In light of the recent plague of traffic violence in Berkeley that has led to eight deaths and many more serious injuries in 2021 alone, we are calling for immediate revisions to Berkeley’s Vision Zero Plan to ensure that Berkeley’s streets are safe for everyone, especially its most vulnerable users. These revisions must be centered around the only effective way to avoid fatal collisions: safe street design.

In 2018 Berkeley adopted its Vision Zero Plan, which resolved “to end all-traffic related deaths and severe injuries on City streets by 2028.” Although the Plan states that an average of 3 people die each year in Berkeley as a result of traffic violence, 2021 saw eight people killed on Berkeley’s streets. We are concerned that Berkeley is not moving in the right direction to meet its Vision Zero goals and urge the City to take immediate action to help us become a community that prioritizes the safety of our most vulnerable street users.

First, Berkeley should follow the lead of San Francisco and Los Angeles by reducing speed limits in Business Activity Districts, High Injury Zones, and Senior Zones in accordance with recently passed Assembly Bill 43, which authorizes cities to consider the safety of “vulnerable pedestrian groups including children, seniors, persons with disabilities, users of personal assistive mobility devices, and the unhoused” in setting speed limits. A pedestrian hit by a motorist traveling at 30mph is 50% likely to be killed; at 40mph they are 90% likely to be killed.

Changing the posted speed limit, however, is only the first step for reducing reckless driving in a meaningful way. That’s why the Vision Zero Plan should be revised to require the development of an iterative process for ensuring that motorists obey posted speed limits without the need for enforcement by police or other human personnel. This approach is known as Iiterating to Safety.

Such a process should consist of the following:

1) A survey of the actual speeds traveled on each of Berkeley’s streets as of today (i.e. baseline scenario), with prioritization given to High Injury Zones, Senior Zones, and Business Opportunity Zones, as defined in AB 43 and in the Vision Zero Plan.

2) For streets in which speeds are exceeded, design changes proven to reduce speeds are implemented, such as lane narrowing, raised crosswalks, speed bumps, traffic circles, chicanes, street tree placements, etc.

3) Streets are resurveyed after design changes are implemented to see if excessive speeds have been eliminated. Where excessive speeds or speeding-related traffic violations such as pedestrians' right of way are not eliminated, further design changes are implemented until excessive speeds are eliminated.

The increase of speeding and reckless driving that has occurred on Berkeley’s streets in recent years must also be addressed through design changes and cannot be solved by enforcement alone, especially in a time of chronic understaffing of employees responsible for enforcement. Moreover, Berkeley is currently involved in Reimagining Public Safety, a process that recognizes the inherent biases in our current approach to traffic enforcement and which will seek alternatives to police and enforcement on our streets. Redesigning our streets for lower speeds is a perfect example of an alternative to enforcement. That’s why we are urging revisions in Vision Zero to establish an iterative process for redesigning streets to function at the posted speed limit.

Recognizing that the City of Berkeley has limited resources in any given year to implement design changes, Berkeley’s Vision Zero Plan should also be revised to prioritize usage of “quick-build” elements to reduce vehicle speeds and improve safety in High Injury Zones, Business Activity Districts, and Senior Districts. Design elements such as rubber speed-bumps (pictured in Figure 2 below) can be quickly implemented at strategic locations to prevent speeding, which will provide immediate safety benefits for all street users. Bollards can be strategically placed to reduce reckless driving by narrowing streets, creating protected intersections, and requiring sharper turn angles. Quick build elements have the added benefit of allowing neighborhoods to “see and adjust what works on the ground, rather than in theory.”