The City of San Diego’s Vision Zero strategy received significant prioritization and funding in the Fiscal Year 2020 budget following 35 pedestrians killed in preventable car crashes in the 2018 calendar year. Unfortunately, while fatalities from collisions for people inside vehicles have steadily declined, pedestrian fatalities continue to rise in San Diego and across the United States. Vision Zero, the goal of ending all traffic fatalities and serious injuries by 2025 in San Diego, requires a systemic shift in how government designs its streets as well as data-driven enforcement and education for people walking, biking, and driving.
This year, the San Diego City Council and Mayor Faulconer demonstrated their commitment to making streets safer for all through a number of funding measures. Transportation and Storm Water received a grant to make data-informed safety improvements to 66 dangerous intersections throughout San Diego. These intersections will receive high visibility crosswalks, Lead Pedestrian Interval signal that prioritize people crossing the street, and no right on red signs that will operate when pedestrians are most vulnerable in the crosswalk. This is a big step in the right direction to fix dangerous intersections above and beyond the Fatal Fifteen intersections the Mayor fixed last Fiscal Year.
The FY 2020 budget makes several investments in safe streets. It funds:
- New traffic signals on El Cajon Boulevard and Mississippi Street and on Imperial Street and 62nd Street, on Vision Zero Corridors;
- $750,000 in Vision Zero CIP projects including installing Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacons and Pedestrian Refuge Islands at two intersections along El Cajon Boulevard;
- $300,000 added for preliminary design of the Phase III Downtown Mobility Plan, a Circulate San Diego priority project;
- $100,000 in the Communications Department for Vision Zero education.
We thank the City Council for unanimously prioritizing Vision Zero from the beginning of the process in budget priority memoranda, Mayor Faulconer for prioritizing Vision Zero projects in the budget and May Revise, and the City Council for adopting the budget. These investments in safe streets will save lives.
