Roadway safety is an issue that requires constant attention and improvement. While recommendations for enhancing safety have traditionally been based on historical trends, communities are now looking for ways to prevent fatal and severe injuries before they happen. Emphasizing prevention, Vision Zero and Safe System practices are making strides in moving the needle as communities work to address the growing urgency around safety.

Recently partnering with Alta and the City of El Paso, we helped develop a Vision Zero action plan for the City’s local streets. Known for our systemic safety expertise but newer to the Texas market, we required additional local data to develop actionable recommendations for El Paso. Engaging our close partnerships with Wejo, a connected vehicle data company, and SMATS, a company that could perform the necessary custom analysis, we were able to access and use important local data we wouldn’t have had otherwise.

Insightful analyses from these collaborative partnerships also allowed us to develop an important public-facing component of the City’s Vision Zero program, the El Paso Vision Zero online dashboard. The dashboard allows users to create custom visualizations based on attributes and factors that contributed to crashes in El Paso using data from a recent 5-year period. The dashboard includes options for users to explore an interactive map, a systemic safety approach to look beyond hot spots to understand the who, what, and when of crashes, or an option to explore El Paso’s High Injury Network to identify areas where investment can have the highest impact in reducing serious crashes.

“Fehr & Peers’ access and utilization of Big Data allowed us to gain more insight into the context surrounding crashes that we wouldn’t otherwise have had based on collision data alone and to develop a prioritization framework for our action plan.”

–Joaquin Rodriguez, AICP
Transportation Planning Administrator, City of El Paso

We are excited to watch El Paso’s continued steps in enhancing their community’s safety and pleased that our network of partners and national safety experts could be an important asset in supporting their Vision Zero action plan. If you are interested in benchmarking where you are in your safety pursuits or are looking for ways to further your safety goals, give us a call. You can also learn more here about El Paso’s Vision Zero efforts and how they are collaborating with experts to create safer solutions for their community.