Town of Cary
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The Council’s formal adoption of Vision Zero builds on the work that Cary has been doing for years to focus investments on multimodal infrastructure, traffic calming, and improving intersection safety. The Council’s consistent support for these programs and staff’s work in these areas have established a strong base of research and learning for Vision Zero in Cary.
Click here to read Cary Town Council's commitment to Vision Zero
What's Next for Vision Zero in Cary?
Staff are continuing to learn and collaborate on how best to mesh the principles of Vision Zero into Cary's values, policies and actions. This process will include opportunities for public input and feedback as goals and priorities are established. In the interim, citizens can reach out to Cary's Traffic Engineering group through Cary311 with any questions.
How is Vision Zero different?
ZERO is the GOAL | a SAFE SYSTEM is the HOW
Vision Zero is an internationally recognized, public health-based strategy to encourage a positive traffic safety culture that can contribute to reducing deaths and serious injuries within our mobility network.
Historically, traditional road safety has focused on modifying human behavior and preventing all crashes. Cary’s actions to move toward a Vision Zero strategy embrace the Safe System Approach, which prioritizes transportation design and operation that anticipates the inevitability of human error and lessens impact forces to reduce crash severity and save lives.
Shared Responsibility
The Vision Zero philosophy advocates a shift in culture to one that is more positive towards traffic safety and to one in which all members of the community have a shared responsibility to aim for reduced serious injuries and fatalities on our road system. A positive traffic safety culture is a partnership between Cary staff and citizens to design and operate our vehicles and infrastructure with the goal in mind of reducing fatal and serious injuries.
Click the image to read more about the Safe System Approach or follow the links at the bottom of this page.
Safe System Approach Framework
Anticipate Human Error
A Safe System is designed to anticipate and accommodate errors by drivers and other road users through the strategies of separating users in space, separating users in time, and increasing attentiveness and awareness. People will inevitably make mistakes and decisions that can contribute to crashes so the transportation system should be designed and operated with this in mind.
Accommodate Human Injury Tolerance
A Safe System is designed to reduce speeds and impact forces in an attempt to reduce opportunities for crashes that result in energy transfer that exceeds human endurance. The fact that human bodies have physical limits for tolerating crash forces is key to human-centric transportation system design and operation.
Local, Regional, and National Traffic Safety Partners
Cary Police - Traffic Safety Team
Capital Area Metropolitan Planning Organization (CAMPO)
U.S. Department of Transportation