State and Local Efforts 

 Toward Zero Deaths—The Florida Experience

FHWA-SA-19-033

Vision Zero 

In 2018, 36,560 people were killed in traffic 

crashes on the Nation’s roadways. In a 

concerted effort to reduce fatalities, most States 

have adopted a zero deaths vision or approach 

in their Strategic Highway Safety Plans (SHSPs). In 

addition, more than 40 communities have 

committed to Vision Zero, a strategy to eliminate 

traffic deaths and severe injuries at the local and 

regional level. This growing number of 

communities working to integrate a zero deaths 

vision and strategies into their traffic safety efforts 

has created renewed opportunities for 

coordination and collaboration at the State and 

local level. 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) 

Office of Safety promotes developing effective 

safety partnerships as a way to advance zero 

deaths efforts. To support this effort, FHWA has 

sponsored several State-based workshops where 

stakeholders gather to discuss their safety 

priorities and strategies to achieve their shared 

goal of zero traffic deaths. In addition to the 

workshops, the FHWA is conducting follow-up 

webinars and developing a resource to help 

other States and local communities coordinate 

their zero deaths efforts. 

Toward Zero Death Efforts in Florida 

In May 2019, FHWA helped to facilitate a 

workshop in Florida where stakeholders were 

charged with identifying opportunities for 

increased coordination and progress toward 

zero deaths. A follow-up webinar was held in July 

2019 with local, regional, State, and Federal 

partners. The 1-hour webinar is available for 

viewing online at https://vimeo.com/348494595. 

During the workshop and webinar, Florida shared 

a number of its initiatives and activities that 

exemplify the coordination and collaboration 

taking place as a result of the common zero 

deaths goal. Several of these noteworthy 

practices are highlighted below. 

Noteworthy Practices in Florida 

 Elevating Context Sensitive Design. The Florida

Department of Transportation (FDOT)

encourages context sensitive design. The

FDOT Context Classification system provides

information about roadway users, regional

and local travel demand, and challenges

and opportunities for each roadway user. This

webinar series provides training and case

studies. The City of Orlando is applying

context sensitive design as part of its

commitment to Vision Zero and Complete

Streets. Orlando’s efforts include increased

focus on pedestrian and bicyclist safety and

conversion of one-way to two-way streets.

 Humanizing Traffic Fatality Reports. FDOT

District 7 leadership shares a biweekly report

with its team that identifies the individuals who

died on roads in the District as mothers,

brothers, sons, daughters, and friends. This

approach helps humanize the losses and

reminds traffic safety practitioners of the

urgent value of their work. It is a worthwhile

practice for others at the local and State

levels to replicate.

Other Efforts Supporting 

Zero Traffic Deaths in Florida

 Encouraging Appropriate Flexibility for Design.

The FDOT Design Manual provides greater

flexibility for designers. Specifically, Table

202.3.1 helps engineers to apply speed

management strategies for safety. It indicates

the appropriate context classification, design

speed range, and potential techniques that
State and Local Efforts 

Towards Zero Deaths—The Florida Experience

 

FHWA-SA-19-033

may be applicable to achieve the indicated 

design speed, noting that “creativity, 

judgment, and experience in the use of low 

speed design strategies are encouraged.”

 Focusing on Managing Speed for Safety. 

Plan Hillsborough, a Metropolitan Planning 

Organization (MPO), is developing a Speed 

Management Action Plan that includes 

using data to focus attention on roads with 

the most severe crashes—75 percent of 

these occur on roads with posted speeds of 

40 miles per hour (mph) or higher. The MPO is 

focusing on speed, aggressive driving, and 

safe lighting, in addition to initiating a 

Comprehensive Safety Audit for speed 

management purposes. This systemic focus 

on safety over speed can be adopted at 

local, regional, or State level. 

 Working Transparently to Build Public 

Engagement. The City of Fort Lauderdale 

shares this Vision Zero dashboard online map 

that uses police-compiled injuries from the 

City’s Police Department and Transportation 

and Mobility Team and shows a clear area 

for cooperation. 

Opportunities for Further Traffic Safety 

Coordination in Florida 

The Florida workshop highlighted the need for 

ongoing coordination between cities, MPOs, 

and FDOT District and State Offices. Local 

leaders noted that the majority of fatal and 

serious injury crashes occur on State-owned 

roads (for example, 80 percent of Orlando’s 

High Injury Network is on State-owned roads). 

One suggestion was for FDOT to put meaningful 

performance measures for safety into place at 

the district level. 

Florida is working to update its Strategic 

Highway Safety Plan (SHSP), which is an ideal 

time to focus on improving coordination efforts. 

Further work on speed management—

especially on State-owned roads—was also 

noted as fundamental to reducing the 

occurrence and severity of injury crashes. 

Recommendations included: 

 Incentivize Strong Coordination at Local and

State Levels. The City of Ft. Lauderdale 

representatives described successful 

coordination with the Broward MPO and 

FDOT District 4 to improve safety on the Old 

Dixie Highway. Initiatives include a lane diet, 

reduced speed limits to 25 mph, expanded 

landscaping, roundabouts, and crosswalks. 

City and State stakeholders suggested 

encouraging more of this close cooperation 

for safety efforts. 

 Encourage Systems-level Approaches to 

Change. FDOT District 7 uses a data-driven, 

systems approach to prioritize strategies for 

safety, including managing speed. The 

agency is working to take a more balanced 

approach, ensuring that auto travel speeds 

are not prioritized over safety. The established 

performance measures include safety, 

throughput, and travel-time reliability. This 

approach can be a model for others 

throughout the State and Nation.

 Further Develop Speed Management 

Guidance. There was support for the most 

recent iteration of the Florida Design Manual, 

as it breaks down the speed ranges 

recommended within each street context. 

Additionally, workshop participants saw value 

in FDOT and FHWA providing guidance that 

allows for speed studies on existing roads to 

permit speed limit modification if the road 

character changes and the design speed is 

no longer appropriate. This would allow 

efforts to redesign the street, set a new speed 

limit, and determine other countermeasures 

needed to achieve a safe speed.

Resources and information on zero deaths vision 

can be found at: 

https://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/zerodeaths/ or 

contact Chimai Ngo (chimai.ngo@dot.gov).