Red Bank mayor chosen for national program

For more than a year, Mayor Hollie Berry has represented Red Bank as an executive board member of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization, and in that role, she learned about the transportation issues facing greater Chattanooga.

“That’s when I became aware of the Vision Zero movement, whose goal is to create safer transportation for all users, regardless of how you get around,” Berry said in a phone call.

In support of the Active People, Healthy Nation Initiative, Smart Growth America announced that Berry will be part of the third class of the Champions Institute, a program created to help motivated local elected officials equitably define, design, build and evaluate the national Complete Streets program in their communities, according to a news release.

Smart Growth America is a coalition based in Washington, D.C., and is the parent organization that helped design the Complete Streets program. According to the group’s website, it envisions “a country where no matter where people live, or who they are, they can enjoy living in a place that is healthy, prosperous and resilient.”

Berry was selected as one of 15 elected officials from across the United States to serve as a member of the Champions Institute for 2022-23, and the only one from Tennessee, the release from Smart Growth America said.

“Complete Streets is a concept of designing roadways by the U.S. Department of Transportation for all users rather

than just cars alone,” Berry said. “There are projects across the country.”

She said that, according to her research, Complete Streets successes include reductions in crash rates and pedestrian strikes, as well as economic benefits.

“After some of the projects were implemented, most communities saw a net increase in the number of businesses and jobs available,” Berry said. “With the safer areas, more growth can happen.”

As part of her journey on the Complete Streets path with the Champions Institute, Berry also learned about another avenue to increase safety and transportation options known as the Vision Zero movement. A vein of the Complete Streets initiative, Berry said the “zero” does not represent the elimination of all crashes, but rather, the eventual goal of zero fatalities and serious injuries in a given transportation network.

“Where Complete Streets is a more broad approach on transportation overall, Vision Zero is more laser focused on safety,” Berry said. “It’s a concept of designing roadways and transportation networks with the goal in mind of zero fatalities and serious injuries. While you can never prevent all crashes, the goal is to prevent all fatalities, and that might take five, 10 or even 50 years, but you’re always working toward that goal.”

Under the Vision Zero design, Berry said that any time there is a fatality or serious injury in the sector, those on the selected team or committee investigate and look all the contributing factors.

“We’re asking questions like, ‘Could this be controlled from a design standpoint?’” she said, noting that it shifts the blame off of user error and onto policymakers and designers where needed. “People who make the decisions about how roads will be built should be making them as safe as possible.”

With Nashville and Knoxville already having Vision Zero movements underway, Berry said she challenged Mayor Tim Kelly of Chattanooga to follow suit, and the resurrected Transportation Planning Organization Safety Committee, where she’s currently serving, is the first step toward getting the program implemented here.

“It’s an honor to represent Red Bank as well as Tennessee in this year’s Active People, Healthy Nation Champions Institute, as the only leader selected from our state,” Berry said in a statement.

Melissa Taylor, director of strategic longrange planning with Chattanooga-Hamilton County/North Georgia Transportation Planning Organization, also stated in the release that Berry was the catalyst for a recent restart of the Transportation Planning Organization’s Safety Committee and she has been instrumental in recruiting signon partners for the organization’s Comprehensive Safety Action Plan application for a U.S. Department of Transportation Safe Streets for All discretionary grant, a federally funded grant that could have great local impact.

“This grant is a piece of the federal infrastructure package recently released that has a lot bigger focus on the national level for safety and Complete Streets,” Berry said. “This grant explicitly names the Complete Streets program as a goal, so there would be funding for our area that comes with it.”

Berry said Red Bank was the first local sector to sign in support of the grant application. She said Red Bank officials voted unanimously to conduct an analysis on the most dangerous intersections in Red Bank should the grant be approved. The analysis would include proposed solutions.

“If it’s in our jurisdiction, we’ll cooperate and proceed implementing our project,” Berry said.

To learn more about Smart Growth America and Complete Street initiatives in Tennessee and across the country, visit smartgrowthamerica.org.