Los Angeles Sets Vision Zero Target for 2025*

[Updated 08/27/2015: The headline was updated to reflect the correct target year for the Vision Zero policy.]

"Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti signed a directive [PDF] that commits city departments to Vision Zero. Specifically, the City of Los Angeles is committed to reducing traffic fatalities to zero by the year 2025," reports Joe Linton.

Although Vision Zero had found its way into other policy documents approved recently in Los Angeles, including Mobility 2035 and the Sustainability pLAn, the directive "broadens the city agencies responsible for implementing Vision Zero. In addition to LADOT and DCP, Garcetti explicitly names the Police, Fire, Public Works, and Water & Power departments to participate in an internal city of L.A. Vision Zero Steering Committee." Linton adds that "the city will host a broader Vision Zero Task Force, to include city representatives, plus L.A. Unified School District, L.A. County Department of Public Health, Metro, non-profit advocates, and others."

At least one prominent voice in the local media is skeptical that the Vision Zero goals can be achieved in Los Angeles. Writing for LA Observed, Kevin Roderick called the directive "one of good intentions with a grand, unachievable pronouncement attached."

In a press release announcing the executive directive, Mayor Garcetti included the following sound bite: "Through better planning, better design, and better enforcement, we can prevent thousands of traffic accidents and save hundreds of lives every year. We have the tools, the abilities, and the obligation to keep people safe and be a Vision Zero city."

In related pedestrian safety news from around Los Angeles, Armand Emandjomeh reports that "[o]ne of Los Angeles’ most iconic and hectic intersections -- Hollywood Boulevard and Highland Avenue -- is about to get a 'scramble' crosswalk that will stop traffic in all directions long enough to let pedestrians cross, even diagonally."

Damien Newtown also picked up on the news of the "Barnes Dance" coming to Hollywood, providing more details about how and why the pedestrian scramble is being implemented at that location. The city of Los Angeles already has a few diagonal crosswalks.