San Francisco pledges to end deaths on city roadways

San Francisco has a public health problem on its streets, and so does the rest of the country.

Consider this: Guns were used to murder 8,454 people in this country in 2013, but more than 32,000 people — almost four times as many — were killed on our roadways that year.

While gun violence rightfully draws intense media attention, this country has become collectively indifferent to the many more people killed while walking, biking or riding in vehicles.

No more.

With cities such as San Francisco and New York leading the way, there is growing momentum at the local, state and federal levels to end traffic deaths.

Under the leadership of Mayor Ed Lee and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, we adopted a goal in February 2014 of eliminating all traffic deaths in San Francisco by 2024, whether people are walking, riding a bike or in a vehicle.

It’s called Vision Zero, and it’s admittedly ambitious. But this is a goal that is achievable, makes sense, and — above all — is the right thing to do.

We’re treating this as a public health emergency, using data to identify trouble spots, stepping up targeted enforcement and quickly putting in temporary safety measures while we advance long-term improvements.

This effort is preventive medicine. A staggering one-half of all patients seen at San Francisco General Hospital’s trauma center are injured in some type of collision involving a motor vehicle. Recent research estimates that the medical costs for just the pedestrian injuries treated at the hospital amount to $15 million each year, and three-fourths of that money comes from taxpayers.

The human and economic toll from these collisions is devastating. Health and financial problems can last decades. When those injured do not survive, families are shattered.

In San Francisco, 12 percent of streets are the site of more than 70 percent of severe and fatal collisions, and half of those high-injury streets are in low-income neighborhoods or those with high populations of seniors or people of color.

This isn’t about statistics, though. It’s about people, like 6-year-old Sophia Liu, who was killed when a driver struck her family in a crosswalk at Polk and Ellis streets on Dec. 31, 2013, or 88-year-old Jin Rong Ouyang, who died after being hit in a Sunset District intersection on Monday.

We are taking action so that other families don’t have to suffer that pain.

Our approach is centered on education, engineering and enforcement. We gave ourselves two years to complete 24 top traffic-safety projects, and half of them are done. We’re on target, and voters are behind us. In November, they overwhelmingly approved a $500 million transportation bond to improve Muni and address pedestrian safety.

And it’s not just us.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx has challenged all mayors to take action over the next year to improve safety for people walking and riding bicycles. Recently, a delegation of state and federal officials came to San Francisco so they could apply our approaches elsewhere and help us do more.

But we need you to be part of the solution. It’s about saving lives — yours, your family’s and your neighbors’. Be alert — don’t allow yourself to be distracted. Know the rules. Slow down, and look around. That’s the pledge. Please join us: http://visionzerosf.org/pledge.