Question to candidates: What steps would you take to lessen the number of pedestrian deaths in Tucson?
Mayor
Arthur Kerschen
Strict enforcement of jaywalking ordinances.
Regina Romero
Under my leadership, the City of Tucson adopted and has successfully pursued funding for “Complete Streets” projects to increase transportation options and improve connections. In an effort to collaborate more effectively with Pima County, I supported the effort to submit a single plan for a regional grant to support making Tucson a Vision Zero community.
I led the campaign to pass Proposition 411 which includes $150 million dollars in safety measures including improved sidewalks, protected bike lanes and bicycle boulevards, and traffic calming features.
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Janet "JL" Wittenbraker
Education, community policing, and vehicular and pedestrian law enforcement. I will elaborate on my response once I am better informed of root cause and am able to meet with City leadership, employees and constituents.
Ed Ackerley
ENFORCE LAWS AND BETTER LIGHTING. Fentanyl use (and other drug use), texting while driving, speeding due to lack of police motor patrols, and more are contributing factors to pedestrian deaths. The City needs to get a handle on removing people from medians and corners, enforce existing traffic and no-text laws, increasing police presence, improving lighting on streets at night, and educating drivers to the consequences of unsafe driving behavior.
Ward 1
Victoria Lem
Victoria Lem did not respond to our questionnaire.
Miguel Ortega
Before jumping to what might be considered obvious solutions, it’s important to pay close attention to the facts and numbers behind these tragic pedestrian deaths. According to TPD reports, the vast majority of the pedestrians struck and killed had drugs or alcohol in their system. 72% had Meth in their systems and 53% had Fentanyl. And it is a serious problem as 2022 had more than double the pedestrian deaths than the previous years. So, logical steps to decrease these deaths would revolve around addressing both the addiction crisis and the need for safety improvements for our roads.
This is why safety measures that are earmarked via the implementation of Prop 411 should be very intentional when it comes to pedestrian safety. The implementation process should be transparent and led by safety needs and not anything else. We should also focus on basic upkeep that does not need to wait for Prop 411 to kick in. In Ward 1, for example, many street lights have been out and have gone unrepaired for months. On Silverbell Road, an entire row of Streetlights were out from the corner of Speedway and Silverbell to the northern end of Joaquin Murrieta Park. We must find a way to be more proactive in addressing these day to day safety issues because they only aggravate other trends like pedestrians under controlled sustains being struck by cars.
Lane Santa Cruz
The number one cause of pedestrian related deaths are due to high vehicle speeds. Speed mitigation by designing/retrofitting roads with landscaping and safety infrastructure that force cars to slow down is critical. Better lighting and signaling that prioritizes people walking and biking is also needed.
Ward 2
Paul Cunningham
This is a huge concern. With the exception of the pandemic year, cyclist and pedestrian deaths have been slowly increasing for a decade both in Tucson and nationally. Sadly, the increase has been more pronounced in Tucson than in other places and is a general increase in all parts of the city.
Police Chief Kasmar has been using grant dollars to focus on problem crossings and other areas of pedestrian concern and I fully support his efforts. I am also hopeful about TPD’s new Traffic Watch program which will allow the community to instantly report reckless or other dangerous driving in our city. Pedestrian safety isn’t just an enforcement problem, sometimes it is poor street design or lighting issue, sometimes it is because of incompatible use, like speeding traffic near a school or a pedestrian crossing of a major intersection.
I have been making it easier for Ward 2 neighborhoods to access the City’s speed bump program and we are all anxiously awaiting the traffic calming program (and funding) to become available from proposition 411 next month. I have already been working with neighborhoods in problem areas to find solutions that will work for them that can utilize those dollars.
During my time on the City Council I moved the City’s drag racing ordinance and the hands free ordinance and have supported numerous proposals to enhance traffic safety.
Lisa Nutt
We need to continue our efforts to address the fentanyl and other substance abuse issues in the community since a high number of those fatalities are found to have been with those who are under the influence. We also need to revise and enforce our City ordinance regarding soliciting from the median.
Ernie Shack
Ernie Shack echoed Wittenbraker’s responses.
Pendleton Spicer
First and foremost, I would help the drug-using homeless by enforcing the laws they are breaking and find a way as described in #7 and #8 above to make housing and mandatory treatment resources available to them. Then I would make sure the mentally ill are given treatment as needed by providing them with decent food and/or appropriate medication and resources. Third, I would enforce the laws for driving under the influence and driving while using cell phones. Finally, I would look at what the causes are of the remainder of pedestrian/traffic deaths and establish remedies accordingly. And, finally, fix the potholes in the roads that distract drivers.
Ward 4
Ross Kaplowitch
Pedestrian deaths in Tucson can be lessened by strong community policing efforts, which are now stymied by a lack of personnel. Strong, fair traffic enforcement by TPD could keep Tucson’s streets safer for everyone. Currently police officers in Tucson are going call to call, with little or no time for traffic enforcement or community policing efforts. Increased staffing means more traffic enforcement and better community relations. If they are afforded the time, TPD officers could help educate the walking and bicycling public to follow the law, avoid traffic dangers, and stay safe in our city.
Nikki Lee
According to the City of Tucson’s Pedestrian Safety Action Plan, between 2014 and 2018, there were nearly 1,200 pedestrians involved in traffic accidents in Tucson, and these incidents took the lives of 96 people and severely injured 246 more. The statistics since 2018 tell us that there is still more work to do to ensure the safety of pedestrians as they navigate the city.
The Pedestrian Safety Action Plan lays out nine strategies with 35 action items related to Engineering, Enforcement, Policy, & Education. These strategies and action items are being implemented when and where possible. You can read more about this plan at: https://www.tucsonaz.gov/bicycle/pedestrian-safety-action-plan
To reflect the priority of pedestrian safety, when the Mayor & Council put Proposition 411 on the ballot, we ensured that a portion of funds would be allocated to pedestrian safety, in addition to road-specific projects. In total, $150 million of Proposition 411 funds will be invested in pedestrian safety projects.
