In 2014, San Francisco vowed to end traffic deaths within a decade. But that deadline has passed, and the city’s streets are as dangerous as ever.
With 32 fatalities, 2024 has already tied 2016 as the second-deadliest year since the city took the Vision Zero pledge — and there are still seven weeks to go. October was an especially deadly month, with four fatalities in quick succession. The worst year was 2022, with 39 recorded traffic deaths. Meanwhile, observers estimate that there were 5,000 severe injuries caused by traffic crashes over the decade.
Advocates from Walk SF and Families for Safe Streets gathered Friday in the Mission to commemorate the 317 lives lost to traffic violence since the city adopted its failed Vision Zero policy.
The group included Julie Nicholson, who broke her neck and back when she was struck by a car while jogging through the Panhandle in 2020. The 59-year-old said she almost died, but after a yearlong recovery was able to run again. Now she’s dedicated to making San Francisco streets safer for pedestrians, cyclists, and scooter riders.
Attendees put up posters and bouquets at a series of intersections where residents had been killed. They painted 317 pairs of donated shoes white — “ghost shoes” — and installed a temporary memorial to traffic death victims at City Hall.
“This is to show the public that this is too many,” said Jodie Medeiros, Walk SF’s executive director.
It’s not that the city hasn’t tried to address the problem. Indeed, the last decade has seen scores of new protected bike lanes, pedestrian “bulb-outs,” raised crosswalks, and other infrastructure interventions. But as the urban landscape has changed, so have cars.
“A Rivian truck weighs nearly twice as much as a Toyota Tacoma,” Medeiros said. The latest Rivian R1T weighs more than 7,000 pounds, while a 2024 Tacoma is around 4,500. Much of that added weight is in the lithium battery.
Another safety issue: Electric vehicles accelerate quickly — a Tesla can go from zero to 60 mph in under three seconds. A 2025 Rivian truck is quicker, while a new Tacoma takes around seven seconds to reach 60 mph.
The electric vehicle revolution, along with the trend toward bigger cars and a decrease in transit ridership after the pandemic, has in some ways worked against street improvements made by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Medeiros said.
But the bigger problem, Medeiros said, is that the city doesn’t make changes until after a tragedy occurs.
“They’re reactive rather than proactive,” she said.
When there are proactive improvements, they’re generally on the “High-Injury Network,” the 12% of streets where nearly 70% of traffic deaths and injuries occur. Cole Valley resident Claire Fram said that makes sense but doesn’t show the full picture. Intersections that aren’t on the network list become more dangerous when construction is underway nearby.
That was the case at Parnassus Avenue and Stanyan Street, where a dump truck from the nearby UCSF Parnassus construction site killed a 70-year-old man Oct. 22. The victim was Fram’s neighbor. Hundreds of trucks pass through that intersection every day — and will continue to do so until the hospital project wraps up in 2030.
An SFMTA spokesperson said the agency is conducting an initial survey required to install a pedestrian signal at the fatal Parnassus intersection. Neighbors want UCSF to pay for the improvements. Transit boss Jeff Tumlin said he is in talks with the hospital about improvements but cautioned that these could take time as the route is used by ambulances that require fast access to the hospital.
Walk SF spokesperson Marta Lindsey said infrastructure improvements alone won’t fix the problem. The city also needs to enforce traffic laws.
Walk SF supports “daylighting” intersections, in which parking is banned within 20 feet of an intersection. The new rule went into effect Monday.
Daylighting is one of the cheapest and easiest solutions for making streets significantly safer, reducing traffic crashes by up to 30%, the advocates said in an emailed statement.
Jenny Yu, whose mother suffered permanent brain damage when a car struck her in the Richmond, said manufacturers should be forced to include speed-limiting devices in new cars. State Sen. Scott Wiener agrees — he wrote a bill that would have made Yu’s wish come true, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed it in September.
Yu and other advocates have a long road ahead of them. The next step: convening Sunday at City Hall for San Francisco’s 10th annual World Day of Remembrance for Traffic Victims.