Vision Zero in Mercer County

What is Vision Zero?

Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries on our roadways, while increasing safe, healthy, and equitable mobility for all.

• Traffic deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable;
• Traffic crashes are preventable;
• Vision Zero seeks to make traffic crashes less frequent and less severe;
  • No one should be killed or seriously injured on our roads.

Vision Zero applies the Safe System Approach to build a transportation system that makes the safety of every person the first priority.

Link to FHWA Website - Zero Deaths and Safe System | FHWA

The Safe System Approach is guided by six fundamental principles:

• Deaths and serious injuries on our roads are unacceptable;
• People will inevitably make mistakes while on the road;
• Humans are vulnerable, especially when walking and cycling;
• Responsibility for roadway safety is shared among all road users, engineers, policymakers, law enforcement, and medical services;
• Safety must proactively prevent tragedies, not just respond to them;
• A truly safe system uses redundant elements to reinforce safety.

Vision Zero applies these principles to roadway safety through five components:

• Safer People
  • Individual safety habits like seatbelts, bike helmets, and avoiding distractions;
• Safer Vehicles
  • Vehicles that protect both the people inside, and pedestrians/cyclists outside;
• Safer Speeds
  • Speed is the number one factor in traffic deaths and serious injuries;
• Safer Roads
  • Reduce speeding and shield pedestrians/cyclists through road design;
• Post-Crash Care
  • Fast and effective medical and police response.

Why is Vision Zero important?

Traffic deaths and serious injuries are a public health crisis that causes great harm to our society, and yet this suffering is entirely preventable.

• 40 thousand people are killed every year in traffic crashes in the U.S.
  • Enough to fill two NBA basketball arenas.
• Pedestrians and cyclists are especially vulnerable
  • Over 36% of traffic deaths are people outside of vehicles in Mercer County.

• In 2020, someone was killed or seriously injured in a crash on average every 4.5 hours in the Greater Philadelphia region – (Source- Regional Vision Zero | DVRPC);
• Fatal and serious-injury crashes cause many burdens:
  • Personal trauma to the victims and their families;
  • Increased costs for taxpayers through emergency services, medical care, and court proceedings;
• Safe roads give everyone more options to travel by different modes;
  • Reduces congestion
  • Improves health
  • Benefits the environment.

Mercer County’s Vision Zero Action Plan

Mercer County is actively developing a Vision Zero Action Plan to eliminate traffic deaths and serious injuries along the County road system and support safety improvements across all jurisdictions.

This effort is being led by Mercer County in partnership with the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association (GMTMA) and in coordination with municipalities, NJDOT, DVRPC, and other transportation safety stakeholders.

Over the past year, the County and the GMTMA convened a Vision Zero Steering Committee to guide plan development. Through workshops and a structured brainstorming process, participants identified priority safety challenges and potential solutions across engineering, policy, enforcement, education, and community engagement. These ideas were consolidated into three guiding pillars:

• Safe Infrastructure
• Safety-Driven Policy
• Culture of Safety

These pillars form the foundation of the draft Vision Zero Action Plan, which uses data-driven analysis, proven safety countermeasures, and best practices from peer jurisdictions.

How can YOU help make Mercer County roads safer?

Every resident can make an impact in ending deaths and serious injuries on our roads.

• Make safety your first priority when driving;
  • Always obey the speed limit;
  • Put away phones and other distractions;
  • Watch carefully for pedestrians and cyclists, especially at night.

• Look around your community for roadways that put people in danger;
  • Especially where walking and biking are hazardous;
  • Call attention to these problem areas.

• Become an advocate for Complete Streets;
  • Complete Streets include design elements that safely accommodate people of all ages, abilities, and travel modes;
  • Support your town’s Complete Streets policy.

• Encourage your municipality to adopt the Mercer County Vision Zero Action Plan;
  • County government can only improve the few roads it owns;
  • Most roads belong to our towns.

Vision Zero policies have been adopted by many relevant agencies, including:

• Federal Highway Administration (FHWA)
• State of New Jersey
• New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT)
• Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission (DVRPC)
• Municipality of Princeton

Most of these agencies have a target of zero traffic deaths by 2050, an ambitious goal that recognizes the urgency of prioritizing life and safety on our roadways. Mercer County’s Board of Commissioners adopted Mercer County’s Vision Zero Policy on May 22, 2025. 

Mercer County is committed to eliminating traffic deaths and serious injuries along the County road system. The County adopted Complete Streets in 2012.  Our collaborative Vision Zero efforts are led by the County and its partner agencies, and will support the efforts of local municipalities to improve traffic safety.

• The County’s Vision Zero goals include:
  • Organizing collective action;
  • Designing and building safe streets;
  • Promoting safe and healthy modes of transportation;
  • Enacting safety-focused policies across all sectors of government.
• Mercer County recently partnered with DVRPC to successfully obtain a Safe Streets and Roads for All (SS4A) grant as part of the overall Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL);
  • The grant is being used to develop a comprehensive safety action plan;
  • This plan will help local projects to qualify for funding through FHWA’s Highway Safety Improvement Program.
• Supported by a subgrant from DVRPC, the County has partnered with the Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association (GMTMA) to create a data-driven, region-wide High Injury Network (HIN);
  • A HIN uses data on past crashes to identify which roads in Mercer County are the most dangerous, allowing for targeted safety improvements in the places that need them most.
• The County is developing a toolbox of safety strategies and infrastructure improvements, including FHWA’s Proven Safety Countermeasures, for deployment across both county and municipal roads.
• The Safe Systems Approach is the basis for the planning process, emphasizing the fact that crashes are preventable. The plan will work to create a transportation system that is safe for all people, regardless of age, ability, or mode of travel.

Additional Information

The Greater Mercer Transportation Management Association (GMTMA) created an interactive webpage that explores Mercer County in depth.  It provides crash statistics and detailed information on traffic safety, and integrates maps, text, photos, and video with swipes, pop-ups, and time sliders, that help users explore content. GMTMA has also published a separate webpage on the current effort, and fielded an online public opinion and awareness questionnaire, and a survey map where citizens could report safety concerns at specific locations.

It has been said that ‘the road to zero is on complete streets.’  Mercer County first adopted policies to implement improvements for safe travel by all road users, all modes, or ’complete streets,’ in its 2010 Master Plan Mobility Element.  The policy was supported by a County Commissioner Resolution in 2012.  Mercer County remains alone in New Jersey for complete streets policy adoption by every level of jurisdiction, Federal, State, County, and every one of our municipalities.  Many of Mercer County’s complete streets projects are recorded on our transportation projects webpage.  Other efforts are included in our routine maintenance programs.

For further information, please contact:

Matthew Lawson, Assistant Director of Planning, Mercer County 

mlawson@mercercounty.org

Mansi Shah, Assistant Planner

mshah@mercercounty.org

Additional Links-

THE SAFE SYSTEM

Safe Systems - Road Safety Commission on Vimeo

https://gmtma.org/vz/ 

Vision Zero Toolkit