As a pastor who has served South Los Angeles for over 15 years, I’ve seen too much preventable tragedy on our streets. I’ve comforted families who lost loved ones to reckless drivers, and I’ve advocated to city officials to get basic safety measures like pedestrian lights and bus stops for our community. When my friend Charles Ray was killed in a hit-and-run right here in South LA, I knew I had no choice but to continue demanding better for our community. That’s what brought me to support the push for speed safety systems in Los Angeles, because every day we delay, another family gets an empty chair at their dinner table.
I’ve spent decades advocating for safety in our neighborhoods. I’ve organized town hall meetings, gathered petitions, and pushed city council members until we got pedestrian lights and bus stops where our families needed them. I know what it takes to make change happen. But I also know the difference between promises and action, and right now, our elected officials are giving us plenty of promises while our people keep dying on these streets.
The numbers don’t lie. LA recorded 336 traffic fatalities last year, breaking 300 deaths for the second year running. Since our city promised to end traffic deaths through Vision Zero in 2015, fatalities have increased by 81%. Behind every number is a family forever changed, a community that lost someone who mattered…