Hundreds Protest on City Hall Steps, Demanding Safer Roads
WHAT DO WE WANT? SAFE STREETS!!!
On Saturday, January 27th, people young and old, elected officials and advocates – over 125 individuals total – gathered on the west steps of Los Angeles City Hall loudly chanting, “What do we want? Safe Streets!! When do we want it? NOW!!!” and “Safe Streets Save Lives!” among other things. Everyone then laid down on the cold, hard steps for 3 minutes and 36 seconds. This poignant act served to both honor and protest the 336 victims who tragically lost their lives due to preventable traffic incidents in Los Angeles in 2023. The unified message resounded loudly: we refuse to accept the sluggish pace of safety improvements on our streets and the normalization of traffic-related tragedies.
This was all part of Streets Are For Everyone’s second Dying in LA, a Protest for Safer Streets on the west steps of City Hall. Front and center of the protest were 336 LED candles surrounded by hundreds of white silk roses.
Many in the crowd held signs remembering specific people killed and telling in their own words why we all need safer roads.
The protest was produced in partnership and with help from Streets For All, Move LA, Street Racing Kills, The Bahati Foundation, Faith for Safer Streets, Bike LA, Walk ‘n Rollers, Move LA, South Bay Bicycle Coalition, Hang Out Do Good, Biking in LA, Stop 4 Aidan, Investing in Place, Bike Talk, Liam’s Life, Santa Monica Spoke, Cohen Law Partners, SAFE Moves, Nora’s Foundation, West Hollywood Bicycle Coalition, Friends of Los Angeles River, Urban Peace Institute, and Ballona Creek Renaissance.
Elected officials attending and speaking included Senator Anthony Portantino, Assemblywoman Laura Friedman, and Councilmember Nithya Raman.
A repeating theme of the event was overwhelming support for Measure HLA. This ballot measure would require the city to implement its own Mobility Plan 2035 (a plan to improve public transit and increase safety for pedestrians and cyclists) when it goes to repave a road.
The event occurred on the heels of the release of SAFE’s report Traffic Violence in Los Angeles, Why Los Angeles Gets an “F” Grade for 2023. This report details how bad traffic violence has become in Los Angeles and how LA’s Vision Zero program to reduce traffic-caused serious injuries and fatalities has been systematically gutted.
The mood of the die-in was best summed up by this statement from the Executive Director of Streets Are For Everyone, Damian Kevitt, “Our Vision Zero program is a joke. We shouldn’t even be allowed to call it a Vision Zero program. It’s understaffed, underfunded, and off-strategy. It’s the laughingstock of the entire US.”
SAFE called on the city to re-launch Vision Zero and address the public health crisis with the urgency it deserves. Damian closed his remarks that day with this, “Yell, yell loud, and don’t stop yelling about the need for safer roads. Together, we WILL make a difference and start turning this abysmal failure of Vision Zero into a success.”
Photos from the event can be found at this link: Dying in LA Photos. You can share them as long as you credit Streets Are For Everyone.
We want to thank the hundreds who showed up and the many who volunteered to help that day. We especially want to thank all the partner organizations that made this event a success and the elected officials who stood there and “died” with everyone, supporting safer roads.
If you care as much as we do about the need for safer roads, please consider volunteering with SAFE or donating to support our mission.