Community Health Promotion & Prevention

Traffic Safety

Welcome to the Department of Public Health’s Traffic Safety website. This site is dedicated to the improvement of pedestrian and traffic safety in the City and County of San Francisco.  We hope the information on this website proves useful.

Why we are involved in traffic safety?

DPH actively promotes traffic safety due to the number of traffic-related injuries and fatalities on our streets. In San Francisco, motor vehicle crashes are the 2nd leading cause of injury death (SF Profile of Injury, 2004).  Pedestrians accounted for more than half of the motor vehicle-related deaths and approximately 1/3 of the motor vehicle-related hospitalizations.  This differs dramatically from national data, where pedestrians accounted for only 13% of traffic fatalities and 2.2% of traffic injuries.  

These traffic-related deaths and injuries are completely preventable. The Department of Public Health is involved because our mission is to reduce death and injury in San Francisco.

Preventing pedestrian and traffic injuries and deaths requires the effective use of evidence-based intervention strategies.  The implementation of comprehensive approaches combining injury surveillance,  community-based interventions, traffic engineering, law enforcement, educational campaigns, public policies, and evaluation will be the most effective way to change social norms regarding traffic safety.

We invite you to learn about DPH's traffic safety efforts, particularly our efforts to collect traffic-related injury data, fund community-based projects, design and implement media campaigns, organize the Mission/Tenderloin Pedestrian Safety Planning Project, and distribute general traffic safety information.  

Click here for a list of all current DPH funded traffic safety projects.