Please join the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance team to hear how we will help create Safe Streets in Santa Monica with your input and Vision Zero.

Day:       Saturday, February 24th
Where:  Colorado Center Community Room, 2500 Broadway, across from Helen’s
Time:     1:30 – 3:00pm

At this meeting we will hear from City staff on Santa Monica’s Mobility Plan and how the City plans to implement Vision Zero to achieve zero traffic fatalities by 2026. This is a critical time for our community to make sure our streets are safe. There will be opportunity for questions, individual input and ways for you to get involved.

About the Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance: 

Santa Monica Safe Streets Alliance is a collaboration of local advocacy organizations and community members that together will promote and support implementation of our community’s shared goals of complete streets that are designed to be safe, equitable and welcoming to everyone.

In our home town in 2017, nine people were killed and 25 severely injured in collisions on the streets of Santa Monica, more than two-times the annual average of four fatalities in the years between 2006-2016. These collisions cannot be brushed aside as “accidents”: these crashes are predictable and therefore preventable. No traffic death is acceptable. We need meaningful and true commitment to the goals of safe streets by implementing Vision Zero. Vision Zero focuses on safe mobility for everyone — regardless of whether you walk, bike or drive a car.

It is time for a fresh approach. We can indeed design safe, livable and sustainable streets. To achieve these lofty goals we need a collaborated effort of community and civic stakeholders — including inter-departmental coordination of city divisions, and integration of projects and opportunities — education, transparent and appropriate enforcement, as well as complete street design that prioritizes safety and is engineered to reduce the effects of human error that result in fatalities or severe injuries.

Vision Zero began in Sweden 20 years ago. Since then they have cut traffic deaths in half (fewer that 3/100k compared to 11/100k in the US) while at the same time increasing their population and vehicle miles traveled.  Numerous cities in the US have also adopted Vision Zero. In the three and half years since New York City adopted Vision Zero they have seen 23% fewer road fatalities. Closer to home, Fremont, California adopted Vision Zero in 2015 and has since seen a 25% reduction in traffic fatalities. We can do this!

In Santa Monica we are ahead of many cities leading with a vast array of mobility options. Our City Council adopted “A New Model of Mobility” as one of its five strategic goals in 2015. We have a clear direction to develop a diverse transportation ecosystem that is equitable and encourages walking, biking, public transit, van-pools as well as a variety of shared mobility options.

Our priority is to keep our community safe regardless of ability or mode of travel, mindful of our most vulnerable population.