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Health Commission hears Vision Zero action strategy and details of AB 342 automated speed enforcement pilot
Summary
DPH staff presented the Vision Zero action strategy, data showing 30 traffic fatalities in 2016 and concentrated risk on a high-injury street network, and described AB 342 (the Safe Streets Act of 2017), a proposed five-year automated speed-enforcement pilot with a $100 administrative fine for speeds 10+ mph over posted limits.
Megan Weir, program director for health equity and sustainability, told the Health Commission that San Francisco recorded 30 traffic fatalities in 2016 and that the city’s fatalities have remained relatively flat while national deaths rose. Weir said pedestrians account for roughly half of traffic deaths and that seniors comprised about two-thirds of pedestrian fatalities in the most recent year.
Weir presented DPH’s newly released Vision Zero action strategy, which emphasizes equity, targeted interventions on the city’s "high-injury network" (about 12 percent of streets that account for roughly 70 percent of severe and fatal injuries), expanded community engagement practices to reduce project opposition, predictive modeling with SFMTA to anticipate future hot spots, and a coordinated city response for victims and families after severe and fatal crashes.
On enforcement, Weir described legislation introduced as AB 342 (the Safe Streets Act of 2017). Under the proposal as presented, automated speed enforcement would be deployed as a five-year pilot on streets with documented speed-related collisions. The pilot would set an enforcement threshold of 10 miles per hour or greater over the posted speed limit and impose a $100 administrative penalty; the presenter emphasized the penalty would be administrative and would not affect driving records. Weir framed the proposal as a public-health intervention and said DPH has been working with the Office of Policy and Planning and local partners to advance the state-level effort.
Weir also said DPH plans to expand crisis-response protocols (currently used for gun-violence incidents) to respond to traffic fatalities, coordinating with the district attorney’s victim-services unit to provide immediate financial assistance and referrals to survivors’ families.
Commissioners asked questions about the crisis-response role and urged a focus on senior and school crossing zones; one commissioner suggested extending signal timing at specific crossings. Staff noted the resolution in support of Vision Zero would be formally voted on at the commission’s April 18, 2017 meeting.
