A full-court press is on to spur City government to spread awareness of the number of traffic crashes involving bicyclists and pedestrians, calling on Mayor Todd Gloria and City Council to dedicate more funding toward Vision Zero.<\/p>\n
Adopted by the City Council in 2015, the goal of Vision Zero is to eliminate all traffic deaths and serious injuries by 2025. Since then, the City has invested more than $140 million into projects \u2013 improved intersections, sidewalks, bikeways, roundabouts, and streets \u2013 to protect and save lives.<\/p>\n
But bicycling and safety enthusiasts claim Vision Zero hasn\u2019t gone far enough to protect cyclists and pedestrians on the City\u2019s streets. On March 18, San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, a nonprofit advocating for bicyclists\u2019 rights, and Families For Safe Streets San Diego, families who\u2019ve lost loved ones to traffic violence, teamed to hang posters at the sites of every crash that killed a bicyclist or pedestrian since 2021. The posters read, \u201cOur Neighbor was Killed Here,\u201d and direct viewers to a web page encouraging them to email Gloria and their council member to request more funding for traffic safety.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite the City\u2019s pledge to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2025, more people are dying on San Diego\u2019s streets than ever before,\u201d said Will Rhatigan, advocacy director for the SDCBC. \u201cWe hope that this campaign will serve as a visual reminder to all San Diegans that when we fail to build safe sidewalks, bike lanes, and intersections, our neighbors are killed. We know that safe streets save lives, and we are calling on Mayor Todd Gloria and the San Diego City Council to invest in the proven road safety measures that will prevent any other families from losing their loved ones to crashes.\u201d<\/p>\n
“The City is currently developing a Mobility Master Plan, which is\u202fa comprehensive transportation planning effort to create a balanced, equitable, and sustainable transportation system for the City,\u201d said Nicole Darling, director of the City\u2019s Communications Department. \u201cIn addition to focusing on safety and Vision Zero, the plan also includes an approach to achieve sustainability and equity goals. It will combine community, mode, and objective-specific planning into one comprehensive document to identify and prioritize mobility projects, programs, and policies that will have the largest benefit in our communities and on the environment.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Mobility Master Plan will ensure that citywide mobility initiatives support investments in communities of concern, promote Vision Zero, and advance the goals of the Climate Action Plan,\u201d continued Darling. \u201cThe Mobility Master Plan will focus on strategies, policies, programs, and projects that make walking, rolling, bicycling, and using transit more attractive, easier, efficient, and affordable.”<\/p>\n
The beaches have joined the community outreach traffic-safety campaign. \u201cBeautifulPB is joining in a recent citywide campaign launched by San Diego County Bicycle Coalition and Families for Safe Streets San Diego, which hung posters at the sites of all fatal bicycle and pedestrian crashes since 2014, including seven in Pacific and Mission beaches,\u201d said Katie Matchett, president of the grassroots nonprofit working to create a more sustainable, equitable, and beautiful community. \u201cThe idea is to both raise awareness of this issue and to encourage elected officials to take action to fund safety improvements in the next fiscal year.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bicycling and safety advocates point out that, while this crisis of fatal crashes has impacted everyone, it has hurt cyclists, pedestrians, and wheelchair users the most. Between 2012 and 2021, the number of pedestrians killed in San Diego County nearly doubled<\/a>, from 58 to 101. In the same year, the number of cyclists killed in San Diego County reached 17<\/a>, setting the highest bicycle fatality rate of any large California county.<\/p>\n While the causes of increasing traffic fatalities are complex, including heavier vehicles and distracted driving, the solutions are obvious, claim safety advocates. They cite that replacing a stoplight with a roundabout can reduce fatal or serious injury-causing crashes by 80%<\/a>. They also add that, while the risk of death for a pedestrian or cyclist is only 10% when hit by a car traveling 23mph, that risk increases to 50% when a car is traveling 42 mph.<\/a> Thus, safety advocates conclude lowering speeds in places people bike and walk undeniably saves lives.<\/p>\n To begin saving bicyclist and pedestrian lives in San Diego from serious and fatal traffic crashes, Families for Safe Streets San Diego\u00a0and the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition are calling on the mayor and City Council to commit to three actions:<\/p>\n \u2013 Double the funding for San Diego\u2019s quick-build bikeways program in the fiscal year 2024, to enable it to build 18 miles of connected, protected bikeways each year. Separated bikeways are proven to reduce serious crashes by over 80% and should be installed on every urban road with speed limits of 30 mph or above.<\/p>\n \u2013 Upgrade 15 of San Diego\u2019s most deadly intersections with lead pedestrian intervals, high-visibility crosswalks, and other lifesaving safety measures in FY 2024. Though Vision Zero\u2019s first strategy is to make traffic signal and crosswalk improvements to San Diego\u2019s most dangerous intersections, over 100 identified dangerous intersections have still not received safer crosswalks and traffic signals. Mayor Gloria\u2019s administration needs to speed up the pace of installing these lifesaving safety measures.<\/p>\n