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The Landings & Bay Colony

Mayor’s Message

John P, “Jack” Seiler

Mayor, City of Fort Lauderdale

Fort Lauderdale leading the way to fatality free roadways

W

ith Bike Month upon us, now is an opportune time to remind everyone about
the importance of traffic and pedestrian safety. This is a national issue affecting

cities of all sizes across the U.S.A.

Recognizing that traffic deaths and severe injuries are preventable, Fort Lauderdale is
making safe streets a top priority. We are implementing Complete Streets projects
across our City with our partners from the Broward Metropolitan Planning
Organization (MPO), Broward County, and the Florida Department of Transportation
that incorporate bike lanes, wider sidewalks, ADA accessible sidewalk ramps, painted
intersections, pedestrian lighting, and enhanced crosswalks. We are right-sizing our
roads by reallocating vehicle lanes to provide space for bicyclists and pedestrians,
narrowing travel lanes, and implementing an array of traffic calming measures to
improve safety and make streets more walkable, bikeable, and connected. Our City
currently has more than $60 million earmarked for new Complete Streets projects,
and has worked with our partners to leverage even more funding for projects
targeting county and state roadways.

Expanding our efforts to enhance safety, 
Fort Lauderdale recently became the first city
in Florida and the first city in the
southeastern United States to adopt Vision
Zero, a community action plan that promotes
safety on our streets through the five Es –
education, encouragement, engineering,
enforcement, and evaluation – in an effort to
ultimately achieve fatality-free streets.

Through Vision Zero, we are elevating
awareness and visibility with public
education and outreach initiatives. We
recently partnered with FDOT to host an
Alert Today Alive Tomorrow event at Broward Boulevard and Andrews Avenue which
educated motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists about proper roadway safety.

The City’s Police Department is supporting Vision Zero through a High Visibility
Enforcement traffic and safety campaign which is currently underway, targeting high
crash corridors with a focus on changing unlawful traffic behaviors through visibility
and public education. 

In addition, our Transportation and Mobility Department is partnering with local
organizations to offer bicyclist and pedestrian-focused outreach and educational
events such as Family Fun Rides and Open Streets Fort Lauderdale. 

On May 18, Fort Lauderdale will host our 5th Annual Transportation Summit which
will bring together industry experts to share ideas and present best practices on
walkability, pedestrian safety, street design and Vision Zero. Following the Summit, a
diverse group of Vision Zero champions will connect to create a comprehensive work
plan with clear goals and measureable strategies to reduce traffic-related deaths and
severe injuries on our streets.

The progress our City is making in this area has not gone unnoticed. Earlier this year,
at the “Safe Streets Summit,” the Broward MPO recognized us with two awards for our
work advancing Complete Streets concepts and designs in both the public and private

Safer Streets; Safer City