Today Mayor Edwin M. Lee and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) joined by the Department of Public Health, San Francisco Police Department and other City agencies announced the City’s new listing of high-priority Vision Zero projects – 57 high-priority projects will be initiated this year.

“Any traffic death or injury is not acceptable, they are preventable,” said Mayor Lee. “This is a real public health issue. We are working quickly to build safer, better streets, educate the public about traffic safety and increase enforcement to make our streets safe for everyone – whether they are walking, biking, driving or taking transit.”

Vision Zero is the City’s goal to have zero traffic fatalities by 2024. Working with communities and advocacy groups, high profile projects have been identified that will reduce injury and fatalities. Last November, the City announced it had completed 30 high-priority Vision Zero engineering projects ahead of schedule, having promised to deliver 24 high-priority Vision Zero projects in 24 months.

“Safety is our top priority and the 57 new high-priority projects represent a fraction of the work the City is doing in support of Vision Zero,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin. “In 2015 alone we built safer streets with 1,600 new safety treatments. The SFPD also increased their enforcement efforts, issuing more than 41,800 citations for the five traffic violations that most commonly lead to severe injury or death. But while we have made progress, we have to do more to eliminate unnecessary traffic deaths on our streets.”

To highlight the City’s commitment to the Vision Zero goal of eliminating all traffic deaths in San Francisco by 2024, 57 high-priority projects will be initiated in 2016. They include:
• 22 capital construction projects that will be complete by the end of 2017
• 21 more capital projects that will reach a major milestone (such as receiving their notice to begin construction)
• 14 non-construction initiatives (enforcement, education, evaluation and policy efforts) that will be complete by end of 2017

An interactive map of the 57 high-priority Vision Zero projects and programs can be found at: http://visionzerosf.org/maps-data/.

Similar to the previous listing of high-priority Vision Zero projects, the 57 new projects were selected because they are located on San Francisco’s High-Injury Corridors, are visible, demonstrate a range of engineering, enforcement and education treatments, and are critical to advancing Vision Zero.

The diversity of the 57 Vision Zero projects underscores the City’s commitment that the only way to reach zero traffic deaths is through a combination of engineering, education and enforcement. Notable projects in the new list include a policy initiative to advance an Automated Speed Enforcement bill in the State Legislature, major streetscape construction projects on Van Ness Avenue, Polk Street, 2nd Street, and Masonic Avenue, and a new anti-speeding education and enforcement campaign.

The City adopted Vision Zero as a policy in 2014, committing to build better and safer streets, educate the public on traffic safety, enforce traffic laws, and adopt policy changes that save lives. The result of this collaborative, Citywide effort will be safer, more livable streets as San Francisco works towards the Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2024. For more information, go to: www.visionzerosf.org