Vision Zero

About El Paso Vision Zero

Vision Zero is El Paso’s goal to eliminate roadway injuries and fatalities. Together, we can protect everyone, from our pedestrians to our passengers! The launch of Vision Zero in El Paso, with the development of the Vision Zero Action Plan, signifies the city’s commitment to urgently address the crisis of traffic crashes.

El Paso is a safe place to live, but too many of our residents, visitors, and workers are injured or killed while walking, driving, rolling (using a wheelchair or other mobility device), biking, or using public transportation. Between 2016 and 2020, 124 pedestrians were killed in El Paso, which ranks the city as the 18th worst metro area for pedestrian fatalities in the United States.

Our Vision Zero Action Plan is a roadmap to change course in El Paso. This plan outlines critical steps and strategies needed to keep our roads safe. This will not be easy. It will take bold leadership, investment in our transportation system, and a new way of thinking about roadway design to enact lasting change. This Action Plan is a necessary undertaking to achieve a future where children can safely walk to school, community members feel comfortable riding their bikes to the park, and more.

Our message is clear: any loss of life, due to traffic, is unacceptable. El Paso’s renewed focus on safety is paired with an unprecedented federal investment in safety. The Action Plan allowed El Paso to receive the federal Safe Streets and Roads for All Grant , along with access to countless other federal and state grant opportunities.

You can also view our progress and interact with our dashboard by clicking on the button below.

View Our Progress See Dashboard

A Closer Look at Vision Zero

Vision Zero refers to the idea that we can create safe streets and roads in our city, eliminating traffic injuries and deaths. Over time, the rate of traffic fatalities has grown in the United States. Now, over 40,000 people are killed in traffic crashes every year. For too long we’ve accepted crashes as inevitable—often referring to them as accidents. But together, we have the power to prevent crashes before they occur.

Vision Zero is a new way of approaching safety. Vision Zero operates on the acknowledgment of the many factors that contribute to safe mobility and uses a safe systems approach to address traffic deaths as a public health crisis. Though we all have the responsibility to follow the rules of the road and drive, walk, and bike carefully, mistakes happen. Our transportation network should be designed so that when mistakes do occur, everyone can walk away safely. The safe systems approach involves breaking down silos and barriers among stakeholders and professionals and ensures decisions and data are transparent to the public.

Vision Zero believes everyone has the right to safe travel and prioritizes people with less choice about their transportation options, based both on ability and access to opportunities.

Vision Zero was pioneered in Sweden in the 1990s, and has since been adopted by dozens of cities and regions around the world. Vision Zero advocates have worked tirelessly over these decades to celebrate the successes and learn from the failures. Now it’s El Paso’s time to join the network of peer cities, including many across Texas, connected by a common goal.