S.F. pins safety hopes on lower speeds
Change in state law may give cities more leeway in rules for the road
Fast-moving traffic, wide corridors and high population density have made the Tenderloin the home of some of San Francisco’s most dangerous streets for pedestrians and cyclists.
Every one of the streets in this neighborhood, among the city’s densest, belongs to the “high injury network” of roads that account for most of San Francisco’s traffic deaths and injuries.
So, in March the city made subtle but significant changes on 17 corridors crossing through the Tenderloin when it reduced speed limits from 25 to 20 mph.
“Five miles per hour makes a huge difference,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of the nonprofit Walk San Francisco, “It means the difference from somebody dying to somebody surviving” a crash.
More of the city’s streets could see reduced speed limits if state lawmakers pass legislation that would effectively give California cities more control to set speeds based on safety. The state largely has authority over speed limits and sets them based on the movement speed of 85% of traffic on any given street.
AB43, which will receive its final floor vote in the last days of the current legislative session, would allow cities to reduce speeds by increments of 5 mph by letting local officials factor the safety of pedestrians and cyclists when conducting the speed traffic surveys California uses to determine streets’ speed limits.
State lawmakers are weighing the proposal as San Francisco nears its self-imposed deadline to meet the Vision Zero goal to end traffic fatalities within a decade. Though traffic deaths went down in the years
after the city set its goal in 2014, fatalities rose from 29 in 2019 to 30 in 2020 despite a year of shelter-in-place restrictions. The city had 14 fatalities as of July, according to city data.
But while the city has made some traffic safety improvements on high-risk streets, officials have frequently said the state control prevents them from reducing speeds on streets. While San Francisco reduced speed limits across the Tenderloin, the city’s top transportation official, Jeffrey Tumlin, said it was able to do so only by using “every trick in the book” after a traffic survey by the city traffic engineer supported making speed reductions.
Reducing traffic speeds has helped decrease pedestrian deaths and injuries in other cities.
New York, for example, saw a roughly 30% decrease in traffic deaths prior to the pandemic after it reduced speed limits citywide from 30 to 25 mph, added speed cameras and redesigned several streets, said Leah Shahum, founder and director of the Vision Zero Network.
A notable difference between San Francisco and New York, though, is that the latter has the power to make all of those street changes.
“In California, our hands are tied behind our backs in really making a big step toward Vision Zero, in large part because of these state restrictions,” said Shahum, who formerly led the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.
Assembly member Laura Friedman, a Burbank Democrat, said AB43 represents the “first serious reform” in the law that determines how California sets speed limits.
Traffic safety has become a focal point among state legislators in recent years as cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego have taken the Vision Zero pledge try to stem traffic deaths and serious injuries. Another bill, AB550 by Friedman and San Francisco Assembly Member David Chiu, would have allowed San Francisco, L.A., Oakland, San Jose to pilot automated cameras to enforce speed limits, but stalled amid opposition. Friedman vowed to revive AB550 next year.
“If we had as many people dying every year in plane crashes, as we have from traffic violence, we would have grounded our entire fleet of airliners. We don’t have to accept 30,000 people a year dying in traffic accidents,” Friedman said, referencing a national estimate. “We can do a lot better.”
In San Francisco, city data shows that more than 80% of street segments — any street portion between two intersections — have 25 mph speed limits, which is also the city’s speed limit for most residential and commercial streets. About 11% of San Francisco street segments have speed limits set at 20 mph or lower. At 45 mph, major traffic corridors such as San Jose Avenue and Great Highway have some of the city’s highest speed limits.
Safety projects on San Francisco’s high-injury network — the 13% of city streets where three-fourths of traffic deaths and injuries occur — have successfully reduced fatalities and serious incidents on those streets, said Tumlin, director of the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency. Yet the city’s traffic fatalities have remained “stubbornly constant” in recent years, partly because motorists’ behavior that leads to crashes “simply moves someplace else,” he said.
Tumlin said it’s too early to say to what extent the city would pursue speed limit reductions if AB43 was signed into law by the governor. But he did say the proposal would give San Francisco a critical tool to improve pedestrian safety at a time when traffic deaths persist. In 2019, the agency’s pedestrian and safety advisory committee called for a citywide 20 mph speed limit.
Any potential changes in speed limits are likely to draw fierce debate from residents similar to the emotionally charged disputes over the future of pandemic street changes that drastically altered San Francisco — such as Slow Streets and closing the Great Highway at the start of the pandemic.
The street changes spotlighted deep tensions among supporters who want the city to be more walkable and friendly to pedestrians and cyclists, and residents who say the city’s changes are making it more difficult to drive and get around San Francisco.
“We know that the biggest factor that drives safety outcomes in our streets is motor vehicle speed. But slowing down motor vehicles runs into a political problem when it interferes with the convenience of motorists,” Tumlin said. “We struggle with that tension. We certainly know from a technical standpoint how to dramatically reduce motor vehiclerelated injuries and fatalities. But achieving a political consensus around those solutions can sometimes be difficult.”
In the Tenderloin, some community organizers and residents have seen noticeable differences in driving behavior following the speed limit reductions.
Eric Rozell, pedestrian safety manager for the Tenderloin Community Benefit District, said he’s seen an anecdotal decline in traffic speeds in the neighborhood, which also had a drop in serious injuries. Lowering speed limits across the neighborhood was not a tough sell for a community with the highest number of seniors and people with disabilities, he said.
Still, the lower speed limits have not completely stamped out reckless driving in the Tenderloin, and a legislative analysis of AB43 noted that speed limit changes, alone, are likely not enough to influence changes in driving behaviors. Simon Bertrang, the Tenderloin Community Benefit District’s executive director, said speeds should be reduced throughout the city.
“If it’s citywide, it’s going to be that much easier to change the culture,” Bertrang said.