Last week’s program was presented by Rotarian Tatyana Austin.  Tatyana’s guest speaker was Gena Torres – Executive Planner with Hillsborough Metropolitan Planning Organization.  Gena spoke to the club about “Vision Zero” and other emerging transportation issues.  Gena has been with the county planning department for 26 twelve years, and the idea has since been adopted by many U.S. cities. On January years and is currently working on long-term planning for the county. The Vision Zero movement began in Sweden, which was able to reduce traffic deaths by 34% over twelve years, and the idea has since been adopted by many U.S. cities. On January 26, the Hillsborough MPO’s Policy Committee agreed to host four collaborative workshops over the course of the coming year to help Tampa and Hillsborough County draft a Vision Zero Action Plan. Vision Zero has taken on the effort to determine what can be done to be sure pedestrians and roads are safer.  Peer to peer messaging has been determined to be a great way to get the “safety” point across.  Gena showed us a few student produced safety video’s from a student video contest that were great and spoke to the importance of safety.  With the idea that “one death on city streets is too many”, there needs to  be a completely different way to look at transportation, and that is exactly what the MPO is doing.  Hillsborough County has 12.7 traffic deaths per thousand.  Over one half of severe injuries and fatal crashes are occurring along urban major roadways, along 6 lane roads, along transit routes, at night and in lower income areas.  A common theme throughout the vision zero plan is speed.  5% of our major roads account for 40% of injuries.  The MPO is looking at emerging trends to address before it becomes an issue.  With 600,000 more people projected to move into Hillsborough County by 2040 we need to be smarter with the roads we have.  Express lanes, mass transit, etc. need to be invested in.  Different growth scenario’s require different growth planning.  Traffic is getting worse mostly just because of the growth of the area.  The biggest obstacle to more mass transit is funding.  There have been many studies and planning already done…just waiting on the funding.  The ultimate goal of “Vision Zero” is to do things just a little differently!  -submitted by Mike Arndt

New Board Members elected
At our last meeting John Haney, Doug Watson and Bill Hughes were elected to be the 3 new board members beginning July 1st.  Congratulations and thanks to these dedicated Rotarians for stepping up to the plate!

Birthdays This Month

Brian Griffin - June 11
Matt Edgemon – June 20
Mike Arndt - June 22

Club Anniversaries This Month

Adam Myers - 1 year
Steve Wyman – 3 years
Matt Edgemon – 4 years
Maida Pou – 8 years
Mac McGrath – 14 years
Felix Haynes – 17 years (32 total in Rotary)
Michael Watkins – 17 years
James Surrency – 22 years
Clayton Jenkins – 30 years