The City of Tampa was officially admitted as a member of the Vision Zero Network, “an organization dedicated to helping communities across the nation mobilize to address the crisis of 40,000 traffic deaths a year in this country, and millions more injuries.” Vision Zero is a strategy to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries while increasing safe, healthy, equitable mobility for all. The City applied to receive Vision Zero Network recognition in July of this year, and after rounds of interviews, was admitted in late November. Vision Zero is a critical component of Mayor Jane Castor’s Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow, and applying to the Vision Zero Network was an objective identified by the Transportation Advisory Team.
The Vision Zero Network brings together cities and counties nationwide that are taking demonstrable and significant actions to advance the principles of Vision Zero to ensure safe mobility for all. The Network will facilitate collaboration between agencies in the realms of public health, transportation planning & engineering, policy, community advocacy, and the private sector to develop and share promising strategies and to support strong, distributed leadership that make Vision Zero a reality.
"We welcome Tampa as a newly recognized Vision Zero city. And we applaud Mayor Jane Castor and her team for committing to the goal of safe mobility for all, recognizing that we all deserve the right to move around our communities safely,” says Leah Shahum, Vision Zero Network founder and director. “Tampa is part of a growing movement in the U.S. of elected and community leaders understanding that traffic deaths and severe injuries are not inescapable by-product of modern life. In fact, we can institute road designs and policies that ensure safe mobility. Vision Zero is a paradigm shift in how we approach transportation issues in our communities. Vision Zero recognizes that just as we expect to have systems that ensure clean water to drink and healthy air to breathe, we must also prioritize systems and policies that ensure safe mobility for all."
Strengthening the City’s commitment to Vision Zero is the creation of a new Vision Zero Coordinator position, and the City of Tampa has hired Alana Brasier, AICP as the City’s first-ever Vision Zero Coordinator. Alana will oversee the City’s Vision Zero Action Plan development as well as plan and implement programs and projects which help the City to achieve Vision Zero.
Alana brings to the City extensive experience managing Vision Zero projects for other government agencies and has nearly a decade of experience working locally with the Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO), Hillsborough County, and the Florida Department of Transportation and has also served clients nationwide.
“Officially joining the Vision Zero Network is a big step forward towards achieving our vision for Transforming Tampa’s Tomorrow,” says Mayor Jane Castor. “Since day one, transportation has been a top priority for my administration and this recognition proves that we are moving in the right direction to make meaningful progress and create safer streets for all. We are very excited to welcome Alana to the team. Her passion for improving street safety here in our community is evident in her impressive track record, including the work she’s already contributed to our Citywide Mobility Plan. We have some important work to do in transportation, but I know that together we can save lives and build a better future for all who live, work, and play in Tampa.”
About Alana Brasier:Alana is an urban planner with a decade of experience working with communities across the country to strategically plan and solve place-based and transportation-related challenges. She’s supported and led planning efforts on a variety of topics, including land use, economic and community development, and multimodal transportation.
Though she’s worked all over the country, as a Tampa native, her passion lies in improving the city she grew up in and is raising her family in and she has already made contributions to the community. She co-authored the TIGER grant that awarded Tampa funds to complete the Tampa Riverwalk and construct the Selmon Greenway. Several years ago she served as consultant Project Manager for the Hillsborough MPO on its Vision Zero Action Plan, which spearheaded the effort to eliminate roadway fatalities and severe injuries in Hillsborough County. Since then she has continued working on Vision Zero, both locally and across Florida.
Most recently she had been working on Tampa’s Citywide Mobility Plan while at Kittelson & Associates, and through this contract was Project Manager for Tampa’s Vision Zero Action Plan. She is extremely excited to champion this effort for the City of Tampa, working across city departments and with agency and community partners to create a safer transportation network and more livable community.