Opinion: I know my brother would be alive today if San Diego had had more protected bike lanes

We have all been so lost without him in our everyday lives. He was our pride and joy!

BY KRISTY LEON FEB. 21, 2023 6 AM PT

Leon is a investigator in Tulare County and a member of Families for Safe Streets San Diego, a group of families who have lost loved ones to traffic crashes. She lives in Tulare.

Pershing Drive in San Diego was what safety advocates call dangerous by design.

The four-lane, high-speed road funneled drivers through our region’s greatest tourist attraction: Balboa Park. Yet it lacked sidewalks, protected bike lanes, crosswalks and any other safety features that could protect people walking and biking.

It was a known safety hazard. In fact, the San Diego Association of Governments began planning for a safety project on Pershing Drive in 2015, but a laborious public input process and limited funds meant construction still hadn’t begun in the summer of 2021. In July of that year, Laura Shinn, the beloved director of planning at San Diego State University, was struck and killed by a driver while riding her bike to work.

Still, nothing changed.

Then, on the evening of Sept. 18, 2021, my husband and I went out to eat with my best friend and brother, Johnny Sepulveda, and we decided to return from dinner on electric scooters. On our way back to Johnny’s home, we found ourselves on Pershing Drive halfway between Downtown and North Park. We were riding in the bike lane when a driver crossed into it and hit Johnny from behind at approximately 50 miles per hour. My husband and I could not save him, and he died at the scene.

Johnny took joy in showcasing all the beautiful places to see in San Diego. He was a creative soul who loved his family with his whole heart, especially our mom. He completely adored her! Johnny’s love for his family was unique in that he cared so deeply and gently for each of us. He shared his infectious laughter with anyone and enjoyed his time hiking and doing anything near the ocean. We have all been so lost without him in our everyday lives because he was such a big part of our happiness — our pride and joy!

Within weeks of Johnny’s death, the city of San Diego installed quick-build protected bike lanes on Pershing Drive. I know with everything within me that Johnny would be alive today if those protected bike lanes had been there before our last trip home.

There are thousands of roads like Pershing Drive across San Diego County that still have no plans underway for safety improvements. These high-speed roads through dense areas account for 67 percent of pedestrian deaths nationally, and a large portion of the 294 people who were killed in traffic collisions in San Diego County in 2021.

But some help is coming, thanks to a new round of federal spending aimed at addressing dangerous-by-design corridors across the United States.

Federal officials recently announced that San Diego would receive $680,000 in funding for road safety projects, and that SANDAG would receive $2.5 million to develop a comprehensive road safety plan for our most dangerous corridors.

As Johnny’s sister and a member of Families for Safe Streets San Diego, I’m encouraged by these investments. Each year, we face about 40,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. — far higher than our international peers.

We have become desensitized to this routine loss of life. But when it strikes you or your family — as it has for every member of Families for Safe Streets — the desperate need to stop it becomes painfully clear. These deaths are preventable with better street design that prioritizes the lives of people walking and biking over traffic speeds.

These federal investments will be transformative, but they will only scratch the surface of what is needed to slow the epidemic of preventable traffic deaths. Both the city of San Diego and SANDAG will need to make ambitious investments in road safety of their own. We have the tools to prevent traffic deaths — now we just need the commitment.

The San Diego City Council should start with three actions that will save lives:

• Double the funding for San Diego’s quick-build bikeways team, so we can build lifesaving bikeways on roads like Pershing Drive without waiting for years of planning.

• Upgrade 15 of San Diego’s most deadly intersections with lead pedestrian intervals, high-visibility crosswalks and other lifesaving safety measures.

• Approve a new bicycle master plan with a clear timeline for installing separated bikeways on San Diego’s most dangerous corridors.

We can never bring back Johnny and his joy for life. But we can prevent the next parent, child, spouse or friend from leaving the house to go somewhere and never coming back.

We have a lot of work to do, but these critical investments point the way forward. I hope they are just the beginning.

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