Approved Minutes of February 26, 2025

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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH February 26, 2025 Dr. Royce requested that one of her comments be stricken from the minutes, as it did not seem pertinent to the conversation. Motion to approve the minutes of the January 22, 2025, BOH meeting as amended was made by Commissioner Amy Fowler, seconded by Mr. Tony Whitaker, and carried without dissent. VII. Educational Sessions A. Vision Zero Chapel Hill Kurt Stolka, Vision Zero Coordinator for the Town of Chapel Hill, presented on the Vision Zero Chapel Hill program. Some highlights of his presentation are below: • In the past five years, there have been six deaths and thirteen serious injuries related to traffic in Chapel Hill alone. This is entirely preventable. • Vision Zero is a global strategy that aims to increase safe, equitable, and healthy travel for all. To accomplish this, they look at crash data and try to improve safety in areas of concern (i.e., places where there are high numbers of injuries and deaths). Areas of concern tend to overlap with communities of color and areas of low English proficiency. The goal is to reach zero deaths and injuries in Chapel Hill by 2030. • Multi-lane roads and higher speed limits encourage people to drive more quickly, which allows for less time to react when a pedestrian enters the road. Additionally, Mr. Stolka shared that there are concerns around electric car safety, specifically highlighting that the large rechargeable batteries increase the weight of vehicles, thus increasing the likelihood of serious injury or death upon collision. • There is an outreach plan aiming to connect with those who are experiencing homelessness and are more vulnerable to traffic violence. • Mr. Stolka shared some infrastructure improvements ("tactical urbanism") that can provide traffic calming and improve traffic safety, such as quick-build curb extensions, separated or protected bike lanes, or turn calming through installing minor speedbumps. He explained that the goal is multilayered infrastructure that encourages safer driving and reduces the severity of traffic accidents when mistakes do occur. • Mr. Stolka also referenced supporting the development of a bus rapid transit system (RTS), as public transportation helps get people out of private vehicles and reduces the risk of traffic violence. • Vision Zero is working to put in protected bike lanes with bollards and to create "road diets" where bollards narrow the lanes to naturally slow traffic, but bollards are expensive (approximately $100 apiece). However, Vision Zero's Federal grants have been frozen and so these improvements have also been paused. In response to Dr. Royce's question, Mr. Stolka explained that there is not a hard rule for bollard spacing, but they typically install them in roughly 20ft increments. • Some other goals of the coalition are to improve public transit, thus getting people out of personal vehicles, to collect and create a broader data picture (that is, collecting data about near-hits as well as unifying data about crashes and long-term health outcomes), and to conduct "walk audits" in areas where staff or residents have expressed concerns about safety. Mr. Stolka shared that there is a long backlog of sidewalk improvements. • Vision Zero is also working to roll out their Wheels of Wellness mobile bike program, which goes into communities of concern to educate and promote safe biking habits. S:\Managers Working Files\BOH\Agendas &Abstracts\2025 Agenda and Abstracts/ February Page 4