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President Yee directs drafting of citywide speed-limit, daylighting measures to reduce traffic deaths
Summary
Board President Yi directed the city attorney to draft legislation lowering citywide speed limits, mandating intersection daylighting and using severe injuries (not just fatalities) as a Vision Zero metric after warning that eight people had already died on city streets in 2019.
Board President Norman Yee used his new-business remarks on March 19 to highlight pedestrian and traffic safety and to direct the city attorney to draft legislation intended to reduce speeding and improve intersection visibility.
Yee said eight people had died on city streets so far in 2019 and urged urgent action beyond “thoughts and prayers.” He asked the city attorney to prepare an ordinance to lower allowable speeds citywide and to require daylighting — removing visual obstructions within a minimum distance of crosswalks and intersections — as a standard treatment. Yee also asked that the Vision Zero program track and target locations based on severe injuries, not just fatalities, and cited prior SFMTA rapid-response work that follows a traffic fatality.
Yee pointed to data from the Tenderloin, where daylighting at certain intersections produced a 14 percent reduction in reported collisions at those intersections. He told the board the change would not be focused on saving parking spaces, but on saving lives.
Why it matters: The direction would change enforcement and engineering priorities citywide if enacted. Lower limit defaults and daylighting affect curb management, parking, curb-cut approvals, and capital-improvement investments.
What’s next: The city attorney will draft the legislation; SFMTA and public-safety partners will be asked to use severe-injury collision data to prioritize traffic calming.
