There’s a new way to report problem roads and sidewalks around Hillsborough County.
Vision Zero, an initiative backed by Plan Hillsborough, launched an online map where you can mark problem areas you think need improving.
The committee has already narrowed down some of the most dangerous roadways for accidents, down to just four where they say nearly half of pedestrian deaths occur.
They include Hillsborough, Busch, Fletcher and Fowler.
“We have the crash data from those high crash corridors, we know where those are” said Gena Torres, project manager for Vision Zero, “but a lot of these little things that make it really uncomfortable and unsafe, we don’t necessarily know. We want to get feedback from people to tell us where those are.”
The committee will gather input from the map and notify city and county agencies about the concerns.
“Let’s say the county is going to resurface that road,” she said, “well maybe now because it's been brought to their attention that they would look to doing resurfacing or maybe they can narrow the lanes or do something else to make it slower.”
They’ll also use the data for future pop-up paint and improvement sites, where they’ll head to smaller problem areas and with the help of the community, use art work to get people to go there and really focus on the road and what it’s like to be a pedestrian there.
Vision Zero was launched in Sweden and is being implemented in cities like New York, Portland and Fort Lauderdale.
“I think it’ll make a huge difference,” said Torres, “it has in other places.”
Torres expects to see results in the next two to five years, with the ultimate goal to reduce pedestrian deaths to zero.
“We have a challenge for sure,” she said.
Anyone can leave their input through the interactive map on the Vision Zero website.
They plan to meet at the end of January to discuss the input they’ve gotten and start to narrow potential pop-up spots.
