ROCHESTER, N.Y. — The City of Rochester is now part of the “Vision Zero” network, an international campaign working city by city to lower the number of traffic deaths to zero.

Mayor Malik Evans spoke Thursday at a news conference on Lake Avenue about his plan to make that a reality here.

While News10NBC’s Hailie Higgins was on Lake Avenue Wednesday talking about how the street is notorious for reckless driving, and again during Thursday’s news conference with the mayor, she watched cars fly by.

Evans pointed out that distracted, drunk, and reckless driving have claimed and changed lives on just about every street in the city. That’s what Vision Zero is working to change.

To join the program, city administrators must publicly commit to the program and present a specific action plan. The biggest piece of the plan is education. Speakers said over and over they can’t change how drivers act, only drivers can,

Part of Vision Zero is reframing car “accidents” as a public health crisis, one that can be eliminated. The mayor’s plan includes enhancing crosswalks, creating a network of bike lanes, dropping speed limits to 25 miles an hour in the city, and working with the state to bring back red light cameras.

“We would use those dollars for education, traffic education. We’re not looking to pad the city’s revenue. We want to get to a point where we don’t have to write any tickets,” Evans said. “But what we do know is that you get a ticket once or twice, they start to correct their behavior.”

City Councilmember Mitch Gruber said Rochester has the highest per capita amount of crashes out of all its peer cities in New York. According to Evans, from 2018-2022, 98 people died in a crash in Rochester.

“That’s 98 people walking their dogs, riding their bikes, or running red lights,” Higgins said. “And according to speakers today, that number can and should be zero.”

When asked if it’s possible to actually achieve Vision Zero, Reconnect Rochester said it is — citing examples like Jersey City and Alexandria, Virginia, which achieved zero traffic deaths in recent years.

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