Rural Highways Safety Plan – We Need Your Input!

The RTC is kicking off the Rural Highways Safety Plan (RHSP) for Santa Cruz County, and we need your help. This Plan seeks to enhance safety for all users of the County’s six undivided rural highways: Highway 1 north of the City of Santa Cruz, Highways 9, 236, and 35, and Highways 129 and 152 outside the City of Watsonville. These rural highways function as Main Streets for many local towns and communities, as well as key connectors for commutes, tourism, and freight.

We aim to identify locations and patterns of crashes to create a prioritized suite of proven safety countermeasures, and a roadmap to Vision Zero. The global Vision Zero concept seeks to create strategies to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries, for all users of the road. The RHSP objective is to achieve Vision Zero by 2050 through projects and strategies implemented through close partnership with Caltrans. The completed RHSP will allow the RTC and partners to be eligible for vital federal project funding to construct identified safety improvements on these important corridors.

We are hosting a public community workshop on October 24, where we will share more about the RHSP project and seek community input on areas of concern. We would love to hear from members of our community about their experience traveling on these roadways and collect feedback related to safety.

• Virtual Community Workshop  
  • Thursday, October 24, 6:00 – 7:30 pm 
  • Join via Zoom: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83185758479  
    • Meeting ID: 831 8575 8479 

The RHSP Survey is also now live! Head to sccrtc.org/rhsp to access the survey in English and Spanish. Tell the RHSP team about places you have witnessed crashes or near misses, or where you have safety concerns for those traveling using any mode of transportation.

Please contact RHSP Project Manager Brianna Goodman at info@sccrtc.org if you have any questions, including “RHSP” in the subject line. For future emails on the RHSP project, head to RTC’s eNews Signup Page and click on “Vision Zero” Program Updates.