Our Vision
San Francisco can and should be the safest, most walkable city in the United States. Yet every day, at least 3 people on average are hit while walking in our city.
Walk San Francisco exists to change this. We want nothing less than to make San Francisco the most pedestrian-friendly city in the United States.
What does our vision look like?
- Exceptional pedestrian safety infrastructure that serves all people in every part of the city.
- Equitable streets. This means everyone – of every age and ability – should be able to get around safely, easily, and affordably. It also means prioritizing the people and places that have been left behind or discounted for too long with street safety improvements.
- A people- and safety-centered transportation system.
- More car-free and low-traffic streets and spaces.
- Astounding numbers of people walking to get to school, to work, to play, to everywhere – because it’s that safe and inviting!
- No more severe or fatal traffic crashes. None.
Not only is this vision possible, achieving it is paramount for our growing city. San Francisco’s future as a healthy, equitable, climate-friendly, and competitive city depends on it. Everyone wins when we have safe streets for all.
How We Work
To achieve our vision, we work in a range of ways with diverse partners. This includes:
- Our campaigns to fix the city’s most dangerous streets.
- Our Safe Routes for All work, which focuses on safer streets for children, seniors, people with disabilities, and transit riders.
- Our advocacy for bold city and state policies that support and protect pedestrians in San Francisco.
Walk SF works in the interest of all pedestrians in San Francisco, but prioritizes our work in order to address the needs of people who are disproportionately affected by pedestrian safety issues. This includes children, communities of color, people with disabilities, and seniors.
Our commitment to ending inequities in traffic violence also guides our campaigns which focus on fixing the city’s most dangerous streets. Of all severe and fatal crashes in San Francisco, 68% happen on only 12% of our streets – and certain groups are more likely to live on or near high-injury corridors. All people deserve safe streets, and we consider preventing traffic injuries to be a social justice issue.
In all that we do, we work with all kinds of people who are interested in winning safer streets including: community, nonprofit, and advocacy groups; our members; businesses; and more. Our goal is to empower those we work with to advocate using their own voices and narratives, and to magnify individual voices through coordinated action.
Our Values
Our values are rooted in equity, community empowerment, and persistence.
Equity
We are all pedestrians, yet we each experience walking differently. We recognize that our experiences are shaped by such fundamentals as race, ethnicity, gender identity, economic circumstance, health, physical abilities, age, and geography, and that embedded structural and institutional biases related to these factors have privileged some groups over others. We target our work to advance the mobility needs of those most at risk as a result of these biases.
Community Empowerment
Walker by walker, and also community by community, people in San Francisco are bound by neighborhood proximity, cultural affinity, shared disabilities, age, economic standing, dedication to sustainable mobility, or being related to someone who has been killed or seriously injured in a crash.
Walk SF is dedicated to bringing the voices of all its constituencies directly to the table so individuals, communities, and groups speak for themselves, equipped with the tools and knowledge needed to be successful in advancing their interests. While Walk SF values self-advocacy, it also works to bridge the sometimes divergent needs of individuals, communities, and/or groups into a holistic solution.
Persistence
Change comes slowly, and is often hard-won. Walk SF is committed to going the distance to ensure universally safe and pedestrian-first streets and sidewalks everywhere in the City. Variously leaping, sprinting, strolling, rolling, climbing – but never stopping – Walk SF is advancing the inter-connected pedestrian safety and sustainable mobility interests in ways that are deliberative, data-driven, inclusive, bold – sometimes fierce – and always equity-based.
Read about the biggest wins our persistence has gotten us so far.
Walk SF Foundation is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization.
Banner image: Michael Halberstadt