Leavenworth County is furthering its commitment to ending traffic deaths and serious injuries on our streets through a new safety initiative called Vision Zero.
Vision Zero is a proven, successful method of making our streets safer with the goal of eliminating all fatal and serious injury traffic crashes. Endorsed by the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT), funding has been allocated to more than 1,000 communities across all 50 states to develop Vision Zero programs.
Vision Zero is based on the Safe System Approach, which follows several guiding principles to provide a holistic safety approach for all forms of transportation. Vision Zero incorporates proactive, preventative improvements to roadway design and focuses on enhancing safety for all road users.
Vision Zero helps us identify problems and set a path towards reducing the loss of precious lives and the associated costs to our community.
What is Leavenworth County Doing?
To accomplish the goal of Vision Zero, the County's Public Works Department is spearheading efforts to develop the Leavenworth County Vision Zero Action Plan. This initiative is funded through the USDOT’s Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant program. Informed by community and stakeholder input, this plan will comprehensively lay out a framework of actionable, measurable, and innovative strategies that emphasize design and policy solutions, which will enhance safety for all roadway users. In addition, the plan will build from the efforts of the Leavenworth County Local Road Safety Plan, developed in 2021 in collaboration with the Kansas Department of Transportation, that identified roadway safety improvements on County roads.
A guiding principle of the Vision Zero Action Plan is gathering and analyzing community feedback and incorporating public input into the plan. We want to hear your ideas for how to make Leavenworth County streets safer for all road users. Give your direct feedback by answering our Quick Polls and drop pins on the engagement map below to weigh in on dangerous locations or issues you’re seeing.
We want to hear your ideas for how to make Leavenworth Country streets safer for all road users.
Did you know?
Vision Zero is a global movement to end traffic deaths and includes a shared responsibility for traffic safety among all transportation system users, designers, and operators. Vision Zero acknowledges that human mistakes are inevitable, and transportation systems can be designed and operated to accommodate certain types and levels of human mistakes to avoid death and serious injuries when a crash occurs.
A Vision Zero Action Plan outlines the most important contributing factors in fatal and serious injury traffic crashes using data analysis and public input. To address these contributing factors, the plan will lay out actionable, innovative, and measurable strategies that emphasize design and policy solutions, as well as designing complete streets and lowering speeds for safety to keep all roadway users safe.
The Vision Zero Action Plan will be used to identify strategies, policies, countermeasures, and processes that will, over time, eliminate deaths and serious injuries on our roads. These polices and processes may relate to street design guidelines, funding allocations, education, and emergency responders. The plan will also be used to identify a set of Vision Zero street reconstruction projects and potential system-wide safety programs. This plan is focused on streets in the County of Leavenworth — it should be noted that I-70 and streets within the cities of Basehor, Lansing, Leavenworth, and Tonganoxie are not part of the Action Plan.
The County of Leavenworth is pursuing a Vision Zero Action Plan to reduce the number of fatalities and severe injuries to zero across the transportation system. This is part of a grant-funded initiative, and once completed, the plan could help the County become more competitive when applying for federal and state grant dollars for implementation actions that support safety for vehicles, pedestrians and bicycles.
This Vision Zero Action Plan covers all road users, including people driving and riding in vehicles, people walking, people biking, and any other person using the street. The Vision Zero Action Plan is not a bicycle and pedestrian plan.
Fact Sheet
Download for a quick reference guide on project info, FAQs, and opportunities to provide input.
