Dear Mayor Bass and Honorable Members of the City Council:

The City of Los Angeles has not been taking traffic violence and the public health crisis that is, seriously. The facts speak for themselves:

In 2015, the city committed to Vision Zero – its plan to end traffic violence by 2025. In 2025, traffic fatalities were reported by LAPD to be 290, 56% higher than in 2015. 

For the past three years there have been more traffic fatalities than homicides. 

An audit directed by the Los Angeles City Council found that Vision Zero failed – and thousands of people died – because of a lack of political will and poor coordination between city departments. 

Traffic violence is the leading cause of death for children ages 4-14 in LA County. 

Between 31 January and 5 February 2026, there were two mass traffic fatality events, resulting in 5 people killed and 7 others seriously injured. 

The City of Los Angeles was about to return 100 million dollars in road safety funding to the State of California because it didn’t have the manpower to use the money. 

We, the undersigned, demand that the issue of traffic violence be treated with the urgency and importance that it deserves. We request that the City of Los Angeles formally declare a State of Emergency due to traffic violence, thus redirecting resources and prioritizing actions to address this city-wide problem. This includes but is not limited to:  

1. Recommitting to Vision Zero in its entirety – all five pillars, not just one or two.
2. Take serious and meaningful actions to fully address the failures of Vision Zero found in the city’s own audit.
3. Properly staff the LADOT, RIGHT NOW,  with the personnel needed to use the grants and funding it already has.
4. Immediately empower the community to make their own roads safer through a community-led traffic safety program.
5. Fast-track road safety programs and improvements that are already in the works.

Vision Zero cannot succeed if it is treated as a slogan rather than a mandate. Preventable deaths are not unfortunate accidents; they are the predictable outcome of design choices and policy decisions.

Our city’s leaders have the tools, data, and authority to act. Now we are asking them to decide that a commitment to protecting human life should not be negotiable.

Jonathan Hale, Founder
People’s Vision Zero

Damian Kevitt, Executive Director
Streets Are For Everyone