Des Moines reports safety gains in Vision 0 and Complete Streets updates, $13M federal grant not yet in hand

Corey Bogenrich, principal traffic engineer for the City of Des Moines, and Jeff Wiggins, transportation planner, told the City Council work session that the city’s Complete Streets and Vision 0 annual reports document progress on infrastructure and safety targets while identifying funding and staffing gaps.

The reports track progress on fatalities and serious injuries, summarize before-and-after evaluations of safety projects, and list action steps from the Vision 0 plan (adopted by council in June 2023). “Vision 0 … is based on the safe systems approach,” Bogenrich said. “It works by building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to both prevent crashes from happening in the first place and then minimizing the harm caused of those crashes when they do occur.”

Why it matters: The two reports guide multi-year investments to reduce deaths and serious injuries on Des Moines streets, including sidewalk infill, bike facilities, curb ramps and speed-management changes. Staff told the council the city has documented measurable reductions at specific treated locations and is preparing a fuller 2024 report due in mid-2025.

Most important findings and numbers

- Sidewalks and curb ramps: Over the five-year reporting window staff said crews and capital projects delivered about 21 miles of new sidewalk and replaced roughly 25.5 miles; private development added about 22 miles. Move DSM identified 180 miles of priority-1 sidewalk gaps; staff said 15 miles of those gaps were filled in the last five years.

- Bike facilities: The city reported 84 miles of the Move DSM core bike network were in place as of Dec. 31, 2023, of the 156-mile core network identified as a target. Staff said the community’s bike-facility inventory rose about 17% in the last four years and that roughly 11 miles of on-street facilities and about 18 miles of off-street facilities were added over the five-year span.

- Curb ramps and ADA work: Staff reported roughly 9,000 curb ramps completed over five years and said the 2020 work finished the backlog identified in the city’s consent decree with the U.S. Department of Justice.

- Crash trends and targeted project results: The Vision 0 update shows a decrease from 2022 to 2023 in fatalities and serious injuries, with motorcycle fatalities notably overrepresented in preliminary 2024 data. Bogenrich and Wiggins reviewed two before-and-after examples: a turn-lane restriction and pedestrian crossing installed on Keyway at Crocker (implemented in 2021) reduced crashes at that location from about seven per year (with five injuries) to about two per year with zero injuries; East 30th and University (completed in early 2022) saw a 63% reduction in crashes after intersection reconfiguration and pedestrian improvements.

Funding, staffing and implementation status

The Vision 0 action plan enumerates five focus areas, 19 actions and 70 action steps. In the limited 2023 reporting window the city completed 12 action steps, listed 6 as on track and recorded several that were not completed; staff said about seven steps required additional staffing and operating or CIP funding. Council members were told the recommended budget includes funding beginning in fiscal 2027 for Vision 0 initiatives.

Staff also told the council the city won a $13,000,000 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant awarded in September 2024 to fund corridor projects, school-zone upgrades, reflective backplates on signals and other countermeasures. Bogenrich emphasized the federal agreement still awaits signature by the Federal Highway Administration: “We’ve been awarded it, but they have not signed the agreement to say go,” he said, and the funds are not yet in the city’s hands.

Planned projects highlighted for SS4A funding include corridor work on Forest Avenue (Beaver to Ninth), MLK Jr. Parkway at Nineteenth Street and Southeast 14th Street at Maury; upgrades to school-zone flashers with speed-feedback signs; and reflective backplates for signal heads on the high-injury network.

Operational details and next steps

- Reporting cadence: staff said the two annual reports will move to a calendar-year basis so Vision 0 and Complete Streets reporting align; the 2024 report is likely to be available in August (staff estimated August but then said mid-2025 in response to other questions).

- Oversight and coordination: The Transportation Safety Committee is the custodian of the Complete Streets policy and provides oversight for Vision 0; staff meet every two to three weeks on implementation issues.

- Data lag: crash statistics rely on Iowa DOT reporting and can lag by two to three months because traffic fatalities are counted if a death occurs within 30 days of a crash and investigations affect final coding.

Council discussion and questions

Council members pressed staff for follow-up materials on costs per mile for sidewalks (staff provided a per-linear-foot range of $75–$350, with a typical figure around $200 per linear foot, reflecting differing right-of-way and retaining-wall costs) and asked about school-zone speed reductions, automated enforcement and conversion of four-lane undivided roads near schools. Bogenrich said staff are analyzing school-zone options and expect a briefing back to council in about two weeks and that reducing four-lane undivided streets in school areas will require coordination with the Iowa Department of Transportation and budget resources.

Ending and public materials

Bogenrich and Wiggins asked council members to send questions and said the city will provide the 2023 report and the Complete Streets data dashboard to council members. Staff recommended continued data-driven deployment of countermeasures and noted that several Vision 0 action steps remain unfunded or require additional staff time.