The Jacksonville Transportation Authority (JTA) has partnered with Haskell to support a comprehensive roadway safety project that aims to eliminate traffic-related deaths and serious injuries, requiring both data-driven transportation planning and extensive community engagement.
Roadway safety is a pressing public health issue in Northeast Florida, where traffic crashes are the leading cause of death and injury. Jacksonville stands out as a particularly dangerous city, ranking as the 15th-worst metropolitan area in the United States for pedestrian fatalities. Additionally, recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for 2022 identifies Jacksonville as the third deadliest city for bicyclists, with a rate of 1.09 deaths per 100,000 individuals.
As Jacksonville’s mass public transportation provider and builder of roadway infrastructure, JTA taking the lead in making roads safer for everyone who uses them, including drivers, transit riders, pedestrians, and cyclists. JTA is partnering with the City of Jacksonville to create a unified task force for this holistic initiative, known as the Creating Safe Spaces and Vision Zero Action Plans, and has set the ambitious goal of achieving zero traffic fatalities.
To succeed, JTA needed a partner with experience leading complex projects and managing a diverse array of community stakeholders that includes local governments, road designers, law enforcement and the community. It selected Haskell’s Planning + Design Collaborative (P+DC) based on its deep expertise in transit planning, complete streets, project prioritization, active transportation planning and public engagement.
“This project really hits home for Haskell, as we’re based in Jacksonville and are a part of the community that uses these roads every day,” P+DC Director Fred Jones said. “The Jacksonville Transportation Authority has created a unique and effective vision that will literally save lives, and it’s been a privilege to work beside them and support this incredibly important mission.”
Using rigorous data analysis, JTA identified safety hot spots, trends and other factors contributing to traffic crashes. JTA leveraged this data to create a plan guided by the U.S. Department of Transportation Safe System’s Approach, a paradigm to design road systems that account for and mitigate human errors to avoid fatal consequences.
Using its planning expertise, Haskell’s P+DC team has helped JTA harness that data into actionable strategies and ensured all aspects of the plan are meticulously coordinated and executed.
However, the project has required more than just engineering solutions. JTA also recognized the importance of stakeholder buy-in and community input to the plan. Haskell has helped drive collaboration with a diverse array of local and regional stakeholders to gather crucial input, secure buy-in and build awareness about roadway safety.
Haskell recognized it needed an innovative approach to communicate with each stakeholder effectively and developed a plan that used a variety of engagement tools, including working with local experts, an online survey, video storytelling and participation in numerous meetings and events.
“This is a complex project that involves a number of partners throughout the region with a diverse range of perspectives and needs,” Jones said. “Through our thoughtful outreach and engagement strategy, Haskell and JTA were able to ensure each stakeholder became a champion of the project, educated the public about the project and roadway safety and gained valuable feedback that has improved the project.”
The project began in 2023 under JTA’s five-year strategic plan, and Haskell will continue to support JTA to ensure all of the infrastructure projects under the plan are completed in a timely, user-friendly and cost-effective manner.
