Share Your Feedback on the Draft Allegheny County Comprehensive Safety Action Plan

The Southwestern Pennsylvania Commission (SPC), in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT), Allegheny County, and the City of Pittsburgh, is advancing its Vision Zero commitment to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries on all roads in Allegheny County.

They recently released their draft Comprehensive Safety Action Plan, or CSAP for short. One notable feature is that the plan aims to eliminate traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2050.

This is the first time that a clear target date has been set for achieving the Vision Zero goal in the region, a necessary and important step if we are serious about eliminating traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

The document is broken up in several sections. It begins with a vision and background making the case for why we need to shoot for “zero.” It then takes a snapshot on current state of safety in the County, cataloging the existing plans and policies, followed by a robust and informative crash analysis alongside a list of streets and map of their High Injury Network using a protocol that includes such factors as property damage, the number of fatal and serious crashes, and the vulnerable road user crash rate to issue each street segment a “score.”

The meat of the plan starts at page 68, where the CSAP identifies the Action Plan, including 10 specific “Targeted Safety Projects” and concepts to improve them. Of particular interest are the Implementation Actions starting on page 105, highlighting the specific actions that they plan to take to achieve zero fatalities and serious injuries by 2050.

Leave comments through April 10!

It’s a big document, and the comment period is fairly short.

We think your efforts are best spent leaving comments in the following sections:

• Countermeasure Toolkit, pages 71-74 – This lists recommended features from protected bike lanes to eliminating turn on red and their effect on improving safety.
• Targeted Safety Projects, starting on page 77 – This section lists the 10 specific projects that they’d think could have the most impact. It would be helpful to leave comments about your support of the project in general, rather than specifics of the design.
• Most Important! Implementation Actions, pages 105-114 – This section identifies specific actions based on Safe Road Users, Safe Vehicles, Safe Speeds, Safe Roads, and Post Crash Care. This could really be expanded upon and be more bold if we’re aiming for 2050.
• Performance Measures, page 116 – Ensures CSAP is actively tracked, evaluated, and refined to achieve measurable reductions in fatalities and serious injuries. Basically, where they should pay the closest attention to see if it’s working.

Your feedback will help shape strategies to make our roads safer for everyone, whether you drive, bike, walk, or ride transit.

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