San Jose - What’s in the budget? An update on the Vision Zero Campaign
Bicyclists pause during a recent tour of street safety infrastructure in San Jose.
Diana Crumedy is Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s Associate Director of Advocacy and Community Development.
Hey everyone!
Just wanted to give you a quick update on what's been happening lately as the City of San Jose’s budget season is coming to a close. A little over a year ago, Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition (SVBC) began a campaign to win full city funding for San Jose’s Vision Zero Action Plan, a plan to lower and ultimately eliminate traffic fatalities and severe traffic injuries. We've been working hard on the budget and making progress with the Vision Zero campaign.
Recap
In preparation for the Mayor’s Budget message, we started the year off by reaching out to the newly elected city council members and inviting them to join us on an infrastructure privilege ride, highlighting how inequity in traffic planning and infrastructure affects safety and to demonstrate that in order to bring underserved communities to the level of other areas they must be treated and funded equitably, not equally. The goal of the ride was to meet new and current council members and to get them on board to support the FUND VISION ZERO campaign via the infrastructure privilege ride.
We know that unsafe streets affect so many in our community, especially our most vulnerable members such as unhoused people and the elderly. The intersection of this important issue impacts our community partners California Walks, Silicon Valley Leadership Group, Tropicana Lanai Neighborhood Association, Save the Bay, Greenbelt Alliance, Guadalupe Park Conservancy, and San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets as well. This is why they joined our efforts to create a Fund Vision Zero sign-on letter to support the recommendations from the Mayor’s Transition Committee on Traffic Enforcement and Crime to increase the budget to fund safer streets in San Jose.
There were four recommendations on traffic enforcement from the Committee:
Fully fund the Vision Zero Action Plan
Fund the Bike Plan
Create a pedestrian safety program
Increase staff capacity in the Department of Transportation
We followed up by having one on one relation-building meetings with all of the San Jose council members and the mayor's staff to urge them to fully fund Vision Zero and to answer any questions that would assist them in becoming Vision Zero advocates. SVBC San Jose Local Team members and community activists joined us and shared personal stories, concerns and experiences that they have had while riding on San Jose streets with council. The result was that we succeeded in ensuring that funding for Vision Zero was prioritized in the Mayor's budget message.
When the opportunity presented itself via events like Budget town halls, pancake breakfasts, and coffee/cafecitos for the public to further engage with the council about the budget, we shared the opportunities with the local team and encouraged you all to attend, even if only to say “I bike in San Jose and I want to feel safe on the streets when I do.”
Additionally, we provided talking points to help engage with the council whether that be by providing public comment or sending an email. Attending these meetings reinforces to the council that their constituents and those that work or play in their district are relying on them to make sure that the Vision Zero budget reflects the record number of fatalities that occurred last year and the need to ensure that never happens again.
Thanks to everyone who attended meetings, wrote their council member or provided public comments along the way!
Here’s where things are
The goal of the Fund Vision Zero campaign was to urge our city leaders to prioritize funding, increase the amount of money to the Department of Transportation to support the more rapid build-out of Vision Zero, the Bike Plan, and implement Vision Zero in the next two fiscal years.
The Vision Zero Action Plan is a safety investment strategy of approximately $25 million to significantly reduce traffic fatalities and severe injuries on the City’s roadways. Of the $25 million, $13 million has been programmed through 2023-2024 for data analytics, outreach and engagement, and quick-build safety improvements.
The funding amount of $12 million is what is needed in order to ensure that the Vision Zero Priority Corridors were built out by 2025. The funds would have allowed the city to consider advancing outreach work and early scoping/design work for future projects with contractual services but without the additional staff resources, the addition of $12M would not have been mobilized.
The VZ program is currently funded to deliver several more quick-build projects next year, including along Julian, Saratoga, Santa Teresa, Blossom Hill, and Jackson. As the city leverages the pavement program, they expect to see savings that can be put towards even more projects.
Following the money
There was an increase from last year's FY 22-23 Adopted Transportation Safety and Operations budget of $14,170,384 to this year's FY23-24 Proposed Transportation Safety and Operations budget of $15,004,595. Additionally, The 2023-2024 Proposed Operating Budget adds $280,000 for two permanent positions in the Transportation Department. Those two positions would be focused on obtaining additional grant funding for traffic safety projects, and for evaluating the effectiveness of Vision Zero priority safety corridor improvement projects, primarily through pre- and post- project studies to understand the effectiveness of projects implemented on the Priority Safety Corridors.
The final push — Important dates to know
Budget Decision Milestones and City Council Study Sessions:
June 7 – 2023-2024 Mayor’s June Budget Message Released
June 12 – Public Hearings on 2023-2024 Proposed Budget and Fees & Charges
June 13 – Council Review/Approval of the 2023- 2024 Mayor’s June Budget Message
June 20 – Adoption of the 2023-2024 Capital and Operating Budgets, 2024-2028 CIP, and the 2023-2024 Fees & Charge
You can also sign the Fund Vision Zero petition . Thanks again for your support - together, we can make a real difference! If you have any questions and would like to find out how you can advocate to make your streets safer please reach out to diana@bikesilconvalley.org directly to find out how you can help.