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Pedestrian-safety advocates call for $10M Vision Zero investment and a DA vehicular-manslaughter unit
Summary
Survivors and pedestrian-safety groups told the budget committee to fund engineering, enforcement and public-health analysis under the Vision Zero initiative, asking for $10 million for street projects and funds for a DA unit that prosecutes vehicular homicides.
A cluster of speakers at the June 20 hearing urged supervisors to fund Vision Zero efforts to eliminate traffic fatalities within 10 years.
Jakaya (Jakiya) Stevens, who described being struck while walking to work, urged the board to prioritize safety at specific dangerous intersections and asked how much investment would be needed to prevent future collisions. "Let's be preventative people," she said.
Nicole Schneider, executive director of Walk San Francisco, asked the committee for $10,000,000 for street-safety capital improvements, $135,000 for Department of Public Health staff time to analyze traffic collisions, and $400,000 to support the district attorney's vehicular-manslaughter unit. She said the city's interagency commitments need matching budget investments to move projects from plan to construction.
Other witnesses, including pedestrian- and bicycle-safety advocates, backed the request and suggested enforcement and education components be funded in tandem with engineering projects to achieve measurable reductions in fatalities.
The committee heard the requests as part of the broader public-comment record; no immediate appropriations were made at the hearing. Advocates asked supervisors to include Vision Zero funding in final budget decisions.
