San Francisco, CA – Today, Mayor London N. Breed and City leaders marked ten years of San Francisco’s Vision Zero Policy, the accomplishments and challenges, and how City should move forward to make streets safer for all.
Adopted in 2014, Vision Zero SF is a road safety policy declaring that no one should die traveling on the streets of our City. The policy, a multi-disciplinary approach led by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and the Department of Public Health (SFDPH) in coordination with more than 10 agencies, is the City’s commitment to create safer, more livable streets with the goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities and significantly reducing severe injuries.
At City Hall, Mayor Breed, along with City Attorney David Chiu and City officials, reflected on the past ten years of work and dedication the City has made to improving our streets, committed to streamlining a list of immediate citywide street safety efforts in San Francisco, and announced the effort to prepare for the next 10 years.
The Mayor has directed the SFMTA and SFDPH to work together with other City departments, community advocates and stakeholders over the next six months to review existing Vision Zero policy and programs and propose recommendations both continuing and reimagining San Francisco’s safety commitments after 2024. The Mayor met with Vision Zero advocates last week to hear their safety priorities and will continue to track progress with City departments over the coming months.
Committing to Vision Zero is part of the Mayor’s Transportation Vision, which serves as the guidepost for how she’d like transportation to move forward in the years to come, with three main goals serving as the bedrock for decision making:
- San Francisco’s transportation systems and networks should work efficiently, safely, and predictably.
- People should have transportation choices when getting around San Francisco, and they should choose transit, walking and biking because they’ll be just as comfortable, safe and effective (and enjoyable) as driving
- San Francisco’s streets and public spaces should bring people together as centers of community.
The Mayor lays out nine strategies to meet her goals, including ensuring transportation benefits are distributed equally, ensuring transportation supports economic recovery, and building a network of safe routes for people of all ages and abilities to walk, bike, and use mobility devices.
The Mayor also committed to streamlining SFMTA in their remaining 2024 Vision Zero commitments and directed the SFMTA to create three new actions:
- Bring a Daylighting Plan and Policy to the SFMTA Board within the next three months to prioritize the treatment at intersections citywide
- Bring a No Right on Red Policy to the SFMTA Board within the next three months to prioritize the treatment at intersections citywide
- Conduct targeted, ongoing enforcement
More details on the Mayor and SFMTA’s commitments are below.
In support of this announcement were elected officials, City leaders and community groups, including Walk SF, KidSafe SF, and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
“San Francisco has made significant progress in our work to create safer streets, but we have much more work to do,” said Mayor London Breed. “Our efforts are about saving lives and preventing injuries on our streets, but they are also about making our City a more livable, vibrant city that supports people who are walking, biking, and driving to get around safely. We will keep working to make this a city of livable, thriving neighborhoods for all.”
“As co-author of the resolution that launched our Vision Zero policy, I want to ensure we continue to push the envelope to make our streets safer,” said City Attorney David Chiu. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made, such as passing our state law to allow automated speed enforcement that is proven to save lives. But we have more work to do and must recommit ourselves to that effort.”
“San Francisco is a national leader in advancing Vision Zero, and the improvements we’ve made to street safety have made us one of the safest larger cities in the U.S. for pedestrians and bicyclists,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “But there’s still much more to be done to get to zero. We’re going to take the lessons we’ve learned since 2014 and double down on what we’ve found is most effective in saving lives. We also urgently need our state and federal policymakers to give us more tools to reduce speeding.”
“I feel very strongly that creating safe streets must be a top priority for our city. I see the ability to walk, bike, drive, scoot, roll or take transit safely, without fear of harm, as a basic right and freedom that people should expect in San Francisco,” said SFMTA Chair Amanda Eaken. “And, as we’ve seen these past few years, streets can be more than just safe: they can be playgrounds, community gathering places, outdoor dining rooms. I’m excited to support Mayor Breed in creating more safe, joyful streets across our City.”
“The Transportation Authority has provided hundreds of millions of dollars for new traffic signals, traffic calming, bicycle and pedestrian safety projects, and other initiatives to help make our streets safer,” said San Francisco County Transportation Authority Chair and District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman. “However, it is clear that we will have to do far more if we are to make good on the promise of Vision Zero, including creating a consequence for reckless driving. We eagerly anticipate the installation of speed cameras across the City next year, and I will continue to push for a restoration of SFPD traffic enforcement to the levels they were at a decade ago.”
Details on the immediate, streamlined Vision Zero actions
SAFER STREETS
- Ensure the completion of the remaining quick-build projects
- The Mayor established the Quick-build Program in 2019 to fast-track street safety projects on designated street corridors and intersections. The Quick-Build Program uses low-cost, reversible tools such as paint, signs, posts to install street safety improvements faster and at lower costs. Improvements can include protected bike lanes, new transit boarding islands, intersection daylighting, and more.
- The Mayor has directed SFMTA to accelerate their engagement and streamline their process to implement the remaining corridor quick-build projects as soon as possible before defining the next set of corridor quick-build priorities The Mayor is also committed to the SFMTA finishing quick-build safety treatments on all 900 intersections on San Francisco’s High-Injury Network (HIN), the 12% of streets where more than 68% of severe and fatal traffic crashes occur.
- Daylighting Program Directive
- Daylighting an intersecting is when we remove the visual barriers in front of a crosswalk so people driving have a clear view of the intersection and can see if someone is waiting to cross. A recent California law, Assembly Bill 413, prevents parking or stopping a vehicle along a curb at least 20 feet from a marked crosswalk.
- SFMTA will daylight the entire high injury network (highest crash locations) by the end of 2024. The Mayor has directed the SFMTA to bring a Daylighting Plan and Policy to the SFMTA Board within the next three months to prioritize the treatment at intersections citywide.
- Eliminating Dangers of Double Turns at Intersections
- At intersections where there is more than one lane of turning left or right while a pedestrian has a WALK signal, a driver’s visibility of people crossing in front of them may be blocked by the turning car next to them. This creates dangerous conditions for people walking.
- In response to the executive order from the Mayor in August 2023, SFMTA will complete the last of the dozen multiple turn lanes remaining, down from over 80 in 2005. A few additional locations will be addressed through major signal timing changes that further separate the turns from the pedestrian crossings.
- Completing Pedestrian Signal Timing Improvements
- SFMTA has been reprogramming walking signals to accommodate people walking at a slower speed so that seniors and children have enough time to cross the street.
- SFMTA will complete 100% of the 1,291 signals in the City. In addition, SFMTA will make additional changes to at least 85% of all signals to help further prioritize pedestrians, such as giving pedestrians a head start before traffic lights turn green and allowing pedestrians to cross in any direction at an intersection by making all directions red to vehicles temporarily.
- Expand Left-Turn Calming
- 40% of traffic deaths in San Francisco in 2019 were caused when drivers made left turns. SFMTA conducted a pilot in Fall 2020, where they installed designs to force driver to turn more slowly, which allows them to drive more carefully.
- After successful pilot in 2021, SFMTA will expand the treatment to an additional 35 locations by end of 2024.
SAFER RULES OF THE ROAD
- Continue to Reduce Speed Limits
- Speed is the leading cause of serious and fatal crashes in San Francisco and a trend that is increasing across the United States. Starting in 2022, Assembly Bill 43 allowed CA cities to reduce speed limits by 5mph (from 25 to 20) along key commercial corridors.
- Per the Mayor’s direction to SFMTA, San Francisco was the first city in California to apply AB 43, and is leading the state in this implementation work: 56 corridors, 43 street miles have had posted speed reductions since Jan 2022. SFMA will add 17 additional corridors that will go through Sep 2024 and more starting in 2025.
- No Right Turn on Red
- No-turn-on-red gives both drivers and people walking their dedicated time, preventing dangerous conflict in the crosswalk. The SFMTA piloted a No Turn on Red policy in the Tenderloin leading to significant safety improvements. As a result, the SFMTA is expanding the policy to an additional 200 intersections downtown. We are one of a handful of cities leading the expansion of No Turn on Red to further walkability.
- The Mayor has directed the SFMTA to bring forward a No Turn on Red policy to the SFMTA Board within the next three months that implements the treatment at targeted intersections citywide, prioritizing areas with high pedestrian activity.
INCREASED ENFORCEMENT
- Increased Enforcement of Unsafe Parking
- People who park on the sidewalk, in bike lanes, or in a crosswalk put pedestrians and bicyclists at risk by forcing them into traffic or obstructing people using wheelchairs or other mobility devices.
- The Mayor has directed the SFMTA to conduct dedicated parking control officer enforcement efforts across neighborhoods in each district, prioritizing safety-related violations such as parking on the sidewalks, blocking crosswalks, and parking in daylit zones.
- Work with SFPD on Targeted Enforcement
- We know that traffic enforcement has been significantly down in recent years. We have seen an increase in dangerous driving behavior since the pandemic and an increase in other safety concerns that has put a lot of pressure on our Police Department’s resources, all while we’re working to get to full staffing. Ideally, people will drive carefully, and our street designs should be self-enforcing – but nobody should feel like they’re above the law.
- The Mayor has directed the SFPD and the SFMTA to conduct targeted enforcement at the most dangerous intersections. In the meantime, the Mayor’s efforts to fully staff the police in three years will help provide the resources to increase enforcement efforts.
- Install Automated License Plate Readers (ALPR)
- One out of every four fatalities are from hit-and-run drivers. ALPRs can help us catch license plates from drivers when they leave the scene of a traffic collisions.
- The Mayor expedited legislation and administrative action to advance the installation of these cameras by months. SFPD is now installing 400 ALPR at approximately 100 intersections across San Francisco.
- Install Speed Safety Cameras
- The Mayor sponsored the recent state law that allows San Francisco, along with five other cities, to implement a five-year speed safety camera pilot. The law allows the SFMTA to install 33 speed safety cameras on San Francisco’s streets with a history of speeding and severe or fatal crashes.
- The Mayor has introduced legislation to streamline the contracting process to get the cameras on our streets as soon as possible. San Francisco is on track to be the first of the six other pilot cities to have cameras installed.
“San Francisco grieves for the lives cut short by traffic violence and must act boldly for change,” said Jodie Medeiros, Executive Director, Walk SF. “Mayor Breed is bringing focus to Vision Zero at a crucial moment, calling on all agencies to step up and speed up progress for safe streets.”
"We need a Biking & Rolling Plan that allows anyone in the City to leave their home on a bike or scooter and connect to any other neighborhood on an interconnected network of car-free or people-prioritized corridors,” said Chris White, Interim Executive Director, San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “Nothing less will do. We have to be bold and visionary to save lives and create a more vibrant San Francisco."
“We appreciate Mayor Breed’s renewed commitment and action plan to prioritize people and safety on our streets,” said Robin Pam, Founder, KidSafe SF. “San Francisco’s streets should be safe enough for every kid and family to walk, bike, and take transit to their daily destinations, and we look forward to working with the Mayor, SFMTA, and every city department on rapidly deploying global best practices here in San Francisco.
Milestones as part of the first ten years of Vision Zero SF, include:
- Created the Quick Build Program in 2019 to fast-track street safety projects; installed 33 Quick-Build Projects and more than 50 miles of safety improvements on the highest-injury streets which resulted in decreased bicycle-related collisions, decreased pedestrian-related collisions, decreased vehicle-pedestrian close-calls, and decreased vehicle speeds.
- Installed over 700 traffic-calming devices, such as speed humps, raised crosswalks and median islands to reducing speeding drivers
- Increased pedestrian “WALK” crossing time at 91% of traffic signals to give seniors and kids more time to cross the street
- Painted 95% (2,026) of intersection crosswalks with a high-visibility wide pattern to make crosswalks more visible to drivers
- Installed 41 miles of protected bike lanes, up from 7 miles in 2014 to 48 in 2024. 72% of which were built under the Mayor Breed’s tenure
- Installed pedestrian countdown signals at 93% of traffic signals citywide and pedestrian “head starts” at 79% of signals
- Installed No Right Turns on Red at 319 intersections citywide, including all 62 intersections in the Tenderloin
- Installed seven miles of safe, recreational streets like JFK Promenade in Golden Gate Park.
- Established a permanent Slow Streets program and installed more than 32 miles of Slow Streets — safe, low-vehicle-traffic routes that prioritize active transportation.
- Established the Shared Streets program to provide more car-free spaces for people to play, eat, and congregate on commercial corridors
- Installed 2,015 of daylighting intersections to make pedestrians more visible at intersections
- Improved signal synchronization to keep vehicles traveling at the speed limit on key corridors, such Pine St and Bush Street, plus major streets South of Market St., to reduce traffic delays, congestion, and air pollution
- Piloted safer left-turn designs at intersections in 2020, resulting in reducing vehicle speeding and fewer conflicts with people crossing the street
- Installed turn-calming devices at 36 intersections to slow vehicles as they approach crosswalks
- Became the first City in California to reduce the speed limit to 20 mph on 44 miles of San Francisco streets as part of state law changes
- Installed 18 Red Light Cameras to enforce people from running red lights
- Advocated for and sponsored the state legislation that now allows San Francisco to install Automatic Speed Enforcement cameras.
- In coordination with the community, completed safety projects and initiatives that touch every street in the Tenderloin, including Quick Build projects on Turk, Leavenworth, Jones and Hyde Streets reduced the speed limits of many streets from 25 to 20 miles per hour, daylighted 50 intersections and restricted right turns on red at 54 intersections, resulting in a reduction in vehicle/pedestrian crashes.
The progress made in San Francisco is the direct result of continued efforts paying off, and today San Francisco is a national leader in street safety. Thanks to changes implemented over the last 10 years, San Francisco is now one of the safest larger cities in the U.S. for pedestrians and bicyclists, with the lowest number of bicyclist fatalities per bicycle commuter and second lowest number of pedestrian fatalities per walking commuters, according to the League of American Bicyclists.
The percentage of bicycle fatalities per bicycle commuter has decreased by 49% since 2012. San Francisco is among the few cities that have seen a decrease in the average fatality rate; currently at 25% - the largest decrease among comparable U.S. cities.
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