Challenge

Fremont, CA, is a commuter community located near Silicon Valley. The city is younger than other cities in the Bay Area, and as a result, its street network is more oriented toward car travel and supports higher travel speeds. To make the network safer for bicyclists and pedestrians, the City of Fremont needed to identify projects that create high quality facilities and thereby improve safety for all residents.

Solution

Kittelson assisted the City of Fremont in the development of a systemic safety analysis report (SSAR). We analyzed collision data to identify crash trends and causes of traffic fatalities and severe injuries. Based on this analysis, our team identified systemic countermeasures to reduce the number of traffic fatalities and injuries, if implemented systematically. We worked closely with the City to refine these findings and select priority locations with the greatest potential for reducing crash severity in the future. For these priority locations, we developed safety projects and supporting materials to help the City request highway safety improvement (HSIP) funds.

The SSAR provided an opportunity for us to work with the City to come with strategies to address project requirements for each location. For example, we gathered more specific data to address uncontrolled pedestrian crossing near transit stops. We also analyzed street lighting to understand if there was appropriate lighting for all road users throughout the city.