ON THE POLIS – There is an old Greek proverb that is applicable and appropriate today: “You can knock all you want on a deaf man’s door.”
Los Angeles is currently facing a continuing increase in traffic-related fatalities, with deaths on roadways frequently surpassing those caused by homicides and exhibiting no significant decline. The traffic carnage here not only outpaced national trends, but it also continued at a record gallop.
We can no longer keep knocking on doors that will not open, we must demand immediate and exceptional action.
Ten years ago, in 2015 the city launched “Vision Zero,” a daring plan to decrease the transportation-related fatality rate to zero by 2025. But 2025 did not show a decline in fatalities, rather it showed a surge of 26%.
The plan emphasized that traffic fatalities can be prevented and pledged to reduce them by prioritizing engineering, enforcement, education, and evaluation—while ensuring fairness and community involvement. It acknowledged the ambitious nature of its goal, noting that meeting it would demand strong leadership and decisive action.
Yet, despite numerous calls for action, traffic fatalities persist and increase. This situation underscores the ongoing need for extraordinary and effective leadership to address this critical issue.
Last November in this space I wrote that traffic violence claims many lives and our intersections have become the horrific killing zones of our generation. Our government leaders have pointed to some solutions, such as thoughtful infrastructure design and improvements, increased driver education, and implementing life-saving technologies.
That is not enough. We are amid a public health and safety emergency that requires swift and coordinated action. The crisis cannot be overlooked any longer. The mayor must declare an emergency and direct officials and departments to focus on the unendurable traffic carnage.
Traffic violence results from dangerous actions like speeding, impairment, and distraction, often leading to hit-and-runs and reckless driving. Enforcement gaps allow these issues to persist due to poor policy implementation. This reflects a clear failure to maintain order on public streets.
The moment to close those gaps is now. The problem can no longer be ignored. The city must declare a public emergency and communicate it clearly. Quick and coherent terms should be used so the message is understood throughout an area where fragmented authority and frayed norms make routine coordination difficult.
I wrote a few months ago that red-light running accidents are among the most avoidable. It has been determined that the red-light runner is almost always making a conscious decision to run a red. Regrettably, other people pay for the at-fault driver’s actions. Inattentive or distracted drivers, either using their phones or unfocused for other reasons, such as eating or drinking, are key factors.
We read in the Los Angeles Times that road safety advocates, led by Streets Are for Everyone (SAFE), held a “die-in” at Los Angeles City Hall to remember the 290 people killed in traffic incidents last year and call for safer streets across the city.
To visually demonstrate their anger, dozens lay still on the Los Angeles City Hall steps during last Saturday’s protest, demanding the city deploy speed cameras, protective bike lanes, and redesigned crosswalks — tools that they say remain underutilized in Vision Zero efforts. A sign reading “People are dying, City Hall is failing” hung atop the steps of the building. Yellow roses commemorating those who have lost their lives to traffic violence blanketed the bottom steps.
Vision Zero failed because the city never built the political, institutional, or cultural conditions required for a program whose success depends on unified authority, consistent enforcement, and sustained political courage. According to a KPMG audit last April, half of the fifty-six required actions and strategies were still unfinished five years after they were supposed to be done.
What we have is not policy failure, but execution failure. Responsible teams and individuals worked in isolation, failing to share information, communicate, or collaborate with other departments within the same organization. That was a finding of the audit. Vision Zero required one strategy, one chain of command, one set of priorities. LA Department of Transportation, the Los Angeles Police Department, LA Department of Public Works, and City Council offices operated in silos, with no unified command structure.
Los Angeles Daily News reported on April 16, 2005, that the audit found poor communication, and lack of enthusiasm behind LA’s failure to eliminate traffic deaths. LAist, two days before, had written, “the conclusion of a newly released audit, found the city’s long-running effort to eliminate traffic deaths by this year has been impeded by a lack of cohesion across departments, insufficient political support and an imbalanced approach.”
Insufficient political support and declining enthusiasm at City Hall were manifested, with some councilmembers blocking safety projects in their own districts. No mayoral enforcement of citywide standards was visible.
Traffic violence is seen by public health agencies as a long-term epidemiological problem and gives it lower-priority enforcement. Public safety saw it as low‑priority enforcement. Transportation saw it as engineering. And politicians saw it as an optional issue, an infrastructural problem.
What is obvious, of course, is that if everyone owns it, no one owns it.
Vision Zero failed in Los Angeles because the city attempted to implement a Scandinavian safety culture inside a fragmented, car‑dominated, politically risk‑averse system that cannot sustain long‑term, coordinated action. In those countries traffic deaths are unacceptable and political decisions guide street design, speed limits, enforcement, and policy decisions. There the car is considered a deadly weapon, not an extension of personal freedom.
Mayor Karen Bass is empowered to declare the existence of a local emergency by issuing a formal Declaration of Local Emergencyunder the Los Angeles Administrative Code, which immediately activates the city’s emergency powers and the Emergency Operations Organization. This authority is grounded in Sections 8.27 and 8.29 of the LA Administrative Code.
A declaration is made when conditions threaten life, property, or public welfare and the situation is beyond the control of normal city services. A coordinated, multi‑agency response becomes necessary to eliminate or reduce senseless traffic deaths. We cannot wait a minute longer.
An unknown author spoke wise words: “Safety isn’t expensive, it’s priceless.”
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(Nick Patsaouras is an electrical engineer, civic leader, and a longtime public advocate. He ran for Mayor in 1993 with a focus on rebuilding L.A. through transportation after the 1992 civil unrest. He has served on major public boards, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, Metro, and the Board of Zoning Appeals, helping guide infrastructure and planning policy in Los Angeles. He is the author of the book “The Making of Modern Los Angeles.”)