Last year, San Francisco experienced its highest traffic death toll in nearly two decades, with 41 people killed in vehicle collisions, 24 of them pedestrians.
The spike in fatalities has led to widespread calls for the city to intensify its traffic safety efforts, as activists, the public and some members of the Board of Supervisors increasingly criticize the SFMTA for falling behind on its ambitious program aimed at rapidly improving conditions for people walking and rolling at more than 900 locations across the city by the end of 2024.
About three-fourths of those projects, including improving crosswalks and resetting traffic signals to give pedestrians more time to cross, have been finished.
At a Dec. 17 meeting of San Francisco County transportation officials, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman asked Shannon Hake, SFMTA’s Vision Zero program manager, why the cameras were being deployed in March, even though the agency had set a target of February.
“There is a problem when we articulate a public goal and are very clear about it and respond to people who are concerned about whether we can make that goal and over and over again to reassure them that we can — and then don’t,” Mandelman said. “That’s something that I think drives our public a little nuts.”
Supervisor Rafael Mandelman speaks at Manny’s in San Francisco on Jan. 5, 2025, before a trash pickup in the Mission District, part of a weekend of service before the inauguration of Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
Hake attributed the extended deployment timeline to factors like identifying a contractor to run the system, completing electrical and structural engineering and working out an agreement with the city’s Public Works agency to mount the cameras on light poles.
“Speed cameras are a powerful solution. [They] will prevent tragedies, like what happened to my family,” said Jenny Yu, who became a pedestrian safety advocate after her mother was struck and permanently disabled by a speeding motorist in San Francisco 14 years ago.
Speaking at a press event on Thursday in the city’s North Beach neighborhood, Yu said her mother had been crossing Anza Street and Park Presidio Boulevard in the Richmond District and had the walk sign when an SUV made a left turn and collided into her. Yu’s mother suffered a ruptured spleen, multiple fractures and a traumatic brain injury and now requires round-the-clock care.
“I still sometimes wonder where my mother was going when she was hit by a speeding driver,” said Yu, who co-founded San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets.
“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” she continued, holding back tears. “But we’re going to need more solutions for the city to make Vision Zero the success story it can be.”
Lindsey similarly acknowledged that more needs to be done. But she emphasized that the new cameras marked a major milestone in the fight for safer streets.
“So many of the people who have pushed so hard for this are people who have had their loved ones hurt or killed by speeding drivers,” she said. “And I have been in the room with some of those folks in Sacramento with them, pleading with legislators to support this.
“This is their win.”
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