LA On Track For Deadliest Traffic Year in Recorded Memory
Next month, on Sunday, November 17, communities across the world will unite to recognize World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims for those who have lost their lives or been impacted by traffic violence.
For those commemorating this solemn occasion in Los Angeles, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims stings a little more this year. In 2024, LA is once again besieged by traffic violence: 210 people have been killed so far this year on LA’s streets — more traffic deaths than this time last year, which was already the deadliest year for traffic fatalities since 2003, the first year that data’s readily available.
Once again, the streets of Los Angeles have never been deadlier.
At the beginning of this year, we at SAFE produced our second annual “Traffic Violence in LA” report card, in which we gave the city’s response to the crisis of traffic violence an “F” grade.
I began that report with a provocative but simple question that I ask again now, more urgently than I did then: How many more Angelenos need to die before we, as a collective city, start treating traffic violence with the urgency it deserves?
When I wrote those words last January, I was reflecting on the worst year of traffic violence since data became available; this year, it looks like more of the same—and more of the same from Mayor Karen Bass and the City of Los Angeles’s leadership.
LA Pedestrians Continue to Be Killed at Alarming Rates
As Los Angeles’s streets have grown more dangerous for motorists and their passengers, they’ve (unsurprisingly) also grown deadlier for pedestrians.
Crossing the street has never been more dangerous in Los Angeles: motorists killed 112 pedestrians in the first 209 days of this year, or a pedestrian was struck and killed by a motorist every other day — a 1% increase from last year, which was itself a record-setting year for vehicular violence against walkers.
Hit-and-runs also remain frighteningly high: of the 210 fatal car crashes so far this year, 74 of the drivers have left their victims to die in the street, a 10% increase from 2023.
Whether you’re in a car, on foot, or on a bike (bicyclists are, of course, also getting hit at record-high rates), things have gotten worse on our streets.
It’s Past Time to Make Safe Streets a Reality in LA
In addition to honoring those we’ve lost due to traffic violence, World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims also provides communities an opportunity to mobilize and demand action that “improves roadway safety, uplifts proven strategies, including redesigning dangerous roads, reducing speed limits and improving vehicle design.”
In last year’s report, I outlined a four-part strategy to address the rising violence on our streets, which, as we’ve seen, is important to reiterate as we reckon with another deadly year:
Cut the bureaucracy by declaring a state of emergency related to traffic violence.
Reestablish Vision Zero with accountability, transparency, and PURPOSE.
Prioritize lives over the right to speed.
Get real about the magnitude of the problem by funding road safety improvements at a level that might start to make a difference.
We’d hoped that the sobering numbers in our annual reports would serve as a wake-up call for our elected officials and responsible agencies, but 2024 has proven that our calls to action are not being heard, let alone heeded. It remains “business as usual” for LADOT and LAPD, and Mayor Bass has not given a sense of urgency on the subject, nor has there been a coordinated effort by the LA City Council to address this public health crisis.
Though some agencies and elected officials have proven their desire to fight for safer streets, the little that has been done has been ineffective or too late to make a difference.
This World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, join SAFE in both honoring those we’ve lost and pushing our city to affirm its commitment to eliminating traffic violence — and to start taking the necessary, concrete steps to make that vision a reality.
Sign up to volunteer with SAFE or receive safe-streets updates to push our city officials to make our streets safer for everyone. And, when there are opportunities to show your commitment to safe streets, take advantage of them — like this weekend’s CicLAvia: Heart of LA!