Even though portions of San Francisco looked like a ghost town at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of people who died in traffic accidents has risen in the past year.
The scarcity of traffic congestion throughout the Bay Area seemed to be a silver lining of working and living remotely, however, officials report it may have made San Francisco more deadly.
"Traffic congestion was actually slowing traffic speed," said Tom Radulovich, executive director of Transportation for Livable City. "We have a lot of streets in San Francisco with very dangerous designs. That combination of high speed plus people still walking and cycling made for some really dangerous streets."
In 2018, there were 23 traffic related deaths in San Francisco, but that number jumped to 30 in 2020, and by June of 2021, the City and Council of San Francisco reported that there already had been 11 traffic fatalities.
To ensure that the number of traffic deaths in 2021 do not reach 2020 rates, Radulovich advised that street reconstruction and the installation of speed enforcement systems are necessary.
"Redesigning streets so that they encourage lower speeds, designing safer intersections for people and then automated enforcement is another thing we would like to see on the streets that most often see speeding," he said.
To remedy this growing issue, city officials did reduce speed limits in the Tenderloin this spring. More areas may soon follow suit if legislation working to give cities more authority to set speed limits is approved in Sacramento.
Related
