JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — The city of Jacksonville is working on implementing its first-ever 'Vision Zero Action Plan,' designed to eliminate all traffic fatalities by 2035.
According to city staff, Jacksonville is the 15th-most dangerous city in the country for pedestrians and the 3rd-most dangerous for bicyclists.
Those are both numbers the city isn't happy about, which is why they're working on implementing an action plan to help make streets safer for bicyclists.
From 2018-2023, the city reported 196,453 crashes, an average of more than 30,000 crashes per year. Of those crashes, 441 of them involved pedestrians and 128 involved bicycles.
"The way we plan is that we understand humans are going to make mistakes, so you can’t completely get rid of all crashes," City of Jacksonville Bicycle and Pedestrian Coordinator Matt Fall told First Coast News. "But, when crashes do occur, you want them to happen at a reasonable speed, so the person might be bruised or break something, but at least they’re going home at the end of the day. If it’s a high-speed crash, it might turn into a fatality and that’s what we don’t want."
The city plans on using proactive ways to make streets safer like pinpointing the most dangerous intersections, improving crosswalks and bike lanes, and garnering community feedback to know what the public envisions.
"If we can go out there with a demonstration project, do it for 8 months, then they can actually sample these things," said Fall. "Then, the community can go, 'We want to invest in that,' or they can say, 'It’s not appropriate here, let’s do it somewhere else.'"
The River City will be collaborating with the Jacksonville Transportation Authority, the Florida Department of Transportation and local law enforcement on this safety plan to cover state and local roads.
The Vision Zero Action Plan is expected to be completed around March or April 2025.