By Joseph Morales

On Tuesday September 20th, 2022, Stamford, CT Mayor Caroline Simmons signed an executive order for the City Of Stamford to invest money and resources in order to end all traffic fatalities on Stamford’s roads and streets by 2032. This comes as Stamford has recorded 22,622 traffic incidents between Jan. 1st, 2017 and Aug. 31, 2022 as stated by interim Public Safety Director Louis DeRubeis during a press conference. 459 of those incidents involved pedestrians and Stamford has recorded 4 fatal car crashes as of September 2022 which is its highest number of fatal car accidents in a year since 2017. The city also averaged seven pedestrian incidents a month in 2021. 

               Stamford is the first city in Connecticut to make such a pledge and joins cities such as Jersey City, NJ and New York City in making a Vision Zero pledge. Commitment to a Vision Zero Initiative requires a city to publicly set a clear goal of eliminating traffic fatalities in a certain time frame. In addition, the mayor is required to direct appropriate city agencies and staff such as the city’s transportation, police and public health departments in order to prioritize Vision Zero Work. Vision Zero initiatives also require a data-driven focus and an emphasis on equity as well as including community input. 

  In Stamford’s case, the mayor already publicly committed to ending traffic fatalities by 2032 in a press conference the day she signed the executive order to start the initiative. She has also dedicated multiple agencies with certain roles in ending traffic fatalities. For instance, the Stamford Police Department has been tasked with increased traffic enforcement in “high traffic areas” and will focus on aggressive driving and red light violations. As per the executive order, the city is required to create a citywide crash data map to identify which roads and intersections might need safety upgrades. This is extremely important for a city like Stamford as its streets range from low-activity roads in low-density residential areas to busy arteries in Downtown Stamford and every type of road in between.  Stamford residents will almost surely hope that this approach leads to safety improvements on some of Stamford’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians such as State Route 137 and Hope Street. Route 137, which contains parts of Washington Boulevard and High Ridge Rd, which runs through the core of Downtown Stamford past the Government Center all the way up to the CT-NY line had seen 211 crashes in 2019 as of December 2, 2019. Hope Street had seen 82 accidents with about 30% of those occurring along a small stretch between Colonial Rd and Church St near the Glenbrook Metro-North Railroad(MNR) station. Other roads with high crash totals included Long Ridge Rd(77) and Broad Street(47). Though the city likely cannot perform upgrades on state-run roads like Route 137, Stamford’s data and goals might encourage the state to make State Routes in Stamford safer.

Washington Blvd near Tresser Boulevard in Downtown Stamford where two of the most dangerous streets for vehicles in the city of Stamford converge.

Hope Street near its intersection with Union Street in the Glenbrook section of Stamford a few blocks from the Glenbrook MNR station.

                Stamford’s Vision Zero Plan also includes a Vision Zero Task Force that consists of city staff as well as community members. Some of the staff on the Task Force will include technical advisors, transportation and engineering officials, public safety officials and community advocates. This group must provide the mayor’s office with a list of “short-term and long-term data driven strategies complete with measurable goals.”  The core of Stamford’s Vision Zero Plan is as follows

1.  Establish a Vision Zero Task Force, composed of a Technical Advisory Committee and a Community Advisory Committee, to develop and publish a Vision Zero Action Plan

2.  Components of this plan will allow for the adoption of roadway safety in the planning, design and construction of roadways; and recommendations to reduce speeding.

3.  Ensure that traditionally under-resourced and underserved communities are thoughtfully included in the plans development.

           Mayor Simmons said at the press conference, “This Vision Zero Initiative is a multidisciplinary approach that will include establishing a Vision Zero Task Force, and developing a Vision Zero action plan with recommendations for the adoption of roadway safety in the planning, design and construction of our roadways and recommendations to reduce speeding citywide.”  While funding for the initiative will include a combination of local, state and federal funding, Mayor Simmons said that participating in a Vision Zero Initiative will make Stamford eligible to receive additional federal grant money for road safety projects as the U.S. Department of Transportation is emphasizing Vision Zero criteria as part of its criteria for distributing grants.  

            While committing to a Vision Zero Initiative can be a big step for any city trying to improve its roads, many might still be skeptical if it will work. Vision Zero has had success in Sweden where Vision Zero was founded. Since it started there in 1997 traffic fatalities have been cut in half. Some American cities such as Hoboken, NJ and Fremont, CA have also had some success. However, many American cities have not anywhere near that level of success/ In nearby New York City, traffic fatalities in 2021 were the highest since Vision Zero began in NYC in 2013. Portland, Oregon saw their highest traffic fatality totals in 2021 since 1990 and Austin, TX hit an all-time high for traffic fatalities in the same year. Jeff Paniati, the executive director of the Institute of Transportation Engineers told Bloomberg’s City Lab in April 2022 “It’s an easy thing for a politician to say that they’re committed to Vision Zero, without actually doing anything different than what they were doing before.”

              Despite possible concerns, Stamford is already showing commitment to improving its streets. It’s also important to note that the vast majority of Vision Zero cities across America have much greater and more dense populations than Stamford. Thus, there may be more stakeholders and more constraints to altering street design in other Vision Zero cities that will present themselves much less if at all in Stamford. Stamford currently has about 16 road safety projects active according to its website such as the East Side Pedestrian Safety and Mobility Project and the Broad Street Roadway Safety and Improvement Project. The city has also applied for a $20 million Safe Streets For All Grant for the Strawberry Hill corridor and $2 million for the West Main Street Corridor Project both grants being from the U.S Department Of Transportation. Frank Petise, bureau chief of the Stamford Transportation Traffic and Parking Department has said that his department has already followed aspects of Vision Zero and pointed to the Summer Street Promenade Project as an example of a project where Stamford demonstrated its commitment to motor vehicle occupant and pedestrian safety.

             While Vision Zero is a major commitment that not all cities have lived up to as of yet, Stamford seems like it might just be up to the challenge to make its streets safer and better for all road users.

Works Cited

Ionescu, Diana. “Vision Zero Is Largely a Failure in the United States. Why?” Planetizen, 13 April 2022, https://www.planetizen.com/news/2022/04/116830-vision-zero-largely-failure-united-states-why. Accessed 6 November 2022.

Valle, Verónica Del, et al. “Stamford becomes first CT city to set zero fatal car crash goal.” Stamford Advocate, 21 September 2022, https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Stamford-becomes-first-CT-city-to-set-zero-fatal-17457341.php. Accessed 6 November 2022.

Kaufman, Richard. “Stamford Launches Vision Zero Initiative To Increase Roadway Safety.” Patch, 21 September 2022, https://patch.com/connecticut/stamford/stamford-launches-vision-zero-initiative-increase-roadway-safety. Accessed 6 November 2022.

Laguarda, Ignacio, et al. “Most dangerous Stamford roads: Route 1, Washington Blvd. lead list.” Stamford Advocate, 16 December 2019, https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/local/article/Most-dangerous-Stamford-roads-Route-1-14906756.php. Accessed 6 November 2022.

City Of Stamford. “Projects.” Stamford, CT, https://www.stamfordct.gov/government/operations/transportation-traffic-parking/traffic-engineering/construction-projects. Accessed 6 November 2022.

Tuvel, Eric. “Vision Zero Communities.” Vision Zero Network, https://visionzeronetwork.org/resources/vision-zero-communities/. Accessed 6 November 2022.

“Vision Zero – Reducing Road Traffic Casualties and Injuries | Best practice.” Smart City Sweden, https://smartcitysweden.com/best-practice/408/vision-zero-reducing-road-traffic-casualties-and-injuries/. Accessed 6 November 2022.
Alexandrov, Oleg. “Vision Zero Success Story: Fremont, California.” Planetizen, 20 October 2021, https://www.planetizen.com/news/2021/10/115025-vision-zero-success-story-fremont-california. Accessed 6 November 2022.