San Francisco Traffic Fatalities Top Homicides in 2024

This was “a horrible year for traffic-related fatalities,” Malena Mackey Cabada told the Chronicle. Cabada, campaign associate advocacy group Walk San Francisco, routinely pressures City Hall to fulfill aging pedestrian safety plan Vision Zero. The objective, to “eliminate roadway deaths by slowing traffic” by “redesigning intersections to maximize pedestrian safety,” is eleven years old. 

“Zero is still the right number,” she said.

It’s an ideal number, noble even. Zero traffic-related deaths on the streets and highways of San Francisco? Shrinking that figure to a disregardable sum means losing no lives whatsoever. The fewer fatalities the better, so why not aim for none? 

And why, over the past decade, have we not accomplished that? 

Traffic Fatalities Outnumber Homicide Cases in San Francisco 

The good news is that San Francisco saw its lowest number of homicides in 64 years. The bad is that, as per the Chronicle, 2024 was the worst year for traffic-related deaths in 17 years. And while the city’s population, some 200,000 more than in 1960, are no more murderous, innocent people keep dying. The city recorded 34 murders this year while pedestrians made up over half of the 41 traffic-related fatalities in 2024.

It appears the city has made little progress in the way of improving pedestrian safety—essential for a tourism-heavy city. But rarely does someone mow down a tourist. The dead and injured are our friends and neighbors. What might force local and visiting motorists to practice better driving in San Francisco, whether they want to or not? 

Infrastructure is at once a civic, political, and personal matter

Take a walk around San Francisco and you’ll agree that civic infrastructure here caters more to drivers than pedestrians. Nonetheless, it is totally feasible to get by without a vehicle. I haven’t owned a car since 2011 and I don’t miss it (although I do miss driving itself. Something about it is oddly therapeutic). Muni exists and though it sucks dragging your groceries aboard, it’s better than circling your block again and again while your ice cream melts in the trunk. Then you have to worry about insurance, the gas tank, maintenance, parking permits, getting bipped and more. Not owning a car here kind of rules.

In 2023 over half the city, 54%, had cars registered in San Francisco. New York is the only other city in the US where you have a 50/50 shot of meeting someone with a car. On the opposite end of the spectrum is our friendly rival Los Angeles, with almost 82% of LA owning at least one car. “In fact, there are literally more registered vehicles in Los Angeles than there are people living in the city.” (UnderscoreSF)

Effective public infrastructure is at once a civic, political, and personal priority. It proves City Hall factors you into important decisions, that they know day-to-day foot traffic is SF’s lifeblood. Bike lanes should be separate and protected from vehicle traffic—and not just by those flimsy plastic poles. A lamp post shouldn’t break away when a truck plows into it, it should stop the truck from running up onto the sidewalk. Choosing drivers over pedestrians doesn’t only tell half the city to go f*ck itself. It suggests their lives aren’t worth the trouble of installing some traffic barriers here and there. People deserve to feel safer when they walk around this city.

Aside from poor infrastructure and what feels like apathy on the part of City Hall, SFPD, and the SFMTA, another, more insidious cause lurks beneath the surface.

Are bigger, badder vehicles causing more traffic fatalities?

It’s a very real crime to kill somebody with a vehicle. When I got my first car at age sixteen, my mother congratulated me with a warning. “You’re piloting a deadly weapon. It has the power to kill people if you aren’t careful. When I tell you, ‘Drive safe,’ I mean it.” It was one of those rare moments in life where fear actually engendered respect and not resentment. You could smoke with your feet up on the dashboard for all I cared. In my car, the only rule was you had to wear your seatbelt. 

But it’s what happens outside the vehicle that matters here in San Francisco, as well as the cars themselves. An automotive trend has triggered a pronounced increase in vehicle profile, among trucks and SUVs especially. The higher you sit off the road, the less you can see right in front of you. Your blind spot, an apron of invisibility, can cloak whole other cars, as is the case for big rig drivers. Indeed, my most recent close call came from an encounter with a reckless truck owner. If car manufacturers continue profiting off of progressively taller, faster vehicles lethal to anyone they hit, we deserve safer streets. 

Jodie Medeiros of pedestrian safety advocacy group WalkSF is among those rallying for a more thoughtful approach to Vision Zero. 

“We need a lot more agency collaboration—so, fire department, police department, department of public health, department of public works, along with the SFMTA, working together to make sure that this is a priority for the city,” she told CBS. “We really feel like, if we can make our streets safe for the 8-year-old to the 80-year-old, everybody in between wins.”