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11 <br />EUGENE VISION ZERO <br />The designated speed of our streets also needs to be addressed. Crash data state that 12 <br />percent of fatal and serious injury crashes are related to speeding. Yet legal speeds often <br />result in situations where lives are lost or permanently altered when a crash occurs, and <br />those instances are not flagged as crashes where speed was a factor. People walking, <br />biking and driving are more likely to be killed or experience life-changing injuries on 35 <br />mph streets than any other speed in Eugene.1 <br />Surprisingly, however, it is not just our higher-speed streets that are problematic: nearly 1 <br />in 3 of the fatal and serious injury crashes in Eugene occur on streets signed at 25 and 30 <br />mph.2 These data indicate the need for a fundamental rethinking of speed and strategies to <br />maintain people’s ability to move around Eugene. <br />The data also indicate that darkness is overrepresented as a contributing factor to crashes. <br />This is particularly true for people walking, who are about twice as likely to be involved in a <br />crash during darkness as other travelers. People walking are also more likely to be killed or <br />experience life-changing injuries in these crashes: approximately 40 percent of fatal and life- <br />changing crashes involving a person walking occurs in darkness, as compared to less than <br />25 percent for all other travelers. Travel patterns of people walking suggest that this risk is <br />likely even greater than the statistics show. <br />A key part of improving safety is to address our high crash intersections, and to identify <br />common features between those intersections that we can proactively address at other <br />locations throughout the network. For example, we know that left turns are overrepresented <br />among fatal and serious injury crashes in Eugene. Thus, changes to the way our intersections <br />are designed for turning vehicles may be a critical way of addressing traffic danger in <br />Eugene. <br />1 Approximately 36 percent of fatal and life-changing crashes across all modes occurred on streets posted at 35 mph. <br />2 This figure includes crashes for all modes occurring on streets or at the intersection of two streets posted at 25 or <br />30 mph. <br />60 <br />40 <br />20 <br />0 <br />80 <br />100 <br />12020 <br />MPH <br />10%Likelihood of fatality <br />or severe injury <br />60 <br />40 <br />20 <br />0 <br />80 <br />100 <br />12030 <br />MPH <br />40%Likelihood of fatality <br />or severe injury <br />60 <br />40 <br />20 <br />0 <br />80 <br />100 <br />12040 <br />MPH <br />70%Likelihood of fatality <br />or severe injury <br />Source: Tefft, Brian C. Impact speed and a pedestrian’s risk of severe injury or death. Accident Analysis & Prevention. 50. 2013 <br />Likelihood of Death & Severe Injury Due to Speed <br />April 10, 2019, Work Session – Item 1