Palm Desert Vision Zero Strategy

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is an international initiative aiming to eliminate traffic-related fatalities and severe injuries while promoting safe and accessible transportation choices for everyone. With a growing presence in the United States, where the incidence of fatal and serious injury accidents has surged in recent times, Vision Zero is particularly focused on addressing the heightened risks faced by pedestrians and cyclists, who are increasingly involved in severe crashes and hit-and-run incidents. Vision Zero advocates strive to counter these concerning trends, acknowledging that every life affected by a preventable accident is a loss that should be avoided.

Vision Zero in Palm Desert

The City of Palm Desert won a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) planning grant to advance its vision of a safe and well-connected transportation system that prioritizes safety, health, and access for the community’s most vulnerable road users, including school-aged children and seniors. To achieve these goals, Palm Desert’s Vision Zero Strategy seeks to identify barriers to safe walking and bicycling on routes frequented by Palm Desert’s K-12 public school students and senior residents and to develop solutions in consultation with the community, public sector partners, and city leadership. Selected strategies will be submitted for competitive grant opportunities beginning in 2025 to secure substantial funding to implement transformative infrastructure projects.

Palm Desert’s Vision Zero Strategy will also include a public engagement and activation campaign to generate awareness, promote safe travel behaviors, and encourage the use of existing safe walking and bicycling infrastructure. Example campaign media include billboards, public murals, targeted social media campaigns, and local radio station announcements. Vision Zero Strategy project team members will also engage the community directly at popular events like the Palm Desert Certified Farmers’ Market and community venues like the Joslyn Center to solicit input and feedback.

Community Input Opportunities

The City of Palm Desert seeks community member input to identify issues and develop solutions that advance safe walking and bicycling for Palm Desert’s most vulnerable road users. Click "Register" at the top of this page to receive automated project updates.

Virtual Workshops
The City hosted two virtual workshops in December 2024, where attendees learned more about the proposed recommendations. You can recordings of both workshops using the links below:

• Safe Routes for Older Adults - December 16, 2024
• Safe Routes to School - December 17, 2024

Draft Infrastructure Recommendations
The City of Palm Desert is excited to announce that the draft Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes for Older Adults infrastructure recommendations are available for public review! You can view and provide feedback on the draft recommendations until Monday, January 6th.

Please click the links below to view the concept plans, which illustrate recommendations aimed at improving walking and bicycling near public schools attended by Palm Desert K-12 students and in three key older adult priority areas in Palm Desert. These recommendations were developed with input from community members, guided by in-person walk audits, and in collaboration with staff from the City of Palm Desert, the City of La Quinta, the Desert Sands Unified School District, and the Coachella Valley Association of Governments.

• Safe Routes to School Draft Infrastructure Recommendations
  
  
• Safe Routes for Older Adults Draft Infrastructure Recommendations

Project Status and Timeline

In January 2024, the City of Palm Desert selected a consultant team led by Alta Planning + Design to deliver its Vision Zero Strategy. The project is scheduled to extend through August 2025, culminating in a series of plans and strategy documents to guide future investments and programmatic activities related to improving safe, active travel for school-aged children, older adults, and the community at large.

The following project activities are currently underway:

• Solicitation of public feedback on Safe Routes to School and Safe Routes for Older Adults recommendations via the project website (https://www.engagepalmdesert.com/vision-zero).
• Finalization and prioritization of recommendations.
• Development of a Draft Safe Routes to School Plan and a Draft Safe Routes for Older Adults Plan.
• Development of a Systemic Safety Analysis and Safety Data Dashboard.

Please note that once available, the final project documents, including the Safe Routes to School Plan, Safe Routes for Seniors Plan, and Vision Zero Implementation Strategy, will be posted to this webpage. Additional details on how to access the Safety Data Dashboard will be shared once available.

Measuring Progress Towards Vision Zero

At the conclusion of the project, the City of Palm Desert will publish and maintain an interactive Safety Data Dashboard for public use. The Dashboard will contain key project findings and narratives that illustrate the current state of safety in the region, identify performance measures to track progress and share solutions that can be implemented to move Palm Desert closer to its traffic safety goals.