TRAFFIC FATALITIES in San Francisco dropped by nearly half in 2025 compared to 2024, a decrease that pedestrian advocates say is the result of years of efforts to improve traffic safety.
“This is a culmination of all the policies and traffic initiatives that the city has been doing for the last 10-plus years,” Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco, said in an interview. Walk SF is an organization that pushes for better street safety for pedestrians in San Francisco.
There were 43 traffic fatalities in 2024, marking the deadliest year for travelers in the city since 2007. As of Wednesday, there were 24 traffic deaths during the year, 16 of which were pedestrians, according to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency.
The addition of new speed cameras, more speed bumps, lower speed limits, and better visibility in crosswalks are all factors that Medeiros said have contributed to the decrease.
San Francisco deployed dozens of speed cameras across the city in 2025, becoming the first city in California to use them. The cameras have been effective, according to the SFMTA, showing a decrease in average speeds on streets with speed cameras versus before the installation of the cameras.
“There is no silver bullet to traffic safety,” she said. “It is really about redesigning our streets, which are often designed for cars, to design them for people walking, biking, and taking public transit.”
Fewer traffic death, but not zero
Although traffic fatalities declined in 2025 compared to 2024, the numbers fall short of the city’s Vision Zero SF policy, which aimed to bring down traffic deaths to zero by 2024.
Adopted in 2014, Vision Zero SF had little effect in reducing traffic fatalities by its 2024 deadline. Traffic deaths fell in 2017 to a low of 20 fatalities, but then rose steadily from 2018 to 2020 with steep increases seen in 2022 and 2024, according to city traffic data.
But more than 10 years later, Medeiros thinks that the accumulation of efforts to improve street safety is starting to show results.
“In countries that we look to for inspiration, whether it be Sweden or Norway, it took more than 10 years for those countries to see results,” she said. “All of these things are needed, and they all take time. We fought for almost 10 years for speed cameras, and now we’re seeing the results.”
“Three-quarters of the pedestrian fatalities this year are older adults. They are our most vulnerable. That is something that we’ll be focusing on and really talking to all the city agencies about how this needs to change.” Jodie Medeiros, Walk San Francisco executive director
After 2024’s high number of traffic deaths and Vision Zero’s expiration, street safety advocates pressured city leaders to address the issue as a public safety crisis and adopt an updated Vision Zero SF policy.
In September, the Board of Supervisors passed the Street Safety Act, a replacement to Vision Zero SF that set up requirements and deadlines for several city departments to deliver on implementing street safety interventions.
For example, the San Francisco Police Department is mandated to develop a plan on how it will boost enforcement against driving behaviors that have a high risk of leading to death or injury, such as speeding.
Other features of the legislation include requiring that the SFMTA draw up plans to redesign certain streets identified in high-injury corridors of the city, and reforming the agency’s Residential Traffic Calming Program to allow for a more efficient installation of speed-reducing devices like speed humps and traffic circles.
More collaboration between city agencies
Mayor Daniel Lurie also issued an executive directive two weeks ago to revamp the city’s approach to reducing traffic fatalities and injuries. The directive mandates greater coordination between SFPD, the city’s Department of Public Health, and the SFMTA so that city agencies can work more efficiently and collaboratively in improving street safety.
The directive also requires city departments to complete many of the actions in the Street Safety Act.
“We are absolutely thrilled that Mayor Lurie took it to an executive order,” Medeiros said. “The biggest piece of that is the interagency coordination that is now going to be managed by the mayor’s office.”
While the city appears to be making progress in bringing down traffic deaths, Medeiros said that Walk SF’s next priority is addressing the fact that most of the pedestrians killed in traffic collisions in 2025 were older people. Additionally, several of the collisions with pedestrians allegedly involved drivers fleeing the scene, according to city traffic data.
“Three-quarters of the pedestrian fatalities this year are older adults. They are our most vulnerable,” she said. “That is something that we’ll be focusing on and really talking to all the city agencies about how this needs to change.”
The SFMTA is expected to release the 2025 High Injury Network map in January, which will show which areas of the city have a higher rate of traffic-related injuries or deaths. The last map was released in 2022.
