A Local Road Safety Plan is a way to approach, organize and address citywide traffic safety. The Plan and accompanying resolution was approved by City Council on August 1, 2023. 

Why a Local Road Safety Plan?

• The Plan helps identify, estimate, and plan for current and future safety concerns without relying on location-specific crash data by using the Safe System approach
• Preparing an LRSP facilitates the development of local agency partnerships and collaboration
• Implementing an LRSP (or an equivalent plan) will be required for agencies to apply for Caltrans safety funding (HSIP) and federal grant funding

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is a strategy that was developed in Sweden in the late 1990s to eliminate traffic deaths and life-altering injuries in the transportation system while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. The Vision Zero approach views traffic fatalities and serious injuries as preventable rather than inevitable, relies on multi-disciplinary collaboration, and is data-informed and equity-centered. While safe mobility is not a new concept, Vision Zero requires a shift in how communities approach transportation and mobility.

What's the Safe System approach?

The Safe System approach has been embraced by the transportation community as an effective way to address and mitigate the risks inherent in our enormous and complex transportation system. It works by building and reinforcing multiple layers of protection to both prevent crashes from happening in the first place and minimize the harm caused to those involved when crashes do occur. It is a holistic and comprehensive approach that provides a guiding framework to make places safer for people. This is a shift from a conventional safety approach because it focuses on both human mistakes AND human vulnerability, and designs a system with many redundancies in place to protect everyone. 

Documents

• Local Roadway Safety Plan: A Path to Vision Zero  (58.8 MB) (posted July 2023)
• Resolution No. 23-51 Adopting the Local Roadway Safety Plan: A Path to Vision Zero (224 KB) (posted August 2023)
• Interactive Story Map of 2015-2021 collision data and safety improvements

The draft Local Road Safety Plan was presented to City Council at a Study Session on July 18, 2023. Following the direction received, an updated Local Road Safety Plan: A Path to Vision Zero was prepared.  The Plan and resolution were adopted at the August 1 City Council meeting. 

The draft Local Road Safety Plan was presented at the Transportation Commission meeting on April 20 at 6pm.

In-person meeting will be held in the Council Chambers at 1666 N Main Street.  For remote viewing, a zoom link will be posted a few day prior to the meeting on the City’s Public Meeting Agendas and Videos page.   

A presentation on Walnut Creek vehicle speeds in the context of the Local Road Safety Plan was presented at the March 16 Transportation Commission Meeting. 

The second key-stakeholder meeting was held over Zoom. Collision profiles, countermeasures, policies, and high-level project locations was presented. A copy of the presentation is available.

An update to the the Local Road Safety Plan was presented at the Special Transportation Commission Meeting on February 16. 

One of the collision trends identified through the Local Road Safety Plan is Pedestrians in the Dark. During the years reviewed, 3 out of every 5 fatal or serious injury pedestrian collisions occurred in the dark.  

In the Winter 2023 In a Nutshell, recommendations for drivers combating darkness are provided.  

An update of the Local Road Safety Plan was included in the Fall edition of In a Nutshell.

The second update was presented to the Transportation Commission on September 15. The presentation summarized the collision profiles that were most common in the city.

The City’s Traffic Engineering team along with the consultants assisting with the project hosted a booth at the Walnut Festival on Friday, September 23.

The City of Walnut Creek’s Newsletter In a Nutshell included an article about the City's Local Road Safety Plan and asked interested residents to reach out to get involved.

An introduction of the Safe System Approach and the Local Road Safety Plan along with feedback from the stakeholder meeting was brought to Transportation Commission Meeting. The presentation includes the Citywide collision trends.

The first key-stakeholder meeting was June 30, 2022. Those invited to attend included Walnut Creek employees from Public Works and the Police Department, the Rossmoor Public Safety Manager, Mount Diablo Unified School District and Walnut Creek School District employees, Contra Costa Transportation Authority, 511 Contra Costa, Bike East Bay, and Bike Walnut Creek.  

If you are interested in receiving updates and would like to get involved, please complete the interest form.