CCB urges the Urbana City Council to adopt Vision Zero as a city goal for 2021-2025.

For 2021 through September, there have been 507 traffic crashes in Urbana with 111 injuries and 2 deaths. Average annual pedestrian deaths on a per capita basis have increased substantially in Urbana. Nationally, there are 6.7 million vehicle crashes yearly with about 40,000 deaths and over 2.7 million injuries (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration). Individual driver behavior and poorly designed roadways with speed limits set according to maximum federal guidelines both play a role. We do not need to accept vehicle injury and death as a cost of doing business. We don’t accept gun violence; we shouldn’t accept vehicle violence.

As the only Gold-level Bike Friendly city in Illinois (an effort and goal of past councils), Urbana can continue to lead by making the roadways safe and equitable for all. Vision Zero is a framework for creating a street system that takes a Safe Systems approach but it is more than just engineering.

Read the full text of our request to the council.