Aug 3, 2023 - Long Beach has the goal of zero fatal and serious injury crashes by 2026, under the program called Vision Zero—but given there’s less than three years left to achieve that goal, how far have we really come? According to state records, there were 22 fatal crashes in 2021 on the streets of Long Beach. That’s a 12% drop from 2019 at a time when traffic deaths soared by nearly a quarter across the rest of the country.

What could explain such an improvement in the numbers in Long Beach? It wasn’t a massive investment in safe streets, new traffic lights, or even an enforcement campaign. Unfortunately, there were actually 45 fatal crashes in 2021, a 50% increase over 2019.

Feb 2, 2023 - Deaths from car crashes, especially pedestrian and cyclist deaths, spiked across the country since the pandemic. Drivers were encouraged to speed when lockdowns cleared roads of speed-limiting traffic. To try and stop this, the city reduced speeds on parts of 68 Long Beach streets. This is clearly a welcome and critical move in implementing the long-delayed Vision Zero plan, but it also leaves the most dangerous streets untouched.

December 2022 - When directly asked about their preference people in the City Core Area consistently tell planners that they want safe street projects. People living along the Anaheim Corridor have asked for protected bike lanes, shorter and safer pedestrian crossings, and more options to get around. These needs have even been included in documents and plans developed by Public Works. Despite this, problem streets are ignored or made worse by prioritizing fast and dangerous traffic.

We can see the results, more speeding, more dangerous driving and more people being hurt and killed on our roads. More dangerous roads lead to more drivers when people choose to drive because they don’t feel safe walking or biking. More cars make transit slower and less reliable, so more people decide to drive. This vicious cycle cannot be stopped until the safety of people walking or biking is put first instead of as an afterthought.

July 24, 2020 - Protests and demonstrations across Long Beach have shown the urgent need to address structural racism. Clearly, the murder of Black people by the police and other police violence nationwide is the immediate issue, but Long Beach is as guilty of racism in many other ways. White people, past and present, made choices to segregate Long Beach. We can, if we choose to, join the work already underway to desegregate it today.

Feb 18, 2020 - OK fine, let’s put parking in your backyard. Parking is an important issue. It’s unbearable to work all day and fight traffic only to have nowhere to park on your street. The seemingly easy solution is to build neighborhood parking structures, but on a closer look it’s obvious why it hasn’t been done. Parking structures in people’s backyards would cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, destroy neighborhood character and it wouldn’t even solve the problem. 

Sept 20, 2019 - Cars dominate the politics of Long Beach, and so do their effects. Our reliance on cars forces us to devote huge amounts of public space to streets and parking while air pollution continues to kill. Then there are carbon emissions contributing to a climate catastrophe. Yet, still, we demand free parking.

Apr 25, 2019 - Traffic violence is constant on our streets. Every day in California 10 people, both in and out of cars, die from fatal vehicle collisions. Anaheim Street, Seventh Street and Long Beach Boulevard are part of the problem. These streets are designed to move cars through as fast as possible; they don’t serve the people who live there.

Dec 19, 2018 - In 2015, Mayor Robert Garcia signed the Compact of Mayors to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address climate risks. The city has promoted electric vehicles through its charger giveaway program, covered city street lights to energy efficient LEDs and the port has worked to reduce both carbon and diesel emissions by expanding its electric truck fleet. All the work the city is doing is significant and important, but it’s nowhere near the scale needed to avert catastrophic global warming.