Our Vision Zero Problem – Part 1

The City of Boca Raton and the US Department of Transportation recently completed an agreement regarding the $300,000 Vision Zero Action Plan grant award. The agreement specifies the terms and conditions for the city’s receiving the funds from the grant. 

We will provide updated details on Boca Raton’s Vision Zero project in a follow-up article. This article focuses on Boca Raton’s roadway crash situation, i.e., the problem to be solved by Vision Zero.

Background

Vision Zero specifies that all roadway serious injuries and fatalities from Vehicle crashes must be eliminated. BocaFirst has been providing readers with information about Boca Raton’s situation and on Boca Raton’s plans for this initiative: BocaFirst Vision Zero Project – BocaFirst

The Problem

The raw data from the Florida Traffic Safety Dashboard says that vehicle crashes result in more serious injuries and fatalities in Boca Raton than pedestrian and bike collisions with vehicles. But as shown in the table below, the probability of a serious injury and fatality from a pedestrian or bike collision with a vehicle is much higher when a crash does occur. Fatality chances are 10 times higher and serious injury are 5 times higher. That is, pedestrians and cyclists are the more vulnerable road users and are at greater risk. So, while there are more vehicle-on-vehicle crashes, it is the Vehicle vs Pedestrian/Cyclist crashes that result in higher injury and fatalities.

		All Crashes				Ped/Bike Crashes
Year	Quantity	Serious	Fatalities		Quantity	Serious	Fatalities
2013	5675	120	12		154	16	2
2014	6536	105	10		138	8	4
2015	6645	80	15		112	11	1
2016	5857	112	18		100	9	4
2017	5297	79	10		80	7	2
2018	4796	61	13		77	9	1
2019	5896	87	7		102	13	1
2020	3759	50	13		75	8	2
2021	4683	57	15		84	8	2
2022	5348	98	13		119	14	5
TOTAL	54492	849	126		1041	103	24
		2%	0.2%			10%	2%

To better visualize trends in the data in the above table we created four charts with trend lines. There is ten years of data in various categories in the above table. In the charts below, we look at specific categories of interest. 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic created a transportation disruption we added a three-year trend line to the graphs to show crash behavior during the three pandemic years – 2020-2022. That is, the three pandemic years cause a skew in the ten-year trend. This skew creates an error factor in the trend. So, we show it as a separate 3-year trend in addition to the 10-year trend.

All Crashes With SeriousInjuries

All Crashes With Fatalities

Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes With Serious Injuries

Pedestrian and Bicycle Crashes With Fatalities

With the exception of the second chart, All Crashes With Fatalities, the other three charts show a sharp increase in serious injuries and fatalities through the pandemic years. The data shows that both vehicle and non-vehicle road user crash injuries and fatalities are on the rise in Boca Raton. In order for Vision Zero efforts to eliminate them, the Vision Zero plan must address both.

Summary

We presented ten years of Boca Raton crash information to help provide guidance to the city’s Vision Zero planners. Since the COVID-19 pandemic caused a major transportation disruption we also highlighted the crash trends during the pandemic years.