Livermore stakeholders review draft Vision Zero action plan, propose six safety projects ahead of council vote

Stakeholders, city staff and consultants met to review a draft Vision Zero action plan for Livermore and to discuss six draft safety projects intended to reduce fatal and severe-injury collisions.

"We have received 600—I think over 600—comments," said Ruta, a consultant with TJKM, summarizing outreach that produced 626 comments from 410 unique commenters and 330 pinpointed-location reports. Ruta said the plan combines data-driven collision analysis with a countermeasure toolbox of engineering, education and enforcement measures.

The presentation framed Vision Zero as a safe-systems approach that aims to eliminate fatal and severe-injury collisions by designing safer roads, safer speeds and improved post-crash care. The team reported five-year (2020–2024) totals showing 833 injury collisions citywide and said 75% of KSI (killed or seriously injured) crashes occurred at intersections.

Consultants identified 13 high-injury corridors for prioritization if funding is limited, naming Vasco Road, First Street and Airway Boulevard among the highest priorities. A corridor-level analysis of Isabel Avenue—a Caltrans right-of-way—found 141 injury collisions and five KSI incidents (three fatalities and two severe injuries), and the team said it will coordinate with Caltrans on potential mitigations.

Ruta outlined six draft projects: (1) First Street pedestrian and bicycle improvements (crosswalk upgrades, striping and bulb-outs), (2) conversions of permissive left-turn movements to protected left-turn phases at selected signalized intersections, (3) bike-corridor improvements and gap closures, (4) school-area pedestrian/bicycle enhancements (high-visibility crosswalks, RRFBs, pedestrian refuge islands and pedestrian hybrid beacons), (5) a street-lighting retrofit and inventory, and (6) citywide sign improvements and a refreshed traffic-calming program.

On signal operations, a participant asked whether the proposal meant installing full left-turn arrows or using flashing yellow arrows. Ruta said the intent is to install protected left-turn phases where feasible but acknowledged flashing yellow arrows or phased pilots may be used when protected operations are not feasible: "We could definitely look into that too," she told participants.

Robert from Bike East Bay commended the analysis and urged interim, lower-cost mitigations while larger signal upgrades are funded and built, suggesting split-phase signal timing and centerline hardening to slow turning speeds. He also recommended the team consult NACTO guidance for context-sensitive bikeways and offered Bike East Bay's rapid-response traffic-calming examples for Livermore to review.

The team emphasized the plan’s multimodal intent: while motor vehicles accounted for most collisions, KSI distributions were higher for vulnerable users (bicyclists and pedestrians), prompting school-area and corridor-focused countermeasures. For schools the team reported about 188 collisions in school areas over the five-year window with 23 KSI (six fatal, 17 severe injuries).

Next steps: the consultants will finalize the implementable actions and safety-project lists, compile a Vision Zero action-plan report and bring it to the City Council for consideration in early June. The consultants invited additional community input and said project maps and the full list of candidate intersections (about 28 sites identified) will be posted to the project website and shared with stakeholders.