On June 22, 2015, San Diego Mayor Kevin Faulconer announced his support for Vision Zero roadway safety initiative at a press conference with Mayor Pro Tem Marti Emerald and Council Member Mark Kersey. “Faulconer promises his administration will produce a plan to reduce traffic deaths in the city to zero through progressive transportation planning and law enforcement that puts safety above all other considerations.”
Traffic collisions are the leading cause of deaths for children aged 0-13 in that city. “Vision Zero is an idea whose time has come in San Diego. We owe it to San Diegans to have safe streets. No loss of life is acceptable.”
Has Vision Zero’s time come to Coronado?
The initiative starts out with the bold premise that “No loss of life is acceptable” when it comes to traffic. The initiative first approved by the Swedish Parliament in 1997 has now spread to a multi-national road safety program with the core principal being ‘Life and health can never be exchanged for other benefits within the society,’ such as mobility and transit.
Vision Zero is based on four principles:
Ethics: Human life and health take priority over mobility and other objectives of the road traffic system.
Responsibility: providers and regulators of the road traffic system share responsibility with users. (Caltrans and City of Coronado)
Safety: road traffic systems should take account of human fallibility and minimize both the opportunities for errors and the harm done when they occur; and
Mechanisms for change: providers and regulators must do their utmost to guarantee the safety of all citizens; they must cooperate with road users; and all three must be ready to change to achieve safety. (Caltrans, the City of Coronado, and the Public)
Third and Fourth Streets in Coronado are two of the busiest highways in the country for their length, and bear more daily traffic than Hawthorne or Grape Streets. The streets that lead to San Diego’s International Airport. With no stated City values regarding safety, Vision Zero may be a good initiative to get behind.
Leaders in Caltrans and Coronado are acknowledging what residents of the corridor have known for over 45 years; the roadway is not safe as it is. Recently both Caltrans and Coronado’s Police Chief stated publicly that the only way to improve safety and control speed on Third and Fourth is with “engineering changes” to the Wild West corridor.
In the past, the standard retort to concerns over the neglected roadway had been, “Well those people chose to live there, or cross there, or drive there, so why are they complaining?” But this old-time view is changing.
New visions and Complete Streets initiatives being tied to funding are bringing changes in attitudes and in expectations. The City of Coronado Transportation Committee Third and Fourth Streets Study, the Avenue of Heroes reclamation of a significant historical region, and younger families wanting safe crossing have all been part of that movement towards change. Recent accidents have fueled discussion and awareness. This conversation, while at first heated, has led to a unification of residents previously divided. They are directing the attention to the true problem; no meaningful transportation policies in Coronado.
Vision Zero recommends that a city should consider adding one by-law sentence stating: “In this city, pedestrians come first… Everyone is a pedestrian at some point during the day, even if you are just walking from your parking space. So everyone has a stake in Vision Zero.” To consider the safety of one neighborhood over another should no longer be a part of any discussion.
Vision Zero states “accidents happen.” In my work as an EMT years ago, when I transported accident victims to the hospital, my standard reply to their embarrassment, regret, and fear was; “It is called an accident for a reason. No one meant to hurt one another.”
Accidents cease to be accidents when there is foreknowledge. It then becomes negligence. Officials are putting themselves in a position of liability when they entertain emotional arguments about whether or not the “feel” of Coronado will be affected – over the value of protecting life. Political pressure and preferences towards one neighborhood “way of life” over another has kept Third and Fourth locked in 1969, and now it can no longer contain the unmanaged traffic.
And more traffic is on the way. The city continues to fund Tourist recruitment programs and the navy presence is growing. Local commuters who work off island add significantly to the traffic burden.
“The Vision Zero approach has proven highly successful. It is based on the simple fact that we are human and make mistakes. The road system needs to keep us moving. But it must also be designed to protect us at every turn, asserts the initiative’s web site. This year, New York City adopted its own version of Vision Zero and is moving forward on multiple fronts reducing city speed limits, adding bike lanes, stepping up law enforcement.”
Stepping up enforcement is challenging for Coronado as TAF members have learned over the past year of Coffee with Cops. National laws restrict the use of Lidar and Radar, and pacing cars is difficult due to the overwhelming amount of traffic on the streets. The police have become targets of public frustration, when it is actually a systemic failure created by the “do nothing” path to appease cross street neighborhoods who lobby for all traffic to stay on Third and Fourth.
Knowing what we all know now, in terms of city liability and citizen safety, it would be unwise for the City Council not to adopt the recommendations of the Coronado Transportation Commission (CTC). Now would be the prime time for the City of Coronado to also join with San Diego and other cities across the world to support and implement Vision Zero – to put the safety and welfare of people first.
A few other U.S. cities adopting Vision Zero policies and initiatives.
Seattle
Portland
San Francisco
New York
San Jose
Los Angeles
Boston
Sources. BikeFlorida.org, VisionZero, Project for Public Places, calstreetsblog, UT.
