Street Safety Act Replaces Vision Zero

The Facts

San Francisco's Board of Supervisors unanimously passed the Street Safety Act on September 16, authored by District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar with six co-sponsors. The plan will replace our failed "Vision Zero" initiative, which sought to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

The new plan sets deadlines for seven city agencies to coordinate on traffic safety measures, including hardened daylighting on high-injury streets, expanded speed cameras, and streamlined approval processes for safety improvements. According to Walk SF, the act creates public dashboards to track progress and requires SFPD to develop a traffic enforcement plan complementing automated cameras.

The Context

The Street Safety Act replaces Vision Zero, San Francisco's previous traffic safety strategy that expired in 2024 after failing to reach its goal of zero deaths. Despite Vision Zero's decade-long effort, 43 people died in traffic crashes in 2024—the highest annual total since 2005. The city has already recorded 15 traffic deaths in 2025.

Vision Zero failed because it lacked binding enforcement mechanisms: no deadlines, no mandatory reporting, and no formal oversight. The new act includes hard deadlines (Fire Department guidelines by December 2025, SFMTA redesign plans by December 2026), quarterly public dashboards with outcomes-based metrics, and annual accountability hearings conducted by the Controller's Office. Project reviews between agencies are capped at 120 days, compared to Vision Zero's unlimited timelines.

The GrowSF Take

This new plan doesn't guarantee success, but by creating a framework for accountability that was missing under Vision Zero, it at least provides a fighting chance to reduce traffic deaths. Where Vision Zero offered good intentions without consequences, the Street Safety Act creates binding timelines, mandatory public reporting, and formal oversight mechanisms that force agencies to deliver results.