On Tuesday, March 21, the Carlsbad City Council received an update on the city’s response to the local traffic safety emergency, including the latest data on injury collisions. By law, cities that declare a local emergency must revisit the situation at least every 60 days to determine whether it is still needed.

The data shows that injury collisions across all modes of travel are down by 19% during the first six months of the emergency compared to the same time last year. Looking at bikes and e-bikes only, injury collisions are down 13%.

While these numbers are encouraging, the city recognizes that six months is a short amount of time when it comes to analyzing data for trends or lasting change. After hearing from city staff that the special provisions of the emergency proclamation are still needed to expedite projects, procure supplies and coordinate with other agencies, the City Council decided to extend the emergency another 60 days.

Vision Zero goal supported

At its meeting on Tuesday, the City Council also discussed the adoption of a resolution in support of Vision Zero, a strategy for improving traffic safety that includes making a public commitment to have no deaths or serious injuries by a certain date in the future.

The strategies promoted by Vision Zero are all things the city is already doing, with the exception of adopting a formal resolution supporting the goal. By taking this step, the City Council has set up the city to be officially considered part of the Vision Zero network, if that were something they wanted to pursue in the future. About 45 cities nationwide have joined this network.

In the meantime, the resolution serves as a public commitment of support for safer streets, a commitment that is backed up by resources, policies, projects and initiatives aimed at the three Es of traffic safety: education, engineering and enforcement.

More information

Safer Streets Together plan
Vision Zero resolution
Staff report