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Planning commission hears draft Vision Zero traffic-safety plan, seeks public input and funding
Summary
City planning staff introduced a public draft of the Vision 0 Action Plan, a traffic-safety strategy backed by a federal Safer Streets and Roads for All grant that targets a small "high-injury network" for the majority of serious crashes. Staff will return with a revised draft and pursue federal implementation grants.
Planning staff introduced the draft Vision 0 Action Plan — Oklahoma City’s first comprehensive traffic-safety strategy — during the Planning Commission meeting. Justin Henry, transportation program planner for the planning department, presented the plan, which the city will return to the commission for adoption at a later meeting after public comment and technical revisions.
The plan’s stated goal is to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries while promoting safe, equitable mobility. The advisory board that guided development recommended focusing investments on a so-called high-injury network: roughly 6.6% of city streets that account for about 58% of injury crashes and 87% of fatal crashes, Henry said.
Why it matters: the plan is intended to guide short- and medium-term infrastructure and policy investments, help the city apply for federal implementation grants, and prioritize corridors where modest changes could reduce fatalities and severe injuries. Henry said the plan grew from work funded by the federal Safer Streets and Roads for All grant and that staff will seek capital grants in the next funding cycle.
The draft combines engineering countermeasures (medians, refuge islands, hybrid beacons, roundabouts), policy changes, speed-management efforts, and public education. Henry summarized outreach: six in-person workshops, six pop-up events, and an online engagement that produced about 1,800 contributions plus roughly 85 written public comments on the draft so far. Staff will incorporate feedback before returning the plan for formal consideration.
Commissioners and staff flagged equity and lighting as priorities. Henry noted disadvantaged census tracts show higher fatality rates and said street lighting frequently correlates with serious collisions at intersections. The draft includes seven corridor-level studies where engineers developed candidate designs and expected crash-reduction estimates using Federal Highway Administration guidance.
Commissioner Powers, who served on the advisory board, and other commissioners praised the outreach and the practical, engineering-driven approach. Commissioners asked that planning commission participants be acknowledged in the plan’s acknowledgment section.
Next steps: staff will revise the public draft to reflect comments, bring the plan back to the Planning Commission for a formal adoption recommendation, present it to the Traffic and Transportation Commission and City Council, and pursue federal implementation grants in the upcoming grant cycle.
