Pedestrian Safety in San Diego: How Safe Are Residents?
In 2015, auto accidents injured and killed 706 pedestrians (88 under the age of 15) in San Diego. This was an increase from 643 pedestrian victims in 2014 and 594 in 2013. So far this year, 11 pedestrians have already died in San Diego collisions – a pace that may set a new record by the end of 2018. The city of San Diego is making an effort to eliminate preventable pedestrian accidents entirely by the year 2025. It’s doing so by joining a nationwide project called Vision Zero.
What Is Project Vision Zero?
Vision Zero started in Sweden in the 1990s. Its purpose was to make any loss of life on the roads unacceptable. Many states in the U.S. adopted Vision Zero in the years after with the same mission: to end car accident deaths for good. How states plan on achieving the vision of zero roadway deaths is through the three E’s: engineering, education, and enforcement. Vision Zero requires a strong collaboration between drivers, city planners, police officers, and communities to create a strategy that will help achieve zero deaths by the deadline.
San Diego currently has a Vision Zero strategic plan in place, after the city supported the initiative back in 2015. The San Diego Police, Communications, Planning, and Transportation/Storm Water Departments are all working together to achieve the city’s vision, as are Circulate San Diego and the specially-created Vision Zero Task Force. The objective is to repurpose San Diego’s streets to make them safer for walkers, to educate drivers and pedestrians about the dangers of the roadway, and to utilize traffic safety enforcement to enhance existing laws and pedestrian protections.
Unfortunately for people who walk in San Diego, the city announced in February of this year that it’s already behind schedule in its Vision Zero program. Unlike other cities that have taken on a Vision Zero initiative, San Diego’s pedestrian death toll has increased, not decreased. Furthermore, news reports state that the city is behind on launching the program’s website (supposed to launch last September), and that the Vision Zero task force hasn’t been active in months. Despite the city’s promises to make the streets safer, nothing has changed in the past several months – leaving many pedestrians in San Diego as exposed to accidents as ever.
How Safe Are San Diego’s Roads for Pedestrians?
Vision Zero is such an important initiative to pedestrians because of how dangerous city sidewalks and roadways can be for them. San Diego is especially deadly for pedestrians and bicyclists because of poor crosswalk infrastructures and lack of awareness of the problem. Based on the city’s history of collisions, these problems aren’t yet improving. A recent study from Circulate San Diego names the city’s 15 most-dangerous intersections for pedestrians. The top five are as follows:
- University Avenue and 52nd Street
- 6th Avenue and Broadway
- El Cajon Boulevard and 26th Street
- 4th Avenue and B Street
- Coronado Avenue and Thermal Avenue
These intersections have the highest rates of collisions in San Diego. If you find yourself crossing at these intersections or any others on the list, do so with extreme caution. Each year, more and more pedestrians visit emergency rooms with auto accident injuries. Some never leave.
The Future of Pedestrian Accidents in San Diego
The city has taken some initiative to increase safety, such as improving some intersections. For example, at University and Menlo Avenues, the city installed a pedestrian refuge, a rapid flashing beacon, and repainted the continental crosswalk. Until crash statistics improve, however, don’t assume you’re safe while walking on San Diego’s streets. Take your time, obey traffic signals, and always look both ways before crossing. Perhaps by 2025 the city will have done a better job at achieving its vision of zero pedestrian deaths.