Walk San Jose: Safety on Our Streets in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed our relationship with our streets. For some, walking, biking, and rolling through our neighborhoods was a safe activity we relied on for recreation and exercise while staying home. Others relied on our streets and transit system to get to essential jobs, grocery stores, testing sites, and so many other important destinations. 

In March, I reflected that under the worst circumstances, I was seeing San Jose without cars for the first time in my life. Soon after, we saw that the drop in traffic meant that drivers were traveling at higher speeds, meaning that any crashes that happened would be more likely to end in severe injury or death. The year ended with 49 people killed in preventable traffic crashes on San Jose streets. Through the uncertainty of the pandemic, our need for safe, accessible streets is still clear. 

Last February, San Jose’s City Council adopted a new Five-Year Vision Zero Action Plan with $6.78 Million in funding to kick off the first year of improvements. These improvements will focus on the most dangerous locations in the City, 56 miles of roads with almost half of San Jose’s severe and fatal crashes. 

In 2021, we want the City to build on this momentum. San Jose’s leaders can meet the urgency of traffic safety by committing to funding and completing the second year of the Five-Year Action Plan. 

Below, we look at how COVID-19 impacted speed and safety in San Jose, what residents think about safe streets improvements, what the City has done so far with last year’s Vision Zero funding allocation, and what we want to see in 2021. 

Click here to download the full report with clickable links.

Graphic design by Katherine Gosselin.