Safe Streets for All Users
Streets Modified to Expedite Traffic Become Unsafe to Pedestrians & Bicyclists
Bike lane on River St. sandwiched in between two lanes of traffic on either side. The City plans on adding even more lanes to this intersection.
Front St. at Soquel Ave. Free right turns at intersections are dangerous for pedestrians
Street design forces bicyclists to move across a traffic lane
Vision Zero to Reduce Serious Injuries
Watsonville residents take their life in their hands when they get on a bicycle or cross busy streets. Santa Cruz is equally dangerous, with a #1 ranking for injuries to bicyclist in each of the last 5 years, and a pedestrian ranking not far behind. [California Office of Traffic Safety rankings of 106 cities of similar size]
Santa Cruz County Health Department studied traffic injuries and found that speeding vehicles are a big danger. 33% of crashes are due to unsafe speed. A study concluded that a pedestrian is five times as likely to die when hit by a vehicle going 31 miles per hour as when hit by a vehicle going 19 miles per hour.
Vision Zero is an international movement to reduce serious traffic injuries to zero. Watsonville and Santa Cruz recently adopted the Vision Zero program. This move would seem like common sense. But Vision Zero challenges the long-standing priority of expediting traffic flow at the expense of pedestrian and bike safety. See the photos at left for examples of street modifications to expedite traffic flow that have made them less safe for other users.
Re-prioritizing spending
For decades, environmental impact reports have mandated expanding roads and intersections in an attempt to reduce traffic delay. We now understand that building more auto capacity encourages more traffic [See Understanding Induced Travel]
California’s SB 743 that went into effect in 2020 corrected this mandate to invest in projects that increase auto capacity. Contrary to the spirit of SB 743, the City of Santa Cruz and Santa Cruz County have expressed their intention to continue to widen intersections to increase traffic flow. Our current campaign calls for an end in funding projects to increase auto capacity, and re-directing local funds to make our streets safer for all users.
Contact us to help on the campaign.