Dale Allen presents the SUNTrail Program at Tampa Museum of Art

The Hillsborough MPO proudly hosted the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation Board Meeting on February 4th and 5th. The Foundation's Board raises and invests resources to promote a statewide system of greenways and trails that further economic benefits, offer safe transportation alternatives, improve access to parks, preserves, and scenic byways, and enhance healthy recreational opportunities for citizens and visitors. Since its inception, the Board has raised more than one million dollars to support programs and projects.

The event kicked off with a Riverwalk Boat Tour of downtown Tampa narrated by the City of Tampa's Riverwalk Development Manager, Lee Hoffman and piloted by MPO's Bicycle Pedestrian Advisory Committee Chair, Jim Shirk. Later, several excellent presentations were heard focused on the vision of a regionally connected trail system. Emphasized was the economic benefit communities with robust trail systems.

Planning professionals from Hillsborough, Pinellas, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Sarasota counties shared project ideas for connecting gaps to neighboring counties and the state-wide trail system. That's where the Florida Greenways and Trails Foundation comes in, offering guidance on getting those trail gaps prioritized... and funded!

In the last three months, the City of Tampa, Hillsborough County School Board and the County Commission passed resolutions endorsing Vision Zero.  The Vision Zero movement began in Sweden, which was able to reduce traffic deaths by 34% over twelve years, and the idea has since been adopted by many U.S. cities. On January 26, the Hillsborough MPO's Policy Committee agreed to host four collaborative workshops over the course of the coming year to help Tampa and Hillsborough County draft a Vision Zero Action Plan.

New York City adopted a Vision Zero Action Plan more than two years ago and Mayor Bill de Blasio announced that 2015 was officially the safest year on NYC's streets since traffic record-keeping started there in 1910. New York City's pedestrian deaths reached a historic low of 134 in 2015, a 27% reduction from the prior year. Comparatively, in 2015 Hillsborough County experienced 193 traffic deaths with 51 of those being pedestrians fatalities. This a 50% increase in fatalities for people walking in Hillsborough.

We can learn from New York City's success by considering their 2016 priorities as we develop our Vision Zero Action Plan.  The priorities are:

• More safety redesigns of crash-prone corridors and intersections

• Safer left turns which account for nearly 30% of fatal and serious injury pedestrian crashes - the City is undertaking a 100-intersection pilot initiative to test safer left turn designs

• Safer bicycle routes building on the record 12 miles of physically-protected bike lanes created in 2015, the most in a single year.

NYC Vision Zero Before

NYC Vision Zero After

• Targeted enforcement to protect seniors who comprise 13% of the city's population but 38% of the city's pedestrian fatalities in 2015 - the NYPD is undertaking aggressive enforcement against dangerous driving near the city's 250 senior centers

• Speed enforcement cameras that lead to violations for excessive speeding in a school zones - violations declined by half at locations after speed cameras were installed

• The Department of Education and the DOT are working together to incorporate a Vision Zero curriculum designed for 4th - 6th graders starting in the 2016-2017 school year

More than 30 student walk bike safety videos were submitted by high school students from across Hillsborough County. The video contest, the brainchild of a group of concerned officials who gathered at the MPO offices after another student had lost her life on the way to school in the fall of 2015, led by MPO Executive Director Beth Alden. Ideas were discussed on ways to focus a safety message to high school students. And what better way to engage teenagers than to have them use their electronic devices to creatively shoot a video on traffic safety aimed at educating their own peers?

Arrangements were made with the Hillsborough Community College Radio-TV Program Director, Nerissa Lamison, to allow her students to judge the video submissions. While viewing the videos, Ms. Lamison chided her class on what a great job the high schoolers had done with production quality and sound. While watching, her students could be heard reacting differently to each of the 32 videos - complimenting, laughing, even screaming depending on the approach taken by the student videographer.

First and second place winners will be announced February 16, 2016, at the 3:00 p.m. School Board Meeting at 901 East Kennedy Boulevard. The winning students will also present their videos at the March 1st MPO Board Meeting at 601 E Kennedy Boulevard at 9:00 a.m. We hope to see wide distribution of the winning videos throughout the county, state, and beyond. Thanks to all of our participants. And may the best video win!

It's time to branch out to other businesses in Phase II. If you'd like to be part of Bike-Friendly Tampa, please contact Karen Kress, AICP at 813.221.3686.

Bambike creates jobs by building bamboo bicycles. Check out Erik Ortiz's report on NBC NEWS.