State and Local Efforts 

Toward Zero Deaths—The Colorado Experience

FHWA-SA-20-014

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. The growing number of 

communities, working to integrate a zero deaths 

vision and strategies into their traffic safety 

efforts, have created renewed opportunities for 

coordination and collaboration at the State and 

local level. 

To support effective safety partnerships that help 

work toward zero deaths, the Federal Highway 

Administration (FHWA) sponsored several Statebased workshops where stakeholders discussed 

their safety priorities and strategies to achieve 

their shared goal of zero traffic deaths. In 

addition, FHWA conducted follow-up webinars 

and are developing a resource to help other 

States and local communities coordinate their 

zero deaths efforts. 

Toward Zero Death Efforts in Colorado 

In December 2019, FHWA sponsored a workshop 

in Colorado where participating agencies 

shared information and identified opportunities 

to improve coordination and progress toward 

zero traffic deaths. A follow-up webinar was 

held in January 2020 with local, regional, State, 

and Federal partners. The 1-hour webinar is 

available for viewing online at 

https://tinyurl.com/srfncj2. 

During the workshop and webinar, Colorado 

participants shared a number of their initiatives 

and activities that exemplify the coordination 

and collaboration resulting from the common 

zero deaths goal. The following section highlights 

several of these noteworthy practices. 

Noteworthy Practices in Colorado 

 Recognize limitations to the 85th percentile 

speed. The Colorado Department of 

Transportation (CDOT) collaborates with local 

transportation and enforcement agencies 

when setting speed limits on State highways. 

CDOT recognizes the importance of 

understanding and aligning the corridor 

visions of partner agencies, especially 

because arterial roadways are generally 

overrepresented in crashes and local agency 

input is needed to reduce these crashes. The 

major benefit of establishing partnerships is 

that CDOT is able to understand the 

competing concerns of local agencies with 

statutory requirements and traffic safety. In 

addition to the 85th percentile speed, CDOT 

also references road geometry, crash history, 

adjacent development and environment 

and engineering judgment.

 Learn from speed evaluations. As part of its 

Vision Zero efforts, the City and County of 

Denver conducted a Citywide Speed Limit 

Evaluation study to collect and examine 

data on 37 corridors. The study included a 

comparison of speed limit changes based on 

the conventional (85th percentile) approach 

and the context-sensitive (50th percentile) 

approach. Denver used the study to inform 

infrastructure changes, such as upgrading 10 

traffic signals on South Federal Boulevard, a 

busy road on Denver’s High Injury Network

(HIN), including installing pedestrian 

countdown signals, leading pedestrian 

intervals, and modifying late-night signal 

timing. Post-improvement analysis in 2019 

showed an almost 17 percent reduction in 

crashes (from 923 down to 768) and a 100 

percent reduction in traffic fatalities (8 

fatalities in the before period). 
State and Local Efforts 

Towards Zero Deaths—The Colorado Experience

FHWA-SA-20-014

 Set goals and increase funding for safety 

improvements. CDOT has set a goal to 

reduce vehicle crashes by 2,500 by June 30, 

2020, and by 7,500 by June 30, 2022. To 

achieve this aggressive goal, CDOT 

increased funding delivered by the Strategic 

Safety Program. The Strategic Safety 

Program, which is a part of the Whole 

System Whole Safety initiative, is a set-aside 

specifically for safety improvements on 

roadway assets, including cable guardrails, 

6-inch reflective striping, and rumble strips. 

The program is funded by the HSIP penalty 

funds. 

 Collaborate on diverse transportation needs, 

not just on highways. CDOT’s Strategic 

Transportation Safety Plan (STSP) is an 

update of the 2014–2019 SHSP and is 

particularly noteworthy for its focus on 

collaborative input from other agencies and 

the public on the Plan. The STSP reflects work 

to center transportation for all modes on all 

roadways, not just moving vehicles on 

highways. The Plan emphasizes 

collaboration on Vision Zero, including in its 

vision and mission.

Other Efforts Supporting Zero Traffic 

Deaths in Colorado 

 The Denver Regional Council of 

Governments (DRCOG) and CDOT are 

aligning State, regional, and local Plans. 

DRCOG’s regional Vision Zero Plan is 

coordinated with CDOT’s STSP and local 

jurisdiction safety plans. The intent is to 

conduct regional HIN analysis and regional 

crash profiles and prioritize focus areas 

(including an interactive map) to identify 

priority countermeasures. 

 The City of Boulder has prioritized speed 

management in its Vision Zero efforts, setting 

the default speed limit at 25 MPH, providing 

pedestrian-crossing treatments, upgrading 

signals with protected left turns and leading 

pedestrian intervals, and adding green 

pavement marking in bicycle lanes. Boulder 

produces the Safe Streets Report to track 

progress toward Vision Zero and evaluate 

past safety improvement efforts. 

 The City of Fort Collins uses a data driven 

process to reduce number and severity of 

crashes. Good data and its evaluation 

resulted in a successful $4 million safety grant 

to address a US Highway 287 intersection, 

which was of significant concern. 

Opportunities for Further Traffic Safety 

Coordination in Colorado 

Opportunities exist for local agencies and CDOT 

to coordinate more fully on safety goals from the 

start of projects. The following section presents 

some of the coordination ideas shared in the 

workshop and webinar: 

 Institutional barriers to speed management 

were discussed and it is noted that traffic 

safety cameras are not yet allowed in 

Colorado. The City of Austin, Texas, approach 

to managing speed and developing street 

design guidelines is to achieve targeted, safe 

operating speeds, which can be a model for 

Colorado cities. 

 Many Colorado cities face the challenge 

that crashes typically occur at night and/or 

involve older drivers and impaired 

pedestrians. Local agencies can partner 

individually or across jurisdictional lines with 

CDOT to help improve street lighting on the 

HIN. The Governors Highway Safety 

Association (GHSA) Speeding Away from 

Zero report indicates a higher incidence of 

distraction and impairment, in addition to 

speeding and low lighting on roadways, as

possible causation factors in crashes involving 

pedestrians and bicyclists, specifically during 

evening or nighttime hours. 

Resources/Information on Vision Zero can be 

found at: 

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

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