Honolulu Vision Zero Action Plan

On average, one person dies in a traffic crash on O’ahu streets every week. Between 2015 and 2022, 320 people were killed in traffic crashes on O’ahu. Every death changes the lives of their loved ones and other people involved in the crash forever. The Vision Zero Action Plan signals the City & County of Honolulu’s commitment to abate this public health crisis so that by 2035 not one more life is lost this way. The planning process will increase awareness and shared responsibility to make it safer for everyone to move throughout the city on foot, on transit, by bike, and driving a vehicle.

Nelson/Nygaard is assisting the City & County of Honolulu in moving away from the conventional approach of focusing on individual behavior preceding crashes towards a Safe System approach that looks at transportation decisions holistically. The Safe System approach acknowledges that people make mistakes, and it is our shared responsibility to make policies, plans, projects, and programs that prevent those mistakes from having fatal or serious injury outcomes. Nelson\Nygaard’s process for the Honolulu Vision Action Plan includes the following actions:

• Understanding common crash patterns on O‘ahu, especially those with serious injury or fatal outcomes, including crashes involving people walking or bicycling
• Recommending design improvements for high-injury streets and intersections
• Prioritizing safety investments at high-injury streets and intersections
• Launching a community-wide pledge that acknowledges our shared kuleana of safety, health, and equitable transportation
• Recommending changes to policies and traffic laws to align with and support Vision Zero goals and outcomes
• Testing and evaluating new roadway safety treatments for use at locations throughout O‘ahu
• Presenting safety statistics and launching a publicly accessible dashboard for tracking Vision Zero actions

This work will provide the City and County of Honolulu with critical support results in actionable strategies that make O’ahu streets safer for all people to linger, walk, bike, take transit, and drive with equitably distributed positive health outcomes.