One win, and one huge loss with Newsom’s decisions on SB 960 and SB 961.
On Friday morning, Governor Newsom signed SB 960. This is a crucial bill to make the deadly Caltrans-operated streets in our city – Lombard, Park Presidio, 19th Avenue, Skyline Boulevard, Sloat Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue, and San Jose Avenue – safer.
This good news came before some hard news. Governor Newsom vetoed SB 961.
SB 961 would have required lifesaving technology in new cars and trucks that alerts drivers when they go 10+MPH over the speed limit. If Newsom had signed SB 961, California would have led the nation – and sparked faster progress at the federal level – in harnessing Intelligent Speed Assistance like Europe has.
The Governor stood with the auto industry, instead of standing with victims and for our safety. And we are angry. Every day in California, people are dying because of dangerous speeding. More than 1,000 each year in our state. Every solution possible is needed to slow our streets.
The Governor had a chance to do something big, and he didn’t. And he didn’t despite a broad coalition that ranged from AAA to Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), 5,000+ emails, hundreds of phone calls, widespread media coverage, and endorsements from the nation’s safety experts.
Read our full press release here.
So what now?
With the support of our members, Walk SF will keep working at the state-level to do what’s needed to win lifesaving policies like SB 961. And we will keep working with Families for Safe Streets members to lift up their voices and stories so decisionmakers see that solutions like Intelligent Speed Assistance are urgently needed.
Winning state legislation to allow speed cameras took six years, but we did not give up. Because we need every possible solution to address dangerous speeding.
