San Francisco Launches Third Year of Motorcycle Education Campaign Pilot
San Francisco residents, commuters and visitors will see significant movement toward safe streets as the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) continues another year of work on a first of its kind Vision Zero education campaign targeting people who ride motorcycles. Funding for the campaign is provided by a $100,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
The program’s third year will build off the success of the last two years, which saw motorcycle injuries decrease by 12 percent and motorcycle fatalities decline by 50 percent, compared to the year before the program began, according to an analysis by the San Francisco Department of Public Health. However, there is more work to do to reach the City’s goal of zero deaths and severe injuries on our roads.
San Francisco is experiencing an increase in motorcycle usage. According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles, there were 22,511 registered motorcycles in San Francisco in 2014, which is an increase in registered motorcycles over five years. With this increase, San Francisco has seen more motorcycle crashes resulting in injury and death. The Office of Traffic Safety database ranks San Francisco as having the highest fatal collision rate among California cities over 250,000 in population and fifth among all counties in the State. Twenty percent of all traffic fatalities in San Francisco in 2017 involved motorcycles despite them accounting for a small fraction of total road users.
To stem these fatalities, the SFMTA will continue to work in direct partnership with the San Francisco Police Department and the San Francisco Department of Public Health to implement a citywide education campaign aimed at reducing and ending injuries and deaths among people who ride motorcycles. As part of the city’s Vision Zero Education Strategy, this campaign will be used to educate the targeted population and implement a spectrum of prevention measures intended to alter individual behaviors that most contribute to crashes, including unsafe speed, unsafe passing and DUI.
The campaign was developed in support of Vision Zero, San Francisco’s policy to eliminate all traffic-related deaths. Every year, about 30 people lose their lives and over 200 more are seriously injured while traveling on city streets. These deaths and injuries are preventable, and San Francisco is committed to stopping further loss of life.
Vision Zero – San Francisco adopted Vision Zero as a policy in 2014, committing to build better and safer streets, educate the public on traffic safety, enforce traffic laws, and adopt policy changes that save lives. The result of this collaborative, citywide effort is safer, more livable streets as San Francisco works towards the Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2024. San Francisco is engineering inherently safer streets, enforcing traffic laws more effectively, and targeting traffic-safety education to reach its Vision Zero goals.
Office of Traffic Safety – The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) strives to eliminate traffic deaths and injuries. It does this by making available grants to local and state public agencies for programs that help them enforce traffic laws, educate the public in traffic safety, and provide varied and effective means of reducing fatalities, injuries and economic losses from collisions.