Better sidewalks show 22% reduction in serious injury and fatal crashes

Yahoo

21-02-2025

AUSTIN (KXAN) — Making the streets of Austin safer for people to feel better about walking, biking or catching the city bus in their neighborhood is a priority for the City of Austin.
The City of Austin recently wrapped up construction improvements to the intersection of Stassney Lane and South First Street in South Austin. It now has separated bikeways, a shared-use path, high-visibility crosswalks and it's now ADA-compliant.
The intersection is one identified as a high-crash intersection and was prioritized for safety improvements under the 2018 Mobility Bond Vision Zero Intersection Safety Program.
'It's important that we make sure that every, everyone that's using our transportation network can use, can walk, can bike, can roll, and can do that easily through intersections where we have a lot of vehicles traveling through every day,' said Cody Stone, the Interim Project Delivery Division Manager.
The City says that Vision Zero major intersection safety projects are seeing a 22% reduction in serious injury and fatal crashes and a $28.5 million reduction in the comprehensive cost of crashes every year.
'With improvements, we see anywhere from 10 to 30% reduction of crashes, and we're reducing those severe, serious injury crashes. Vulnerable users on bikes and pedestrians it's much more likely to be serious or fatal when they're involved in a crash. So making sure that we reduce those crashes, in particular, is our focus, and having sidewalks that are up to the latest ADA compliance and are separated from our travel way helps to address those safety issues,' said Stone.
To learn more about the City of Austin Sidewalk Program or to report an unsafe crosswalk or sidewalk in your neighborhood, click here.
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