PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 15, 2025
CONTACT: Jodie Medeiros, Executive Director, Walk SF, jodie@walksf.org, 415.596.1580; Marta Lindsey, Communications Director, Walk SF, marta@walksf.org, 617.833.7654
Mayor Daniel Lurie announces executive order on traffic safety
Includes key pieces of Street Safety Act and establishes first-ever Task Force within Mayor’s Office
San Francisco, Calif. – This morning, Mayor Daniel Lurie announced an executive order, the ‘Street Safety Initiative,’ to direct key actions and bring greater accountability for City agencies on traffic safety.
The executive directive includes 15 agencies and many of the actions in the Street Safety Act authored by District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar, which was passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors on September 16.
The executive directive also establishes a first-ever Traffic Safety Task Force within the Mayor’s Office. This is a key element of the most successful Vision Zero cities around the world, bringing a commitment and forum for agency accountability into the highest level of city government.
Mayor Lurie’s action today was celebrated by Walk San Francisco and the Bay Area chapter of Families for Safe Streets. A member of Families for Safe Streets, emergency room physician Christian Rose, stated at the press conference with Mayor Lurie: “As a dad, as a doctor, and as a crash survivor, I’m grateful to Mayor Lurie for taking real action today to take on traffic safety.”
Continued Rose: “This public health crisis is, and has been, urgent. Prioritizing the safety on our streets doesn’t just save lives, it makes our city better: more vibrant, joyful, sustainable, human, and humane.”
Almost half of the traumas seen at San Francisco General Hospital are due to traffic crashes. On average, every 15 hours someone is taken to San Francisco General Hospital after being injured in a traffic crash with more than 500 people a year severely injured.
Walk San Francisco’s executive director, Jodie Medeiros, stated: “We’re grateful to Mayor Lurie for stepping up on traffic safety today. We need him as a champion for safe streets, especially holding City agencies to deliver results faster. Mayor Lurie’s executive directive puts into motion and teeth behind much of what’s in the Street Safety Act.”
Continued Medeiros: “It’s so important that Mayor Lurie is putting traffic safety directly into his office. This is something Walk SF has advocated for for a long time. The leading Vision Zero cities around the world have strong mayoral leadership and accountability. Mayor Lurie is the first San Francisco mayor to create an interagency Traffic Safety Task Force in the Mayor’s Office, and we applaud him.”
“We’re so glad to see Mayor Lurie embrace traffic safety as part of how to make San Francisco better,” stated Medeiros. “Safety must be the priority on our streets, and Mayor Lurie said this himself today. We look forward to working together to get the solutions needed citywide to end these tragedies. San Francisco can lead the nation in preventing severe and fatal traffic crashes – it’s about leadership and commitment from our City leaders.”
Mayor Lurie’s Street Safety Initiative executive order includes:
- Actions and accountability for 15 agencies to contribute to city progress on traffic safety
- Establishing the multiagency Traffic Safety Working Group in the Mayor’s Office
- A public dashboard showing progress toward agency commitments and other outcomes-based metrics
- Establishing faster review by the SFFD of street safety projects so these are installed faster and with less red tape
- Reforming the Residential Traffic Calming Program with a proactive approach for adding speed humps and cushions across neighborhoods
- A commitment to a safe systems approach to prevent severe and fatal traffic crashes
BACKGROUND:
24 people were killed as pedestrians in San Francisco in 2024, the highest number since 2007. A total of 42 people were killed in traffic crashes in San Francisco in 2024, the highest number in a decade. Around 500 people are severely injured in traffic crashes and around 40 killed each year in San Francisco.
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Walk San Francisco (‘Walk SF’) advocates for safe streets for everyone who walks. Since our founding in 1998, Walk SF has been leading the way to make San Francisco a pedestrian-first city where people of every age and ability can walk safely. Learn more.