The Arizona Department of Transportation is updating its Strategic Highway Safety Plan and drafting the state’s first Active Transportation Safety Action Plan, an effort to reduce pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities.

Transportation officials would like the public to assist with both projects and is accepting comments through Sept. 6 at azdot.gov/SafetyPlan.

Federal regulations require each state to have a Strategic Highway Safety Plan for reducing fatalities and serious injuries on public roads and to update the plan every five years.

In Arizona, ADOT leads the development of the plan in partnership with local, state, federal and others “so that all highway safety programs can leverage resources and work together effectively to enhance safety,” according to a release.

The plan being updated focuses on areas that state officials said account for a large percentage of life-altering crashes in Arizona: human behavior, intersections, lane departure, vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists and incidents on tribal lands.

The first Active Transportation Safety Action Plan is being put together to address a rise in pedestrian and bicyclist fatalities in Arizona, the vast majority of which occur on local roads, the release stated, adding the proposal recommends “location-specific projects” along the state highway system.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.