In February 2013, Damian Kevitt’s life changed forever. While cycling in Griffith Park, he was struck by a hit-and-run driver who dragged him nearly a quarter of a mile onto and down the 5 freeway. Against all odds, Damian survived, but he lost his right leg and nearly his life.

As he recovered, Damian made a promise: not only would he finish the ride he started that day, but he would dedicate his life to making streets safer for everyone. That promise became Finish The Ride—a movement that turned tragedy into purpose, pain into momentum, and individual courage into community action.

It’s here! Week Without Driving begins today, and it brings with it an exciting opportunity for all who call Los Angeles home.

For those who don’t drive, this week may not feel like a challenge at all; it’s just everyday life. But for drivers, this week is an invitation: what would it feel like if you put the keys away for seven days?

Maybe you’ve never thought about it. For many, driving feels automatic, even necessary. Yet for others, a car isn’t affordable. Some avoid driving because of stress, while others carry trauma from collisions that make getting behind the wheel impossible. Even more people avoid driving because using other means of travel—walking, biking, or taking transit—is better for mental and physical health and lowers our impact on the planet.

Week Without Driving is a chance to pause and reflect on how our city moves when the car isn’t at the center.

This article summarizes our 25-page Full Report—read the full report here.

Every day, Californians approach intersections trusting that a red light means safety. Yet, for far too many, that trust is shattered in an instant. Red light running has become a silent epidemic across our state—claiming lives, shattering families, and leaving behind an enormous financial burden that few ever stop to consider.

Traffic collisions are, by and large, preventable. Multiple studies have established this, and it is also recognized by the NHTSA. The fact that we let so many people die year after year due to traffic violence, when we know how people get into traffic collisions, and where they are most likely to get into a traffic collision. We have proven ways to prevent it, which is a testimony to how broken our system is. Nowhere is this more evident than in intersections across California, where hundreds of lives are lost and even more are seriously injured. While a single life lost is tragic, and even more so when it’s entirely preventable, what’s hidden is the cost of these preventable deaths to our communities and the state of California. 

On Friday, August 15, 2025, the Pearblossom Highway 138 Safe Roads Initiative team took a significant step forward in our ongoing efforts to improve safety along Pearblossom Highway (PB HWY 138).

Members of our community, along with Assembly member Juan Carrillo and several key decision makers from agencies including CalTrans and LA County Department of Public Works (DPW), came together for a comprehensive, on-the-ground field tour.

On April 18, 2024, tragedy struck Historic South Central when 12-year-old Derrick Serrano was hit and killed by a speeding driver at the intersection of Vernon Avenue and Wadsworth Avenue. His loss devastated his family and community and galvanized neighbors into action.

Over the past year, SAFE has partnered with ACCE LA, a grassroots community organization, to demand change at this dangerous intersection and bring awareness to the need for safer intersections across South LA. Together, we organized families and insisted that the city act before another life was lost.

An example of this outspoken advocacy was on April 18th, 2025….

The wait is over—Streets, Art, SAFE is officially back for the 2025–2026 school year! This free, high school educational program blends art, storytelling, and real-world road safety messages.

Alongside the flagship film and poster competitions, this year brings fresh challenges, expanded learning opportunities, special award categories, new sponsors, and of course, some amazing prizes.

Why the arts? Because when students create film, posters, or Public Service Announcements (PSAs), they’re not just learning about road safety—they’re practicing communication, problem solving, teamwork, and critical thinking. Visual storytelling challenges students to analyze information, distill a message, and express it in a way that connects with others. For teachers, it’s a chance to see students apply their creativity to a real-world issue, building skills in research, writing, media literacy, and the visual arts all at once.

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.

In 2023, after four years of work, SAFE successfully helped pass AB 645, the California Speed Safety Systems Pilot Program. This groundbreaking policy allows six cities across California—including three in Southern California (Glendale, Long Beach, and the City of Los Angeles)—to pilot speed safety systems designed to reduce speeding and improve conditions on high-injury corridors and in vulnerable areas such as school zones.

What makes AB 645 so groundbreaking is the careful balance built into the law: ensuring the systems effectively slow drivers without being overly burdensome with fines, requiring equitable placement, protecting privacy and transparency, and limiting use to locations where safety improvements are genuinely needed.

When it comes to first and last mile connections (and let’s be honest, many miles in between), Los Angeles is lacking infrastructure to support non-car users.

Recently, SAFE was copied in an email from Anya McCann, LCI (League of American Bicyclists, League Cycling Instructor), who was visiting LA through LAX and found herself without any Metro bike share options. The email is printed below.

Anya was prepared to bike the few miles from LAX to her destination; she even brought a bicycle helmet. However, the closest station was 4 miles away.

Thanks to the support of many advocates, on July 14 and July 16, Senate Bill 720 (SB 720) cleared two major hurdles, passing the Assembly Transportation Committee with a unanimous 15–0 vote, and the Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection with strong bipartisan support and a 13–2 vote!

SB 720 is designed to bring California’s outdated, failed red light camera law into the modern era, with the goal of saving lives, protecting privacy, increasing transparency, ensuring an equity component, and, most importantly, using the systems only to make intersections safer.

The bill removes the requirement to capture a driver’s face to issue a citation, ensures citations won’t impact your driving record or insurance, and replaces the current steep penalties with a tiered fine structure: starting at $100 and increasing by $100-$150 for repeat violations, up to $500. There is also a mechanism in place for low-income drivers to receive automatic fine reductions.

The bill also ensures that the profit generated from these systems can only be used for safer streets initiatives. 

It was less than two years ago when four Pepperdine University students—20-year-old Niamh Rolston, 21-year-old Peyton Stewart, 21-year-old Asha Weir, and 21-year-old Deslyn Williams—were struck and killed by Fraser Michael Bohm while walking to a mixer at a home along Pacific Coast Highway (PCH) in Malibu, in an area known by locals as “Dead Man’s Curve.” 

Bohm was driving at 104 MPH when he lost control of his vehicle, hitting multiple parked cars before striking and killing all four women and injuring two others.

Since 2010, 61 lives have been lost along PCH—a road with a posted speed limit of 45 MPH through residential areas. This speed limit has enabled drivers to frequently exceed 50 or even 60 MPH, creating a deadly environment for pedestrians, cyclists, and other motorists. (Source: LA County Sheriff’s Department and TIMS)

Statewide, speeding remains the leading cause of severe traffic injuries and fatalities in California.

California is finally getting serious about making our streets safer. Assembly Bill (AB) 645, a groundbreaking law sponsored by SAFE and passed in 2023, identified six cities to launch a pilot speed safety program in school zones and on dangerous stretches of road where far too many people have been injured or killed. The participating cities are Los Angeles, San Jose, Oakland, Glendale, Long Beach, and the City and County of San Francisco.

Later, Senate Bill 1297 allowed speed safety cameras along the deadly PCH within Malibu city limits as a way to reduce speeding and fatalities on the PCH.

When cities implement speed safety programs under AB 645, they create a powerful cycle of safety that sets this model apart: every camera that catches a speeding vehicle must reinvest the funds it generates directly back into improving safety in that same community.

At Streets Are For Everyone, our mission is simple: improve the quality of life for pedestrians, bicyclists, and drivers alike by reducing traffic fatalities to zero. This mission does not exclude any Angeleno from our work. We strive to make streets safer for everyone, regardless of their mode of transportation, income, housing status, or immigration status. That means pushing for equitable design, advocating for justice, and demanding infrastructure that protects our most vulnerable neighbors.

Because when we say “Streets Are For Everyone,” we mean everyone.

The ongoing immigrant raids across Los Angeles, including the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops (and now Marines), did not make the streets safer. In fact, they worked to sow fear and discord across our communities.

Long after this current moment of ICE raids is over, our most vulnerable neighbors will continue to live in fear of moving around the city, of taking the bus, or simply walking down the street. 

This past 12th annual Finish The Ride and Run Griffith Park was an incredible success, and that’s because everyone showed up to spread not only good energy but also pressure to create a community that is more welcoming to cyclists and runners. 

Between riders, runners, volunteers, and spectators, almost 2,000 people were there. And it wasn’t just a crowd—it was a community. That kind of atmosphere only happens when there’s care and intention behind every detail.

Events like this don’t just promote safer streets. They bring people together, offer hope, and show the world what’s possible when a team like ours pours everything into a cause we believe in.

On May 3rd, 2025, one of SAFE’s most celebrated educational programs returned for its 9th year! Known for showcasing Public Service Announcement (PSA) short films by high school students from across California and other States— it returned with a powerful twist.

Traditionally focused on youth-made PSA films that explore traffic safety topics, this year’s edition introduced something new: original poster designs. The addition expanded the creative scope of the event and gave students a fresh way to raise their voices—and their visuals—on what safe streets should look like for pedestrians, cyclists, and drivers alike.

It also launched “encouragement categories”—topics focused on riding a bike, walking, or taking transit. These modes of transportation, in and of themselves, help create safer streets.

In 2021, according to the California Office of Traffic Safety, alcohol-involved crashes accounted for 32% of all traffic deaths in California. Nationally, 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes every day — or one person every 39 minutes — and in 2022, 13,524 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

On April 30, 2025, we, as road safety advocates, gathered on the steps of Los Angeles City Hall to stage a poignant die-in protest. Read on to see what it was about and how you can still help.

Our demonstration was organized in response to Mayor Karen Bass's proposed budget, which includes a $7 million cut to the Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) and the elimination of approximately 24% of its workforce.

We know these reductions will compromise street safety initiatives and lead to more traffic-related fatalities.

Nine years ago, Los Angeles made a bold promise: eliminate traffic deaths by 2025. That promise was called Vision Zero. But according to a damning new audit covered in the Los Angeles Times, the results are in—and they’re tragic.

Instead of going down, traffic fatalities have gone up.

Pedestrian deaths in L.A. have surged by more than 50% since Vision Zero began. In 2023 alone, 336 people were killed in traffic violence—nearly one a day. And of the 56 action items the city committed to? Nearly half remain unfinished.

In California, drivers run red lights daily, putting themselves and others at risk. It is a significant factor in severe injuries and traffic fatalities in California.

According to data from UC Berkeley’s Transportation Injury Mapping System (TIMS), in 2023 alone, there were 167 fatalities and nearly 1000 people suffered serious injuries due to red light running and traffic light violations.

While these numbers show a slight decrease from previous years, which saw 228 fatalities and more than 1000 serious injuries. These numbers highlight an ongoing road safety issue that not only affects drivers but also disproportionately affects vulnerable groups such as pedestrians, cyclists, and even children.

Therefore, a change needs to be made because of this urgent issue.