The City of Bloomington’s Safe Streets for All plan seeks to achieve an ambitious goal: zero deaths or serious injuries on the roads by 2039.
According to the plan, there were 10,291 crashes in Bloomington between 2019 and 2023, with 443 of these ending in a “life-changing” injury or a fatality.
“As a community, we do not accept these crashes as status quo,” the plan stated. “We are ready to commit to being a better and safer community. We are ready to change.”
The 136-page plan is a “roadmap” toward creating safer streets in Bloomington using the Safe Systems Approach, road safety and transportation equity.
The Safe Systems Approach is “redundant” to ensure that even if one of five main elements fails, the others are there to maintain safety. These elements include safe roads, safe speeds, safe vehicles, safe road users and post-crash care.
This approach is also based on six key principles:
- Death and serious injury are unacceptable
- Humans make mistakes
- Humans are vulnerable
- Responsibility is shared
- Safety is proactive
- Redundancy is crucial
Though zero deaths is an impressive goal, Hoboken, a city in New Jersey, achieved its zero traffic deaths goal for over eight years.
Another platform of the plan is to focus on transportation equity.
“Policies and practices surrounding these systems can create inequitable transportation access for BIPOC communities, those who are low income, and other marginalized groups, often due to a lack of representation and institutional power,” the plan stated.
The plan ensures that the city is intentional in encouraging feedback from underrepresented communities. The “Road Safety & Equity” section of the plan noted that these groups disproportionately face a higher exposure to “burdens” such as pollution exposure, traffic crashes and service gaps.
Project manager Ryan Robling said the Safe Streets for All plan is different from other transportation plans because of how much emphasis it places on safety.
“Every single step in the action plan is an incremental step towards that goal,” Robling said. “Everything from updating the transportation plan to make sure that it's safety focused to yearly reporting to implementation of infrastructure projects, all of it is working towards that goal.”
One of the potential additions to Bloomington is converting roads from four lanes –to three lanes. This method has an expected crash reduction of 47%. Some other changes could be roundabouts, chicanes, curb extensions and leading pedestrian intervals at crosswalks. Chicanes are curb extensions or islands that create an “s” curve along the roadway to slow speeds.
Greg Alexander served on Bloomington’s traffic commission for almost four years, ending Jan. 31 of this year. To him, the plan is both bold and fragile.
“It represents an actual change, and the centerpiece of the plan is that we're prioritizing safety over capacity,” Alexander said. “Drivers just get so angry when they hear that because they've invested a lot in their car.”
Robling echoed this, saying he often hears through public engagement efforts that people think prioritizing safety for pedestrians and bicyclists means they will “take away the rights of drivers.”
“The goal of this plan is to make it safer for everyone,” Robling said. “More than 50% of all fatal and serious injury crashes happen to someone who's in the vehicle, so we want to make sure they're safe.”
For Alexander, the proposed changes need to happen for the sake of pedestrians and bicyclists in the community.
“As a teenager growing up in Ellettsville, I never had good transportation autonomy,” Alexander said. “It’s always been this struggle as part of my life of, ‘How do I get there?’ As I was a young adult being independent, I was on a bike, and the whole world is not built for that.”
According to the plan, “only 4% of total crashes involve somebody walking, biking, or rolling, but over 38.5% of fatal crashes and 24% of serious injury crashes involve people using these modes.”
Craig Medlyn, a member of the board of directors and safety coordinator for the Bloomington Bicycle Club, said the group has a “really good” relationship with the city and county.
Medlyn said that the bicycle club helps identify hazards on the roads and gives recommendations like adding a separate bike lane on shoulders.
Even though the bicycle club encourages its riders to wear bright clothing, have lights on the front and back of their bikes, be courteous and obey the laws of the road, Medlyn said distracted drivers are still the biggest issue.
“The highest item of concern is drivers who drive and text at the same time,” Medlyn said. “If they've taken their eyes off the road even for a very short moment of time it could be just disastrous for cyclists and other motorists and pedestrians.”
Medlyn also said that having bikers in a separate lane that doesn’t meet traffic reduces the chances of a crash with a car.
“Cyclists are people, are real people, and we want to be good citizens with drivers by having everybody share the road,” Medlyn said. “And, please put your cell phones away when you're driving and drive while recognizing that there’s cyclists that could be around the next corner.”
