Anchorage Vision Zero coordinator job vacant for over a year, AMATS report says

Anchorage's Vision Zero coordinator job has been vacant for more than a year, a draft AMATS Safety Progress Report says. The 2024 AMATS Safety Plan called for a coordinator to lead the safety work from that plan and the AMATS Non-Motorized Plan. The position was created and filled, then left vacant, the report says.

A city and state Vision Zero working group held crash-site visits, and those visits are paused. The next step, according to the report, is to fill the job, reconvene the group and hold crash-site audits for staff and the public.

Public Works Director Kent Kohlhase told the Anchorage Assembly at an Oct. 23 budget work session that the job had been advertised for at least a year without a qualified candidate accepting it. Strong candidates, mostly from out of state, turned it down over the logistics of moving to Alaska, he said.

Of the 17 actions in the 2024 plan, the report lists two as complete, 11 in progress and four not started. The unstarted items include annual safety walking tours for elected officials and the public, and a survey every two years on how residents view road safety.

The 2024 plan named five top-priority corridors that had no projects programmed at the time. Three now have funding programmed. Two still need design work programmed: Debarr Road from Lake Otis to Boniface, and Northern Lights Boulevard from Lake Otis Parkway to Muldoon Road.

From 2016 through 2025, the five-year average of non-motorist deaths rose while motorist deaths fell, leaving overall deaths roughly stable, the report finds. The 2025 figures are preliminary. Walking and biking made up 6% of commute trips but were involved in 49% of fatal crashes.

The report goes with a memo from Emily Weiser, AMATS senior planner and non-motorized coordinator, proposing the scope of a 2028 update to the safety plan. The update would evaluate why traffic deaths have not declined. It would include an audit led by a consultant with national experience.

The AMATS Technical Advisory Committee takes up the proposal at 1 pm Thursday, Nov. 5, and will make a recommendation to the AMATS Policy Committee. The public can comment at the meeting. The update is programmed for $250,000 in federal fiscal year 2027, and AMATS staff intend to finish it by October 2028.