By Dave Schwab

Fifty-four pairs of shoes lined the steps of City Hall on Feb. 2, signifying lives lost to traffic accidents in 2015, as community activists called upon the city to spend more money to make San Diego’s streets safer.

“We’re here today to honor the 54 lives that were lost last year in the city of San Diego in traffic accidents, a 17 percent increase from the previous year,” said Kathleen Ferrier, director of advocacy for Circulate San Diego, a regional nonprofit working to improve mobility choices and create healthy, more vibrant neighborhoods.

Noting that adding those pedestrians seriously injured “brings the total of injured or dead on the road to about 200,” Ferrier touted Vision Zero, a strategy adopted by the city last fall to reach zero traffic fatalities and serious injuries in San Diego by 2025.

“Now is the time to invest in the improvements that will save lives,” Ferrier said. “We are calling — and demanding — for money to be allocated to implement Vision Zero, especially for safe street design, and especially to protect our most vulnerable: our children, our older adults, and people walking and bicycling in our neighborhoods, especially our lower-income neighborhoods.”

“In San Diego, you should not have to cross your fingers before you cross the street,” said Bob Prath, a livable communities volunteer for the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP).

Prath noted diminishing faculties makes senior pedestrians especially vulnerable.

“Pedestrian fatality rates significantly rise by age 45,” he said. “By age 75, a pedestrian is more than twice as likely as a 16- to 20-year-old of dying by being hit by a car.”

Prath noted that “some Vision Zero solutions require engineering, but many do not.”

“It’s as easy as changing a traffic light’s timing, giving pedestrians a few-more-seconds start so they can be seen better in the crossway, or providing education to show neighbors how to work for safer streets,” Prath said.

Samantha Ollinger, executive director of Bike San Diego, a nonprofit advocacy group promoting everyday riding and advocating for bicycling infrastructure, read a long list of names of pedestrians killed in San Diego traffic accidents during the past few years.

“This is a very small sample of San Diegans who’ve lost their lives to vehicular violence,” Ollinger said. “They would be alive today if our streets were safer. But our streets aren’t safe.”

Noting that pedestrian traffic deaths are “100 percent preventable,” she said, “The cost of a simple human mistake should not be paid with someone’s life. That’s unacceptable.”

“The only reason people continue to die on our streets is because our leaders continue to prioritize vehicle convenience over public safety,” Ollinger said. “The time for half measures must end. We cannot continue to simply sit back and continue to let the lives of our family members, friends and neighbors be endangered every single day.”

Ollinger said law enforcement “must take aggressive steps to curb dangerous driving. Our elected officials must become leaders and say no to prioritizing vehicle convenience. We can’t afford to keep losing our loved ones to a cause that’s completely avoidable.”

Jaime Leonen, 29, was killed by a car in 2015 while crossing the street with his father-in-law near Sharp Mary Birch Hospital in the 3000 block of Health Center Drive in Kearny Mesa. Leonen’s friends, Nicole Leon and Jose Miranda, spoke on his behalf at the City Hall gathering Feb. 2.

“There’s no safe area to cross in front of Sharp,” Leon said, noting that both her children were born there. “I used to pass by and only have happy memories. Now I think of Jaime, of the night he died, because there’s no safe area to cross. We just want to make awareness that there is something that can be done to prevent accidents like this from happening.”

Miranda read excerpts from a letter from Jaime’s father: “My son was taken away too soon. I imagine holding Jaime when he was two days old and feeling the warmth of him. … My biggest hope is that he will help others to remember the men, women and children all involved in, and affected by [car] crashes. They were not statistics. They were people just like we are, with the same hopes, dreams — and very imminent fear.”

The city has experienced an alarming increase in traffic deaths, especially among pedestrians, over the past several years. The numbers increased significantly in 2015 for all modes of transportation, including people walking, bicycling, driving and motorcycling. People walking experienced the biggest increase, with 23 deaths and 54 people seriously injured, 42 percent higher than 2014.

Vision Zero is supported by Mayor Kevin Faulconer and the City Council, as well as a coalition of leading transportation, business and community-based organizations.

— Dave Schwab can be reached at [email protected].