SACRAMENTO COUNTY, Calif. — It's dangerous and frustrating, but you most likely see it happening every day. People drive too fast on streets, highways and in neighborhoods.
Speeding on residential streets is the most common complaint made to the Sacramento County Department of Transportation. Residents are worried about the safety of children, pedestrians, bicyclists, and other drivers.
According to the latest report from the California Office of Traffic Safety, 12,148 people died or got hurt in a car crash in Sacramento County in 2021. Speeding is to blame for at least 2,653 of the crashes.
Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) introduced Senate Bill 961 to address speeding and traffic fatalities statewide. The bill requires certain vehicles to be equipped with a speed assistance system. It uses visual and audio signals to alert the driver if the vehicle is going more than five miles per hour over the legal speed limit.
“The alarming surge in road deaths is unbearable and demands an urgent response,” said Wiener. “There is no reason for anyone to be going over 100 miles per hour on a public road, yet in 2020, California Highway Patrol issued over 30,000 tickets for just that offense. Preventing reckless speeding is a commonsense approach to prevent these utterly needless and heartbreaking crashes.”
SB 961 also requires side underride guards on trucks to reduce the risk of cars and bikes being pulled underneath the truck during a crash.
Wiener also created SB 960. It requires Caltrans, the state transportation agency, to make physical improvements, like new crosswalks and curb extensions on state-owned surface streets, to better accommodate pedestrians, cyclists, the disability community, and transit users.
Similar to SB 960, SB 127 also called the Complete Streets for Active Living Bill, was approved by the legislature in 2019, but Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed the bill.
“Many state-owned roads across the state need to be improved to accommodate all users, including pedestrians, cyclists, motorists, and public transit riders," Wiener said. "State roads, which are often main streets in smaller towns, should be safe for anyone wishing to walk, bike, or wait for the bus — and we can do a lot better by requiring things like crosswalks, bike lanes, rapid bus lanes, and safe bus stops."
The Senate Transportation Committee will meet Tuesday to discuss the bills, also called the Speeding and Fatality Emergency Reduction on California Streets (SAFER California Streets) Package.
"Instead of leading the rise in traffic fatalities, California should be leading the nation in reducing needless deaths on our roadway," Wiener said."The SAFER California Streets Package allows us to reclaim that leadership for a safer and more sustainable future.”
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