Let’s start with one thing everybody appears to agree upon: Far too many pedestrians are dying on California’s streets.
Pedestrian deaths have been rising nationwide over the past decade, and final yr they reached their highest stage in 41 years. In California, an estimated 1,100 pedestrians had been killed in 2022, making the fatality charge within the state 25 % greater than the nationwide common.
But what could be achieved about it?
Some site visitors security advocates are banking on a invoice that’s shifting by the California Legislature. It would make California the nineteenth state to put in cameras that may robotically difficulty tickets to the homeowners of automobiles which can be noticed exceeding the pace restrict by a minimum of 11 miles an hour. According to the National Transportation Safety Board, dashing is a think about one-third of site visitors fatalities nationwide.
“It’s not going to solve everything, but we need all the tools we can get,” stated Damian Kevitt, the chief director of Streets Are For Everyone, a site visitors security nonprofit based mostly in Los Angeles that helps the invoice. “It’s quite truthfully, at this point, a public health crisis.”
The invoice, A.B. 645, would create a five-year pilot program that may place cameras in six cities — Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach and San Francisco — on streets which can be sizzling spots for avenue racing, or are at school zones, or have a excessive variety of collisions.
At the outset, car homeowners would get a warning the primary time their automobiles had been caught dashing by the cameras. After that, fines would begin at $50. The fines could possibly be diminished if the car proprietor is unable to pay.
“The ticket is nominal, and there’s no points on your license,” stated Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, who co-wrote the invoice. “We’re out to change behavior. We’re not out to be punitive.”
The invoice, which has handed the Assembly and is now earlier than the Senate, has a protracted record of supporters, together with Mayor London Breed of San Francisco and different native leaders from throughout the state, a number of bicycle and pedestrian advocacy teams, and the ride-hailing corporations Lyft and Cruise. But there are additionally loads of detractors, together with the advocacy teams Oakland Privacy, Black Lives Matter California and A.C.L.U. California Action.
Becca Cramer-Mowder, a legislative advocate for A.C.L.U. California Action, informed me that the group was frightened about any program that elevated surveillance inside communities. The invoice has some safeguards, together with permitting solely license plates to be photographed (as a substitute of, say, faces), and requiring that photos be deleted after a sure period of time, however Cramer-Mowder believes these measures aren’t foolproof.
“The only way to fully protect against the privacy issues is to not collect the data in the first place,” she informed me. “What we’ve seen in other contexts is that despite these strict limits, surveillance footage and information is still inappropriately shared.”
Cramer-Mowder and others who oppose the invoice help different methods of encouraging drivers to decelerate, together with by including pace bumps and site visitors circles to streets.
Such options are unusual in poorer communities of coloration, the place some roads primarily turn out to be pace traps. If cameras are added to these streets, opponents say, much more tickets shall be issued to Black and Latino drivers.
Tracy Rosenberg, the advocacy director for Oakland Privacy, informed The San Francisco Chronicle that there was a protracted historical past of dashing enforcement applications “disproportionately impacting lower-income communities of color.”
“And that is largely because of a long, long history of traffic infrastructure that has brought certain traffic-calming features and amenities to more affluent neighborhoods, and not so much to less affluent neighborhoods,” Rosenberg stated.
Friedman informed me that she, too, supported extra traffic-calming measures, however cited an evaluation saying it will take Los Angeles greater than 100 years to improve all its high-risk roadways. The cameras are a further technique of attempting to cut back site visitors collisions, she stated.
Friedman added that many individuals from communities of coloration supported the invoice. “Let’s not forget the people who are most likely to be killed and maimed by traffic violence are low-income communities of color,” she stated.
Where we’re touring
Today’s tip comes from Stephanie Reed, who lives in Santa Rosa. Stephanie recommends visiting the oceanside metropolis of Ventura:
“Ventura is fabulous. If you like thrift store shopping, the main street is loaded with excellent thrift stores. If you like walking on beaches, Ventura’s got a wonderful, long walking beach. It’s between Santa Barbara and L.A. but less expensive than both. The Clocktower Inn is a very affordable place to stay, has a lovely atrium for sitting and drinking your morning coffee, was once upon a time a fire lookout tower and is within walking distance of all that’s wonderful about Ventura.”
Tell us about your favourite locations to go to in California. Email your strategies to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing extra in upcoming editions of the e-newsletter.
Tell us
Numerous Los Angeles landmarks are turning 100 this yr, together with the Hollywood signal, the Memorial Coliseum and the Biltmore Hotel downtown.
Do you’ve gotten favourite reminiscences of those L.A. establishments? Share them in a number of sentences with CAtoday@nytimes.com, and please embrace your title and town the place you reside.
And earlier than you go, some good news
You may not have heard of the espresso store chain La La Land, which has three areas in California and eight in Texas. But possibly you’ve come throughout its TikTok movies.
The firm has constructed a following of 6.6 million on the social media app by recording movies of their staff delivering random compliments to strangers. They inform those who their hair appears good, that they like their shirt or that they’re stunning — and, maybe surprisingly, the strangers often appear thrilled.
Jeremiah Sabado, the corporate’s content material creator, informed The New York Times that he believed La La Land may create a ripple impact with far-reaching penalties. “It’s important for people to know they are loved,” he stated.
Francois Reihani, La La Land’s founder and chief government, famous that karma was an enormous a part of the corporate’s ethos: “When you do the right thing, magic happens.”
Source: www.nytimes.com