Transportation Safety in Boise, Idaho: Reaching Vision Zero

This dashboard contains facts and figures about roadway crashes in Idaho during the years 2005-2020. By navigating the tabs in the dashboard you can examine different factors associated with crashes including type of vehicle, severity of crash, and contributing circumstances. Below the dashboard is an infographic summarizing the findings.

Dashboard

Infographic

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Click here to download a pdf infographic of the information below

Transportation System Safety is a Public Health Issue

Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries, while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. Its proactive, preventative approach prioritizes traffic safety as a public health issue in order to prevent traffic injuries and fatalities. However, crashes are often perceived as isolated incidents caused by human errors, rather than being viewed collectively. Examining the dynamics related to crash fatalities and severe injuries through a systems approach can enable identification of overarching safety issues and lead City of Boise to address systemic faults that result in negative outcomes.

examining fatal and incapacitating crashes — There were 125 fatal crashes. There were 1,914 incapacitating crashes. 27% of crashes involved young adults aged 18-28 years old. 43% of crashes occurred on principal arterial roads. 52% of crashes took place in intersections. The times when most crashes occur are 7-8 am and 3-5 pm.

2005-2020 By the Numbers

by the numbers chart comparison — **Incapacitating Crashes**: 39% Cars, 23% Pickup/Vans/SUV, 15% Motorcycles, 13% Bicyclists, 10% Pedestrians, <1% Tractor Trailers. **Fatal Crashes**: 31% Motorcycles, 26% Pedestrians, 23% Cars, 11% Pickup/Vans/SUV, 7% Bicyclists, 2% Tractor Trailers

Contributing Circumstances

statistics on the circumstances surrounding motor vehicle, bicyclist, and pedestrian crashes — **Motor Vehicle Crashes**: 50% occurred in intersections, 62% involved vehicles going straight, 16% were due to inattention. **Bicyclist Crashes**: 65% occurred in intersections, 31% involved bicyclists traveling with traffic, 40% involved bicyclists not wearing helmets. **Pedestrian Crashes**: 58% occurred in intersections, 38% involved pedestrians walking in crosswalks, 49% were traffic signal related.

Moving Toward Safety

When compared to the traditional approach to road safety, Vision Zero takes a proactive, Safe Systems approach to addresses systemic faults in a community’s transportation system.

contrasts the Traditional Approach to traffic safety with the Vision Zero approach — **Traditional Approach**: Traffic deaths are inevitable. Perfect human behavior. Prevent collisions. Individual responsibility. Saving lives is expensive. **Vision Zero**: Traffic deaths are preventable. Integrating human failure in approach. Prevent fatal and severe crashes. Systems approach. Saving lives saves resources.

Conclusion

Intersections are the main issue area for all fatal and severe crashes. Pedestrians are most vulnerable when crossing in a crosswalk at a traffic signal while bicyclists traveling with traffic and crossing at intersections are most vulnerable. Motorists experiencing fatal or severe crashes are generally traveling straight with inattention, alcohol impairment, and failure to yield being the greatest contributing crash factors. By examining these and other underlying issues associated with fatal and severe injury crashes, City of Boise can identify and address systemic transportation system faults and work to reduce and eliminate future crashes.

Idaho Policy Institute
Aisha Kayed, Research Assistant
Lantz McGinnis-Brown, Research Associate
Vanessa Crossgrove Fry, PhD, Interim Director

2005-2020 data was utilized for this report. All underlying data and citations are available at
boisestate.edu/sps-ipi/