BOCA RATON, Fla. — The city of Boca Raton is getting ready to level up safety between drivers and pedestrians, and they want to hear from you.
"We're really here to listen, to work together and we want to improve safety, it's a team effort," Nathan George, the transportation mobility and connectivity director for the city of Boca Raton, said.
It's called the Vision Zero project, which has a goal to end fatalities and severe injuries within the city. A citizen input meeting was held Thursday.
"People will see changes to a traffic signal, they might see a sidewalk completed or it could be something big like taking away a travel lane and turning it into a bike lane," George said. "It's going to be a transformational improvement for the city."
City of Boca Raton staff said over the past six years they've averaged 2,600 crashes annually. That's seven crashes per day with an average of four serious injuries and fatal crashes per month.
"Running around have you had any close calls with cars?" asked WPTV reporter Joel Lopez to Arthur Goldsmith who was out for a run down Palmetto Boulevard.
"Yes, the signs down there where you gotta cross, you gotta make sure cars see you or you're going to get hit," Goldsmith said.
It's a similar story for cyclist Alain Brodeur, who planned to attend the meeting.
"We're such a walkable city, and a bikeable city, that everyone should just pay attention more," Brodeur said. "You have to wave them down every now and then to make sure they stop."
Vizion Zero has been two years in the making for the city of Boca Raton.
In October 2022, Boca Raton City Council unanimously voted to approve designating the city as a "Vision Zero City."
In February 2023, the city was awarded a grant of $300,000 in federal funding from the U.S. Department of Transportation to support the city's Vision Zero Action Plan using the Safe System Approach.
In May 2024, the city received an additional $4 million grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation through the 2024 Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) Program to support the design, development and implementation of the Vision Zero Action Plan.
Boca Raton is among 99 cities across 34 states to receive the funding.
"If you had to rate Boca Raton on safety from 1-10 how would you rate it right now?" Lopez asked Boca Raton Deputy Mayor Yvette Drucker.
"I think right now we're probably somewhere between 5-7," Drucker said. "I would say we're doing a lot of measures to get to No. 10."
She said aside from Vision Zero, the city has been conducting street improvements, adding delineated bike lanes, crosswalks, and more.
"That's my No. 1 priority as a leader of the city is public safety," Drucker said, "whether it's for pedestrians, our bicyclists, and even individuals in the cars they also need to be safe."
City staff hopes to roll out the Vision Zero Action Plan by May 2025.
