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In Colorado, Fort Collins used a community approach to address traffic safety issues in neighborhoods.
Hundreds of cities throughout the U.S. are a nightmare to navigate. From pedestrians at risk of being struck by a vehicle to car accidents to not-so-bicycle friendly travel, several cities have a lot to learn and fix before they can be deemed a safe city to travel.
Then there are gems like Fort Collins, a mid-size college city with a population of around 150,000 in picturesque Colorado. A city that has been chosen several times as the “Best Place to Live” has also been given accolades as “America’s Safest Driving City” not just once, but four times in a ten year period. What is Fort Collins doing right that other cities of the same size and popularity are doing wrong?
See a Problem, Make a Change
Although Fort Collins has made the top of Allstate’s annual safe driving list for four years since 2004, it wasn’t always the safest city to drive. This Northern Colorado hot spot along the Front Range has seen a huge population boost since the early 1990s, and with rapid population growth comes traffic issues such as speeding in residential neighborhoods. The people of Fort Collins saw a problem and moved to keep their growing city’s pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers safe.
In 1996, with the guidance of then-Mayor Ann Azari, the Neighborhood Traffic Safety Program (NTSP) was created and immediately tried to improve the traffic safety throughout Fort Collins. After assessing what worked and didn’t work in other cities, NTSP created a plan of action. In an effort to cut down on speeding the residents of Fort Collins:
- Involved the Community: The NTSP was comprised of representatives from various Fort Collins municipal departments, including fire, transportation, police, neighborhood resources, community planning and environmental services. The group also reached out to residents in the most problematic neighborhoods and asked for feedback and involvement.
- Educated: Just like the public service announcements we see concerning traffic today, NTSP believed that educating the public was powerful way to get drivers to slow down. According to a report from the mayor’s office, a substantial portion of the budget was dedicated to traffic safety education from radio ads to billboards and materials distributed at schools.
- Enforced & Engineered: In an effort to slow down traffic throughout neighborhoods specifically, camera radar, speed humps and raised crosswalks were used. While all were and are effective, they may only be temporary or inconsistent without an increase of law enforcement patrolling problematic areas.
Fort Collins Today
Although the city has improved on speeding issues, even the “Safest City to Drive” has some work to do. Since Fort Collins has asked their residents for feedback and involvement, the residents will tell them what they want. From bicyclists wanting safer intersections to residents still witnessing speeding in their neighborhoods, there are always questions to answer and concerns to address. The Fort Collins transportation department is busy, but busy is good as it indicates an awareness and concern for traffic safety.
(Photo by Marek Uliasz / Shutterstock.com)
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