Lafayette staff outline Vision Zero safety action plan, prioritize nine-mile local safety network

Michelle Malinakis, Lafayette’s transportation planner, told the City Council at its March 25 workshop that the Vision Zero safety action plan aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries through a multi-layered safe-systems approach.

The plan builds from a 2013–2022 crash analysis, a locally focused high-risk network study and public outreach. Malinakis said the goal is “to eliminate all traffic fatalities and serious injury crashes.”

The nut graf: Staff presented a data-driven method to identify high-risk streets and intersections within Lafayette, proposed a prioritized list of engineering and noninfrastructure strategies, and described how the city will use the action plan to pursue state and federal grants and to feed projects into Lafayette’s capital program and maintenance operations.

City consultants and staff summarized the crash review and network identification. Rey (Ray) Stefani, a road safety engineer with y2ks, said the team analyzed crash records from 2013 through 2022 (data for 2023 was not available in the CDOT database for the study). “In total over those 10 years, there were 67 serious injury crashes and 19 fatal crashes within Lafayette,” Stefani said, describing the study area as the city boundary used for the multimodal transportation plan (MMTP), which includes state highways.

The analysis showed severe crashes concentrate on state highways (US 287, Arapahoe Avenue and CO 7) and that, after excluding state corridors that already have regional attention, a Lafayette-focused high-injury network (HIN) of about 4.75 miles accounted for roughly 61% of the crashes on the evaluated network. The team then developed a high-risk network (HRN) using corridor-level risk factors (missing multimodal facilities, vulnerable-user presence, speed, roadway geometry and lighting). Malinakis said the HRN threshold was a risk score of 8 or above, which produced about 6.87 miles of HRN; overlaid with the HIN the combined Lafayette-focused safety network is about 9.1 miles.

Staff emphasized which crash types are overrepresented among severe outcomes. Stefani said broadside (T‑bone) collisions, approach‑turn crashes, sideswipe crashes and crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians were disproportionately present among the severe crashes in Lafayette, even if rear‑end crashes were the most common noninjury type.

Jessica Hernandez, a transportation planner with Consort Engineers, summarized phase 2 outreach (Feb. 26–March 14). The online survey drew 275 responses, 95% of which were from Lafayette. Respondents reported primary travel modes (83% driving; 9% walking; 5% bicycling; 2% transit). Hernandez said respondents favored more visible pedestrian crossings and leading pedestrian intervals at signals and generally supported radar feedback signs and other low-cost measures when familiar with them.

On strategy, staff described a two‑part value scoring method to compare potential interventions: an evidence‑based crash reduction percentage (from national research) divided by an estimated implementation cost (benefit‑cost), adjusted by a local “contextual value” score from staff workshops. Examples included evaluating protected or flashing‑yellow left‑turn treatments at signals, installing radar speed feedback trailers and upgrading midblock pedestrian crossings.

Prioritization will combine four factors weighted by staff proposal: crash history (50%), technical risk score (20%), equity (10%) and community input (20% — half of that from phase‑2 engagement and half from the MMTP). Malinakis said the result will be a ranked list of segments; the top locations will get targeted recommendations and project‑level outreach. Council members asked staff to clarify map legend inconsistencies between crash data classifications and the MMTP street types and to overlay school locations on the network map for review.

Staff described implementation pathways: opportunistic upgrades tied to resurfacing and ADA or CIP work, corridor studies targeted to grant opportunities (Safe Streets for All, Safe Routes to School, Highway Safety Improvement Program), and a neighborhood speed management program to provide a consistent, equitable protocol for resident requests. Malinakis told council staff would draft the action plan and return with a draft in May, then route the plan for public review before bringing it back for adoption. She added the city is coordinating with Boulder County on a county plan that would follow Lafayette’s adoption.

Councilors raised several points during discussion: the need to reconcile map classifications with the MMTP, incorporating school locations on network maps, pursuing education materials for cyclists (including distinctions between e‑bikes and pedal bikes), and how recent or planned projects should influence immediate prioritization. Staff said top‑ranked corridors that recently received improvements would be reviewed to avoid duplicative interventions and that project‑level outreach would follow for major projects.

Ending: City staff framed the draft Vision Zero safety action plan as a tool to guide targeted projects and grant pursuit rather than a set of immediate mandates. Staff will use the prioritization methodology and public feedback to produce a draft action plan and return to council for review in May.