A South Tampa woman has teamed up with a traffic engineer in an attempt to reduce pedestrian and cyclist deaths to zero.
Hanna Strom and her family moved to South Tampa a few years ago, and since then she's found a real problem in her neighborhood.
"I couldn't go for a walk with my kids, I couldn't get my kids to school," she said. "The sidewalks disappeared. There weren't safe ways to get my stroller across traffic. And so I became frustrated but also decisive that I wanted to be involved to help fix the problem."
Strom decided to ask city planners for help, which is when she met Jackie Toledo, a traffic engineer and a mom. The two women sat side-by-side at a Go Hillsborough meeting, and they have teamed up to bring a new vision to traffic safety in Tampa Bay.
It's called Vision Zero, and it has international roots.
"It originated in Sweden in 1997 but it's been adopted by 12 cities in the U.S and growing," Toledo said.
Part of the Vision Zero plan takes the focus off pedestrians and some of the bad decisions they make, like crossing mid-block, and puts it on city planners.
"How much infrastructure is designed to keep pedestrians safe, to keep cyclists safe?" Strom said. "They're the most vulnerable people using our roads."
Vision Zero proponents say we can design roads better, limit turns and place crosswalks in more natural spots where people cross.
It also calls for logical changes in speed limits where necessary, such as at high schools. Currently it is not a requirement to have a school zone speed limit at high schools, only at elementary and middle schools.
The Tampa City Council will meet in December to talk about the Vision Zero plan.