By Jorge Casuso

August 12, 2024 -- Despite major investments in traffic safety, fatal and severe injury crashes involving cyclists and pedestrians in Santa Monica have increased in each of the past three years, according to data provided by the City.

Last year, 39 people were severely injured or killed in local traffic accidents, one of them a motorist killed in a car-only crash, the data compiled by the Department of Transportation show.

Graph and Chart Courtesy City of Santa Monica

The total number of accidents resulting in severe injuries and deaths was the highest since 43 were reported in 2019 and the second highest since at least 2010, the first year counts were provided.

In 2023, pedestrians were involved in 16 severe injury crashes and five fatal crashes, while six bicyclists were severely injured and one was killed. Three severe injury crashes involved scooters.

The total number of crashes increased gradually after nosediving to 15 during the coronavirus shutdown in 2020 -- with 30 reported in 2021 and 33 in 2022.

"Santa Monica is experiencing the same nationwide trend in the years following the pandemic’s stay at home orders," said Lauren Howland, the City's Communications and Public Information Manager.

The City, she wrote in an email, is "seeing an upward trend in overall severe and fatal incidents involving pedestrians, bikes, e-scooters and motor vehicles."

Howland noted that "even as the severe injury rate is increasing in line with the national trend, we are seeing that the number of pedestrian and bike-involved fatal crashes is holding steady."

There were a total of six in each of the past two years, exceeded by seven in 2017 and matched by 6 in 2012, according to the data.

The record number of fatalities in 2017 prompted the City Council to order faster action implementing "Vision Zero," a policy adopted in February of 2016 to end all fatalities and major injuries among users of City streets in coming decades.

Actions included the sweeping re-design of city streets meant to embrace pedestrians and bicyclists and chase vehicles off car-clogged streets ("Santa Monica City Council Calls for Safe Streets 'Czar,'” May 11, 2017).

Last year, the Council redoubled its efforts shortly after an avid cyclist was killed on October, marking last year's only fatality involving a bicyclist ("Council Takes Steps to Curb Collisions Involving Cyclists, Pedestrians," November 17, 2023).

Weeks later, the City announced it would install four-way stop signs at the intersection of 19th Street and Idaho Avenue, where the cyclist was killed, as well as at other dangerous intersections citywide.

"Investments in constructing protected bike lanes, enhancing visibility and adding crosswalks have been ongoing," Howland wrote in her email.

In December, the City completed the "Safe Streets for 17th and Michigan Avenue" project that resulted in 1.5 miles of protected bike and pedestrian improvements, Howland said.

The City also is gearing up to construct the "Bergamot Area Improvements" that will include adding protected bike lanes, improved lighting, street resurfacing and a new crosswalk.

Later this month, the Council is expected to review the City's most recent speed survey and determine if speed limits need to be adjusted in various areas, Howland said.

The City also has been enhancing its education efforts by "amplifying messages related to traffic safety" through the “Take the Friendly Road” campaign, Howland said.

Santa Monica also joined the Go Safely PCH initiative, which "alerts drivers of increased law enforcement presence on Pacific Coast Highway and reminds them to slow down or face the consequences."

As the new school year gets underway, the City "will be working to remind our community about increased pedestrian and bike traffic," Howland said.

An analysis by The Lookout last December found that bicyclists and motorists involved in serious crashes since 2010 have both been almost equally at fault ("Bicyclists Share Fault in Serious Crashes, Data Show," December 14, 2023).

Of the 72 fatal and severe injury (FSI) crashes between January 1, 2010 and November 16, 2023, the cyclist was determined to be at fault in 26 of the crashes and the motorist in 31.

In the remaining 15 incidents no fault was determined for either the driver or the cyclist, according to data provided by the City.

In addition to the engineering and education initiatives, the Police Department has been expanding traffic enforcement operations focused on "primary collision factors involving motorists, pedestrians and bicyclists."

The operations take place at "locations where pedestrian and bike collisions are prevalent, along with the violations that led to those collisions," police officials said.