San Antonio has launched a brand new public consciousness marketing campaign geared toward decreasing pedestrian deaths on three high-injury corridors. To this point this 12 months, there have been greater than 700 reported incidents of a automobile putting somebody crossing a avenue.
The bilingual marketing campaign, “Hold Crossings SAfe,” or “Cruza SAno y SAlvo,” will run alongside Zarzamora Road, Fredericksburg Highway and W.W. White Highway — three roadways recognized within the metropolis’s Excessive Harm Community, a listing of corridors the place severe and deadly crashes are most concentrated.
The outreach effort is funded by a federal Secure Streets for All (SS4A) grant, which helps the town’s broader Imaginative and prescient Zero purpose of eliminating visitors deaths.
The marketing campaign will use life-size silhouettes modeled on native residents, positioned close to busy intersections and crossing factors, to remind drivers and pedestrians to be extra conscious when approaching the roadway.
Kristie Flores, assistant to the director of transportation for the Metropolis of San Antonio and facilitator for Imaginative and prescient Zero, stated the purpose is to succeed in individuals within the locations the place crashes occur most.
“The thought is to place out a message that claims, you recognize, security is all people’s accountability. It’s not simply the driving force or the pedestrian. We would like individuals to concentrate. We would like them to cross at designated areas,” she stated. “ One of many issues that we’ve seen, that comes up the entire time in information tales, is individuals crossing the road the place they’re not imagined to, and sadly, it winds up being a tragedy, and once more, preventable had they used the designated crosswalk.”
The Texas Division of Transportation’s Crash Data Data System reveals that already this 12 months there have been 729 pedestrian-involved crashes in San Antonio killing 57 individuals. Almost 90% of these crashes occurred on roads categorized as “metropolis streets” in TxDOT’s system.
Final 12 months, the info confirmed 916 pedestrian-involved crashes leading to 66 deaths, a determine that has remained constant over the previous a number of years whilst total crash totals fluctuate with 71 deaths reported in 2022 and 2023.
Though the frequency varies by hall, the three streets chosen for the marketing campaign — Zarzamora, Fredericksburg and W.W. White — have lengthy appeared among the many metropolis’s checklist of high-risk roadways for pedestrians.
Two of the three corridors are at present present process enhancements: including safer crossing factors and redesigning intersections the place pedestrians are steadily struck.
On Zarzamora Road, the town is within the pre-design section of a venture funded by means of the identical Secure Streets for All grant that helps the brand new outreach marketing campaign. Plans name for a number of mid-block pedestrian crossings alongside the hall, which might create marked, extremely seen locations for individuals to cross on the closely traveled 12 mile hall. The mid-block crossings would be the first set of street enchancment efforts below the grant.
On W.W. White Highway, crews are upgrading the visitors alerts to metallic mast arms, including crosswalk markings, relocating VIA bus stops nearer to marked crossings and constructing new sidewalk segments with building estimated to be accomplished by the tip of this month. Extra work that has been accomplished features a mid-block crosswalk with warning beacons between Lavender Lane and Lord Highway.
No main engineering tasks are at present listed for Fredericksburg Highway on the Imaginative and prescient Zero web site, although Flores stated the division is working by means of its checklist of high-injury corridors.
The marketing campaign launch comes a month after the dying of 16-year-old Jose Flores III, a John Jay Excessive College pupil who spent almost a month in a coma after he was struck by a automobile whereas crossing Marbach Highway in mid-October. The crash occurred in a marked crosswalk close to the campus and prompted widespread calls from mother and father and metropolis leaders for stronger protections alongside the busy hall.
Within the days following his passing, District 6 Councilmember Ric Galvan referred to as for an instantaneous visitors research of Marbach Highway from Loop 410 to Pinn Highway, citing longstanding considerations about pupil security. In a written assertion, Galvan stated “no household ought to ever must expertise a loss like this — particularly not on a avenue that we all know must be secure for each pupil,” and urged metropolis departments and Northside ISD to coordinate on each short- and long-term enhancements.
Mayor Gina Ortiz Jones, a John Jay alum, additionally issued a press release noting the crash “underscores the necessity to prioritize avenue security” and stated the town’s Public Works Division is evaluating methods to stop such tragedies sooner or later.
Flores stated this latest marketing campaign just isn’t associated to these requires motion however confirmed that the transportation division is engaged on potential coverage adjustments within the space.
“There’s nonetheless some particulars to that that we haven’t ironed out 100% however we’re working with the mayor and the council workplace and the varsity,” she stated. “We don’t have something solidified but, however it’s undoubtedly one thing that we’re enthusiastic about and dealing on as a way to make it possible for that state of affairs doesn’t occur once more.”
Marbach Highway was recognized as a part of Imaginative and prescient Zero’s Excessive Harm community however no energetic tasks are at present listed on the Imaginative and prescient Zero web site.
Flores stated the division entered the implementation section of its up to date Imaginative and prescient Zero plan this 12 months, following a policy-focused section final 12 months. A number of tasks are already underway, she stated, together with new mid-block crossings and median upgrades at Blanco Highway and West Avenue.
“There’s loads of efforts occurring to lift consciousness and to enhance what’s occurring on the market on our native streets,” Flores stated.
