May 24—The Mesa Streets and Transportation Department launched a community survey to gauge people’s concerns about traffic and highway safety issues, including an interactive map for respondents to identify a specific issue.
Sabine King, supervising engineer at Streets & Transportation, said the survey — part of the city’s overall safety action plan — aims to identify key issues community members face on the road .
“We’re doing public outreach to get input from Mesa residents, to see where the most concerns are, so we can really focus our efforts on those areas and get the best results,” King said.
Based on the feedback, the department will then develop data-driven solutions to educate community members about road safety while strategically addressing traffic and road safety issues.
“We will come up with projects or strategies that we can use here in the city to reduce accidents,” King said.
King said his department analyzes crashes across the city, but also needs input from people who live, work or travel in Mesa.
“We are combining these two data sets to develop a strategy to keep Mesa safe,” King said.
The department said an average of four people are killed or seriously injured each week on Mesa roads.
It determined that between 2017 and 2022, more than half of injury crashes occurred at intersections and that 21% of fatal or serious crashes in Mesa involved driving behaviors such as speed and the influence of alcohol or drugs. King said there was also an increase in serious accidents involving pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists.
She said: “40% of these fatal or serious injury crashes involve cyclists, pedestrians and motorbikes, and this figure has really increased over the last three years. »
Mesa’s main goal is to reduce fatal and serious accidents by 30% by 2030.
The department said the study will strengthen Mesa’s efforts to reduce crashes through safety planning and education, redesigned streets and updates to policies and operations.
King said the ministry was looking at solutions such as “engineering, improving our roads for an infrastructure project, working with police to enforce the law or perhaps changing our current laws to address some of the issues we’re seeing.”
The survey asks respondents to rank the road areas and driving behaviors that concern them most when it comes to safety. Some road areas listed are bike lanes, crosswalks, intersections, turn lanes, main roads and much more.
The survey also asks respondents to rank several proposed solutions to improve road safety for pedestrians, cyclists, transit users and drivers in Mesa.
The online community survey includes an interactive map where respondents can use a marker tool to identify a specific area with a text box.
The map also includes different modes of transportation like walking, driving, and cycling, as well as specific road safety categories like intersections, public transportation, and lighting.
Since the launch of the online survey, respondents have identified a number of areas where they have seen security issues. An anonymous respondent marked the intersection of University Drive and Country Club Drive with the caption “Bike lanes too narrow at intersection.”
The department also invests in driver education solutions. King said he proposes a community pledge system, in which people can pledge to follow safe driving practices. It also offers various cycling and pedestrian education courses.
“We realize that none of this can be solved by engineering or by police enforcement,” King said. “We really need the community to change its culture to help us improve safety. Everyone will have to participate.”
Mesa hosts the traffic safety survey and plan on its project webpage and communicates the survey through press releases, public safety and city management newsletters, and Valley Metro and social media networks.
The road safety survey is open until May 31.
The department is offering a $100 gift card drawing for survey participants and their comments.
“We just wanted to bring attention to this effort and really rally people around the idea that we’re trying to solve this problem in Mesa and we really want to collaborate with them,” city spokeswoman Cassie said. Robles.
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