Dear Mayor Lurie: Be the safe streets leader San Francisco needs.

Today, Walk SF, San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets, and Senior & Disability Action headed to City Hall along with activists in the name of safe streets.

We built a temporary memorial with ten pairs of white painted ‘ghost shoes’ to honor the ten people who have been killed in traffic crashes so far this year.

We also stood in protest to the fact that right now, San Francisco has no commitment to or plan for traffic safety.

Then we headed inside to hand-deliver a letter to Mayor Daniel Lurie asking the City to adopt a new Vision Zero policy by July 30, and a new interagency Vision Zero plan codified by September 30.

We will not rest until Mayor Lurie and City leaders take meaningful action to accelerate progress in making streets safe. 

Considering that 2024 was the deadliest year in a decade when it comes to traffic crashes, with 42 people killed, it’s painful, angering, and unconscionable that our City currently has no policy, plan, or public accountability on traffic safety.

The City must pass a new Vision Zero policy by July 30 that gets all five key agencies –  SFMTA, Department of Public Works, Department of Public Health, SF Police Department, and SF Fire Department – refocused on an issue that affects all of us, every day.

And then this policy must be made real. We need an interagency plan adopted by September 30 that isn’t a repackaging of what’s already being done, but an ambitious, strategic, timebound, and data-based plan for how each agency will contribute and work together for safe streets for the next three years.

That means focusing on actions that will achieve low, safe speeds citywide: the most powerful and effective way to prevent crashes and save lives. The City is already doing many of the right things, it’s just not yet at the scale needed.

Echo this message in an email to Mayor Lurie

We’re working in every possible way to show Mayor Lurie that he can and must lead on Vision Zero.

Help us send a flood of emails to Mayor Lurie and City leaders this week echoing the letter we delivered today.

Want your neighborhood group or organization to sign onto the letter, too? Contact malena@walksf.org.

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