Vision Zero: City of Bellevue
The ASU Cloud Innovation Center supported the City of Bellevue, Washington with a Working Backwards workshop to explore a comprehensive vision zero solution to make Bellevue’s streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists.
Problem
According to the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, between 25 and 30% of people in Washington do not drive. For them, walking and bicycling is necessary to get to school, work, and other important places. However, walking and biking can be dangerous, as approximately 49% of Bellevue collisions with serious or fatal injuries involved a cyclist or pedestrian from 2012-2021. Walkability is a critical factor in what makes a city livable. Making Bellevue more accessible to pedestrians and cyclists will not only improve lives, but also save them.
Approach
In March of 2022, the ASU CIC and the City of Bellevue met with stakeholders to discuss the issue. In the meeting, participants problem-solved issues such as the High Injury Network, which consists of 8% of the streets in Bellevue, yet 83% of serious and fatal injuries occur. To fix this, the City of Bellevue will be implementing policy changes. The changes will include augmented speed limits, designated bike lanes, and more sidewalks. In doing so, Bellevue will make life safer for pedestrians and cyclists. The City of Bellevue is currently applying for a grant to make these improvements. If awarded the grant, they will work with the ASU CIC to create a data-based solution to analyze the changes and their impact.
Supporting Artifacts
Typically, the ASU CIC produces a visual representation of what the world would look like with the solution implemented, as well as a fictional press release with a list of frequently asked questions (PRFAQ). For this challenge, we have opted to replace the PRFAQ with the report that was created after the workshop to hear stakeholder perspectives.
Next Steps
The City of Bellevue is currently reviewing options and developing a proposal for funding and further action.
About the ASU CIC
The ASU Smart Cities Cloud Innovation Center (CIC) is a strategic relationship with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and is supported by AWS on ASU’s Innovation campus - SkySong. The mission of the CIC is to drive Innovation Challenges that materially benefit the greater Phoenix metro area and beyond. The CIC will do this by solving pressing community and regional challenges, using shareable and repeatable technology solutions from ideation through prototype, as a service for the greater human good.
The CIC also provides real-world problem-solving experiences to students by immersing them in the application of proven innovation methods in combination with the latest technologies to solve important challenges in the public sector.
The challenges being addressed cover a wide variety of topics including homelessness, water conservation, vandalism, pedestrian safety, digital service delivery and many others. The CIC leverages the deep subject matter expertise of government, education and non-profit organizations to clearly understand the customers affected by public sector challenges and develops solutions that meet the customer needs.
For more information on the ASU CIC, to read about projects or to submit a challenge, please visit https://smartchallenges.asu.edu.