Health Department details Vision Zero data: majority of severe injuries clustered on a small share of streets

Dr. Seth Pardo, director of the Center for Data Science in the Department of Public Health’s Population Health Division, briefed commissioners May 3 on the city’s Vision 0 strategy and associated data products.

“Seventy‑five percent of all San Francisco severe and fatal traffic injuries occur on 13 percent of our streets,” Pardo said, summarizing the high‑injury network analysis and the department’s equity focus on low‑income communities and communities of color that are disproportionately affected.

Pardo highlighted mode‑specific trends. Pedestrians account for roughly 48 percent of fatalities; seniors (age 65+) represent about 22 percent of fatalities despite being a smaller share of the population. He described how changes in travel patterns during the pandemic — including rising vehicle miles traveled and increased speeds — may have contributed to more severe crashes even when overall volumes fell.

Pardo described data systems that inform the work: TransBase, a public crash dashboard, and a transportation‑injury surveillance system (TISS) that integrates police collision data with hospital and medical examiner records. He said the department expects an updated high‑injury network later in the year and a fatality report under review at the mayor’s office that may be released later in May.

Jamie Parks of SFMTA noted that the programmatic percentage breakdowns on policy slides are approximate and drawn from national research (the Roadmap to 0). Parks emphasized that state authorization to deploy speed safety cameras would be a critical enforcement tool and that congestion pricing is a potential lever to reduce vehicle volumes in the city.

Commissioners asked about statistical significance of long‑term trends and whether per‑capita rates show progress. Pardo said regression analyses by mode did not show clear year‑to‑year statistical significance but that intervention scale‑up (quick‑build projects increased more than 200% since 2019) and the city’s changing population and vehicle miles traveled complicate trend interpretation. Commissioners also discussed helmet use and e‑scooter injury counts that Pardo reported from recent tracking.

No vote was taken; the commission thanked Pardo and requested follow‑up when the mayor’s fatality report and the high‑injury network update are published.