PETITION TO MAYOR DANIEL LURIE, THE SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS, AND THE SFMTA BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Demand Immediate, Proven Action on Vision Zero — San Francisco’s Streets Are Killing Us

We, the undersigned residents, workers, and visitors of San Francisco, demand that the City take immediate, bold, and evidence-based action to end pedestrian deaths on our streets.

March 2026 has been a month of horror on San Francisco’s streets. Seven pedestrians have been killed by vehicular manslaughter in a single month — a pace that is unconscionable in a city that pledged over a decade ago to achieve zero traffic deaths.

This March also marks the two-year anniversary of one of the most devastating tragedies in San Francisco history. On March 16, 2024, Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, Matilde Moncada Ramos Pinto, and their two infant sons — one-year-old Joaquin and three-month-old Cauê — were waiting at a bus stop outside the West Portal Library, on their way to the zoo as a family, when a speeding driver struck them at approximately 70 miles per hour. All four died. Two years later, the driver received probation. No prison time. San Francisco’s streets have since claimed more lives. Nothing has fundamentally changed. 

This is not a streak of bad luck. This is a policy failure.

San Francisco adopted Vision Zero in 2014, becoming the second city in the U.S. to do so, with a pledge to end all traffic fatalities by 2024. We are now in 2026. The city missed that deadline entirely. While 2025 showed some encouraging progress — a 42% reduction in total traffic deaths — pedestrians still make up the overwhelming majority of those killed, and the first months of 2026 have already shattered any sense of momentum.

San Francisco has the highest share of pedestrian traffic deaths among all major U.S. cities.

Five of the pedestrian deaths this year occurred at intersections already flagged on the Vision Zero High Injury Network — places the city knew were dangerous, and where deaths happened anyway.

We are not asking for studies. We are not asking for task forces. We are asking for proven interventions that other cities have already shown work.

We demand the following actions:

1. Expand and make permanent the speed camera program. San Francisco’s speed camera pilot has already demonstrated measurable results — a 72% reduction in speeding at monitored locations. This program must be expanded citywide and made permanent without delay. NYC’s 24/7 speed camera expansion has been credited with meaningful reductions in pedestrian deaths. SF must follow suit.

2. Install physical protection at bus stops and high-risk intersections. The West Portal tragedy was preventable. Bollards, concrete barriers, and protected bus shelters must be deployed immediately at the High Injury Network’s most dangerous locations — the 12–13% of streets where the vast majority of severe and fatal crashes occur. This is not a future project. This is an emergency.

3. Eliminate permissive left turns and dangerous intersection designs. Engineering choices — where parking is allowed near intersections, how turns are managed, how crosswalk timing is set — directly determine who lives and who dies. The city must accelerate redesigns that have proven effective: leading pedestrian intervals, curb extensions, and protected pedestrian phases at every high-risk intersection.

4. Lower speed limits and enforce them. A pedestrian struck at over 40 mph has a very slim chance of survival. Speed kills — this is not contested. SF must pursue lower speed limits on residential and commercial corridors, and enforce them with cameras and ticketing.

5. Fully fund and protect the safe streets budget. Advocates have already raised the alarm: $40 million in safe streets funding is currently at risk. We demand that this funding be protected and expanded. Cutting street safety funding while pedestrians are dying is not a fiscal decision — it is a moral one.

6. Implement the Street Safety Act in full and on time. Mayor Lurie’s Street Safety Initiative and executive directive marked a meaningful step forward. But directives only matter when they are executed. We demand full public transparency on every deadline, every deliverable, and every agency’s compliance — and we demand accountability when those deadlines are missed.

San Francisco has made promises before. Mayor Lee said in 2017: “There is still more we can do.” Mayor Breed said in 2024: “We have much more work to do.” Now, in 2026, more families are grieving.

Diego, Matilde, Joaquin, and Cauê deserved to make it to the zoo. The elderly woman killed crossing Bayshore Boulevard on February 3 deserved to finish her walk. The two-year-old in a stroller at Fourth and Channel on February 27 deserved a future. Every one of the seven people killed this month in San Francisco deserved to come home.

We will not accept another year of promises. We demand action now.