Urgent Actions Needed for San José’s Vision Zero Action Plan!
Join us at the February 3rd Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting and the February 11th City Council Meeting to urge our City’s leaders to increase the amount of funding allocated and speed up the timeline for infrastructure in the new Vision Zero Action Plan!
The new Vision Zero Action Plan lays out the City’s top six Vision Zero priorities over the next 4 to 6 years. One of these priorities is the implementation of quick-build infrastructure improvements on 56 miles of the most dangerous streets in San José. Quick-build projects, like the Better Bikeways network in downtown, use inexpensive materials, like plastic and paint, to create temporary infrastructure solutions to improve walking and biking safety across the City. The City estimates that quick-build projects on all 56 miles would cost about $22 million and take 4 to 6 years to complete.
The proposed solutions within the quick-build model would provide temporary and incomprehensive improvements on our City streets. Some of the limitations are that it does not include signal retiming to give pedestrians more time to cross, or the installation of new lighting fixtures, both of which have been key factors in pedestrian deaths across the City.
Furthermore, the amount prioritized for these projects and their proposed timeline are not enough to address the urgency of the increasing number of fatalities on our streets. If quick-build is the only infrastructure method proposed and funded for Vision Zero over the next 6 years, it needs to prioritize a more robust budget that includes rapid response infrastructure solutions to fatalities. With rapid response, the City could use quick-build materials like plastic and paint to improve the site where a fatality occurred, even if it was not on the 56 miles of Priority Safety Corridors.
In 2018, there was a record high of 24 pedestrians killed in San José.
In 2019, there was a new record of 29 people killed while walking, and 7 while biking.
How many more record-setting years will we face before the City takes urgent and immediate action?
Walk San José and the Silicon Valley Bike Coalition are calling on you, as our City and County’s leaders, to take urgent actions towards San José and Santa Clara County’s traffic safety goals, including:
Increase the speed of implementation of quick build safety infrastructure to allow for safety projects along the Priority Safety Corridors (PSCs) to be completed by 2022. In November, City staff presented a memo on Vision Zero to the Transportation and Environment Committee that stated that an investment of $20 million will allow quick build improvements to be implemented on 56 miles of PSCs over 4-6 years. In light of recent fatalities, the timeline of quick build implementation should be shortened to 2 years.
Create a rapid response team to investigate and consider safety improvements at the site of every traffic fatality in San José and on County Roads. A rapid response team will analyze the cause of the crash and the history of the location and consider a quick-build infrastructure solution to improve safety at the site of the fatality if deemed appropriate. Rapid response should be included as an action in the upcoming Vision Zero Action Plan to be established in 2020.
After two consecutive deadliest years in San José, it’s more important than ever that our elected officials hear from you. Join us at the February 3rd Transportation and Environment Committee Meeting at 1:30 p.m. in Wing W118-120 of City Hall and the February 11th City Council Meeting to urge our City’s leaders to increase the amount of funding allocated and speed up the timeline for infrastructure in the new Vision Zero Action Plan.
If you’re interested in learning more about our work or getting involved with Vision Zero, please contact Theresa Do at theresa@calwalks.org.