Avula re-ups Vision Zero pledge for safer Richmond streets

Mayor Danny Avula has now put his signature on Richmond’s Vision Zero pledge to end traffic-related deaths and serious injuries on local streets, while acknowledging the city is still “a long way from zero.”

A pair of recent incidents — a bicyclist killed on Broad Street on Oct. 24 and a man in a motorized wheelchair killed a few days earlier on Midlothian Turnpike — served as tragic reminders of the human stakes involved in local officials’ efforts to make streets safer.

“Vision Zero is more than just a policy that we’re committing to or an aspirational thing that we’re trying to do,” Avula said at a signing ceremony held Friday at Main Street Station. “It’s a statement of who we are as a city, what we believe, what we value. We value people. We value the human lives that are part of this incredible place that we call home.”

The goal of the city’s Vision Zero initiative is to end road fatalities and serious injuries by 2030.

Avula’s move to sign on to the pledge didn’t come with any formal announcements of new funding or shifts in policy. Nevertheless, it’s a symbolic show of support for an initiative that predates his time in office.

Since former Mayor Levar Stoney first adopted the Vision Zero concept in 2017 as it took off as an international city planning trend, there has not been a sharp or steady decline in deaths on Richmond’s streets.

Fatalities increased in 2022 and 2023, but have declined more recently. With two months left in the year, the city has seen 17 traffic-related deaths in 2025, the same number on record for all of 2024.

The recent wheelchair death is expected to be removed from those numbers shortly because law enforcement has determined it actually took place on the Chesterfield County portion of Midlothian Turnpike. If that occurs and the case is transferred to Chesterfield, the number of Richmond-specific fatalities would drop to 16.

The number of serious injuries on city streets has stayed fairly flat over the last eight years. In 2017, there were 149 such injuries. Last year, there were 167.

Vision Zero is meant to be a long-term goal, focusing on a variety of city initiatives like traffic calming measures, bicycling and pedestrian infrastructure, speed enforcement and education and outreach efforts on road safety.

At Friday’s event, Department of Public Works Director Bobby Vincent said Vision Zero comes down to “the three e’s” of education, enforcement and engineering. On the engineering front, Vincent said the Vision Zero concept will inform how the city spends an estimated $1.5 billion in infrastructure funding over the next five years.

“It’s not just a slogan,” Vincent said. “It’s a shared belief that we can all operate within the public right-of-way together.”

City Councilor Andrew Breton (1st District) said road safety is a “public health issue” because accidents can fuel fears that walking or biking somewhere is less safe than driving.

“I meet parents who don’t think their children should be able to bike half a mile to school, because they don’t think the route is safe enough,” Breton said. “We know that when you’re outside and you’re using your body, we’re happier, we’re healthier. We know children who can explore their neighborhood, they grow up resilient.”

Police Chief Rick Edwards said data shows Richmond’s recent rollout of speed cameras is working as intended by getting drivers to slow down in school zones.

“What we’re seeing is that people who get a ticket don’t often get another ticket in that same zone,” Edwards said. “So we believe it’s working. And what we’re expanding to is red light cameras.”

In September, officials announced they would install ten red light cameras at key intersections around the city.

“The bottom line is your actions behind the wheel actually matter,” Edwards said. “So we’re asking everyone to slow down, buckle up and pay attention to your surroundings.”

Contact Reporter Graham Moomaw at gmoomaw@richmonder.org