SAN DIEGO — Pedestrian and bike safety group, Circulate San Diego, is calling on the city to put safety over budgetary shortfalls and fix some of San Diego's deadliest and most dangerous intersections.
Circulate San Diego members said small improvements such as painting crosswalks, installing signal timers and adding audio to those timers could address some of the safety issues at San Diego's 15 deadliest intersections.
The fixes at what Circulate San Diego refers to as "the fatal 15" intersections would cost the city approximately $1.5 million.
The intersections are included in car-centric neighborhoods such as Clairemont Mesa, Mira Mesa, Rolando, as well as more urban areas such as Uptown.
The number of pedestrian and cyclist deaths has increased in the past four years despite the City of San Diego's pledge to wipe out traffic deaths citywide by 2025 as part of its Vision Zero plan, which was implemented in 2015.
Vision Zero is part of a larger concept that traffic fatalities, whether you’re in a car or on a bike or on foot, are preventable by addressing flaws in road design and making intersections safer.
Public records obtained by CBS 8 show that more than 430 people have died in traffic-related collisions since 2015, the year that San Diego implemented Vision Zero.
"Ultimately, the preservation of lives is an investment well worth making," reads a Circulate San Diego statement. "Vision Zero is not some 'nice to have' during good budget years. The City of San Diego will spend large sums of money on transportation in this coming budget, and we are merely asking that a reasonable share of that spending be made to do the most good and to save the most lives."