describes the incremental steps the MPO and its partners will take to achieve the goal of zero serious injuries and fatalities on Martin County streets.
To achieve this goal, the Action Plan will be organized into three focus areas:
Safe Streets – More than any other factor, the physical design of streets shape safety outcomes. Safe streets focus is on the physical changes and associated enforcement to create safe conditions on Martin County’s roads.
Culture – Achieving Vision Zero will be due in part to a change travel behavior. Culture related actions focus on non-infrastructure efforts to educate and encourage safety.
Evaluation & Accountability – The cornerstone of Vision Zero is a data-guided approach. Actions focus on measuring, reporting, and tracking progress.
Safety Streets Data
A cornerstone of any Vision Zero approach is safety data. Data is used to identify what type and how many crashes are occurring, who is impacted by crashes, as well as where and when crashes are occurring. During the last five years from January 1, 2018, until December 31, 2022, there were a total of 26,796 reported crashes in Martin County. The crashes resulted in: 137 fatalities (in 126 crashes); 651 serious injuries (636 crashes), 3,720 personal injuries (in 6,099 crashes); and 20,697 crashes with property damage only.
Martin County Crash Facts
Complete Streets are designed, operated, and maintained for all users, regardless of age or ability, based on the context of the roadway and its surrounding area.
In June 2020, the MPO Policy Board adopted the Completed Streets: Access to Transit Study to improve efficiency, effectiveness, and safety to transit users; enhance safety, functionality, and quality of life; and expand the economic benefits to the community.
Complete Streets are streets designed and operated to enable safe use and support mobility for all users. Those include people of all ages and abilities, regardless of whether they are travelling as drivers, pedestrians, bicyclists, or public transportation riders. The concept of Complete Streets encompasses many approaches to planning, designing, and operating roadways and rights of way with all users in mind to make the transportation network safer and more efficient. Complete Street policies are set at the state, regional, and local levels and are frequently supported by roadway design guidelines.
Complete Streets approaches vary based on community context. They may address a wide range of elements, such as sidewalks, bicycle lanes, bus lanes, public transportation stops, crossing opportunities, median islands, accessible pedestrian signals, curb extensions, modified vehicle travel lanes, streetscape, and landscape treatments. Complete Streets reduce motor vehicle-related crashes and pedestrian risk, as well as bicyclist risk when well-designed bicycle-specific infrastructure is included (Reynolds, 2009). They can promote walking and bicycling by providing safer places to achieve physical activity through transportation. One study found that 43% of people reporting a place to walk were significantly more likely to meet current recommendations for regular physical activity than were those reporting no place to walk (Powell, Martin, Chowdhury, 2003).
Examples
SE INDIAN STREET
SE INDIAN STREET
Downtown Thoroughfare
(Source: https://nacto.org/publication/urban-street-design-guide/streets/downtown-thoroughfare/ )
Before:
After:
The existing illustration above depicts a major 2-way downtown arterial with 6–8 lanes of traffic. This street runs directly through the heart of the city and is a major connector to other neighborhoods. The street has heavy turn volumes and multiple signal phases, making it a barrier for people to cross.
Left turns are a frequent source of conflict between motorists and pedestrians and a common cause of head-on collisions.
Buses experience frequent delay due to the encroachment of parked cars, loading freight vehicles, and through traffic. Bicyclists lack any accommodation on the street whatsoever, forcing many to utilize the sidewalk as an alternative.
Recommendations
- Assess left-turn volumes and evaluate the overall traffic network to determine whether or not left turns can be restricted or removed at a particular intersection.
- A parking-buffered 1-way cycle track, applied on each side of the street, offers a high-quality experience to bicyclists.
- The cycle track may also be combined with an offset bus-boarding island and other amenities that improve operations for pedestrians and transit users.
- At intersections, 1-way cycle tracks may either mix with right-turning vehicles in a “mixing zone,” or, where turn volumes compromise bicyclist comfort and safety, be given a dedicated bicycle phase.
- As an alternative to the treatment shown above, a 6-foot pedestrian safety islandand dedicated left turn bay may be retained at the intersection by tapering the bike lane buffer and shifting the rightmost travel lane.
- Many major urban arterials with commercial strip development may be reconfigured using the same principles as described above. In such cases, land use changes and access management should be coordinated with the overall vision and redesign of the street.
Martin MPO Vision Zero Plan
https://martinmpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL-Martin-MPO-Vision-Zero-Plan-06-23-22.pdf
FDOT Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Website
https://www.fdot.gov/Safety/programs/pedestrian-and-bicycle-safety
FDOT Alert Today Alive Tomorrow – Florida’s Pedestrian & Bicycle Focused Initiative Website
https://alerttodayflorida.com/
FDOT Bicycle & Pedestrian Facilities
https://www.fdot.gov/roadway/bikeped/default.shtm
FDOT Safety Video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uzz0C96Eav0
Martin MPO Complete Streets: Access to Transit Study
https://martinmpo.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/FINAL-Martin-MPO-Vision-Zero-Plan-06-23-22.pdf
National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO)
