City of Fresno
Vision Zero Action Plan
City Council Workshop Presentation
April 23, 2026
1 Project Background
& Purpose
2 The Time is Now:
A Traffic Safety Crisis in Fresno
36%
16%
9%
US DOT Safe Streets for All (SS4A)
awarded the city with $400,000 to
develop and adopt a Vision Zero
Action Plan, in 2023.
- Smart America Growth,
Dangerous by Design, 2024
“California and the nation continue to face a crisis on our roadways.
With projections that estimate over 4,400 lives were lost in motor vehicle crashes in California in 2022, the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) is responding to this crisis with urgency and calling upon all state and local partners to join us in this critical work to save lives.” - California Office of Traffic Safety, Triennial
Highway Safety Plan, 2024-2026
“We need an all-of-America response to address this
crisis.”
- U.S. DOT, Progress Report on the National
Roadway Safety Strategy, February 2023
“motor vehicle crashes the second leading cause of death from unintentional injuries in the United State.”
- United States Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion
3 A Strong Foundation for Safe Streets
4 Project Goals &
Process
5 The City of Fresno is committed to reaching zero deaths and eliminating severe injuries on roadways by 2050 in line with the State of California Goal, acknowledging that loss of life is preventable and not inevitable.
Proposed Goal: Zero Fatalities and Serious Injuries by 2050 6 Achieving Zero Requires a New Approach
A strategy focused on eliminating traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.
Traditional Approach
Traffic Deaths are Inevitable
Perfect Human Behavior
Prevent Collisions
Individual Responsibility
Saving Lives is Expensive
Vision Zero Approach
Traffic Deaths are Preventable
Integrate Human Failing in Approach
Prevent Fatal and Severe Crashes
Systems Approach
Saving Lives is Not Expensive
VS
7 What Does this Plan Do?
The Fresno Vision Zero Action Plan Outlines strategies and recommendations to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while promoting safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all road users.
8 Comprehensive
Citywide
Engagement
9 Comprehensive Citywide Engagement
10 Comprehensive Citywide Engagement
11 Comprehensive Citywide Engagement
23+ Community Based Organizations involved in the plan development 12 13
14 5-Year Collision
Analyis & High Injury
Network
15 Underlying Conditions in Fresno
Car-Dependent
Land Use Patterns
Auto-Oriented
Street Network
Roads that
Accommodate
Higher Speeds
A Diverse Population
with Diverse Mobility
Needs
Compounding Mobility,
Environmental, and
Geographic Barriers
Equity
Challenges
16 Crash Analysis
• Analyzed 5-years of crash data
(January 1 , 2019 to December
31, 2023)
• Focus on fatal and severe
injury crashes (FSI)
• 217 fatal crashes
• 629 severe injury crashes
• 1,695 minor injury
• 3,116 possible injury
• FSI involving pedestrians: 293
• FSI involving bicyclist: 78
17 High Injury Network
81% of all injury crashes and
89% of fatal and severe injury
crashes occur on the High Injury
Network.
18 Safety interventions at
intersections are a top priority
Vulnerable road users (people
walking, bicycling, and riding
motorcycles) are over-represented in
fatal and severe crashes, with 61%.
Top Crash Trends What They Mean
It is critical to protect people walking,
bicycling, and riding motorcycles
86% of all crashes in
Fresno occurred within 250
feet of an intersection.
It is essential to address high-risk road
user behaviors through a combination of
policy change, infrastructure investment,
enforcement, and education programs
to encourage behavior change
Over 50% of high-severity
crashes are associated with
risky, reckless, or unlawful
behaviors (DUIs, Speeding,
Crossing outside a crosswalk)
19 Ready to Act:
Vision Zero
Recommendations
20 Safe System Approach
1. Priority Policies and Programs
2. Systemic Safety Treatments
3. Priority Location Projects
21 Priority Policies and Programs
• Roll out Applied and Experiential Education for all road users • Coordinate with Police Department on High-Risk Behavior Driving Enforcement and Training
Safe Road Users
Priority actions are those that the City of Fresno and its partners will focus on implementing in the next 5 years. • Invest in Municipal Fleet Safety such as emergency vehicle preemption (EVP)
Safe Vehicles
• Set Safe and Context-Appropriate Speed Limits
Safe Speeds
• Pilot Red Light Cameras; explore implementation of SB 720, which allows automated enforcement of red-light violations
Safe Roads
• Coordinate with Emergency Response to Implement technology upgrades Post Crash Care
22 Priority Policies and Programs
• Work with Fresno Police Department to ensure crash database consistency and coordination
Safety Data
Priority actions are those that the City of Fresno and its partners will focus on implementing in the next 5 years.
Planning and Coordination
• Establish a permanent cross-sector and inter-departmental Vision Zero Task Force • Ensure cross-project and inter-agency coordination
23 Systemic Safety Treatments
Incorporate treatments into new developing areas
Incorporate Treatments into projects wherever
feasible
Pursue grant funding for safety projects
24 Travel Lanes
Countermeasures that focus on design and
operational improvements to lane configurations to
enhance safety and mobility.
Speed Management
Countermeasures that focus on reducing motorists’
speeds, recognizing the strong relationship between
speed and crash severity.
Systemic Safety Treatments
25 Intersections and
Crossings
Countermeasures that address design and
operational improvements at intersections and
pedestrian crossing locations.
Signs, Signals, and
Markings
Countermeasures that relate to regulatory, warning, and traffic control devices guiding street user behavior.
Systemic Safety Treatments
Reduce Corner Radius
26 Location-Specific Examples of Systemic Challenges
Priority Streets & Intersections
Step 1
Step 2
Analyze collisions to identify 10 highest-
collision corridors and 10 highest collision
intersections
Analyze demographic, land use, vulnerable road
user, equity, and community input data to identify
Top 5 corridor and Top 5 intersection priority
locations:
• Proximity to bus routes and stops
• Proximity to community centers
• Proximity to parks
• Proximity to schools
• Community engagement comments and responses
• Caltrans Transportation-Based Priority Populations
• High concentration of VRU injuries and fatalities
27 Street Name From To
Blackstone Avenue Nees Avenue Herndon Avenue
Blackstone Avenue Ashlan Avenue Shields Avenue
Belmont Avenue Palm Avenue Cedar Avenue
Fresno Street César Chávez
Boulevard
Divisadero
Street
Shields Avenue West Avenue First Avenue
Cross Street A Cross Street B
Blackstone Avenue Herndon Avenue
Blackstone Avenue Dakota Avenue
Shields Avenue First Avenue
Clinton Avenue Fresno Street
César Chávez Boulevard Chestnut Avenue
Top 5 Priority Segments
Top 5 Priority Intersections
Location-Specific Examples of Systemic Challenges
Priority Streets & Intersections
28 29
Midtown Trail
30 Tracking Progress
31 Vision Zero Data Dashboard
32 Thank you!
Q & A
33