In 2014, the City and County of San Francisco adopted Vision Zero as a policy. Vision Zero is the city’s commitment to creating safer, more livable streets with the goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities and reducing severe injuries. In 2016, Civic Edge Consulting was hired by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to develop a media strategy, craft overall messaging, and develop an outreach and engagement campaign around Vision Zero SF. Our team worked with lowercase productions on the initial branding and messaging campaign. We continue to support all aspects of Vision Zero SF engagement with partner MIG.
At the center of all our team’s outreach and messaging is the core Vision Zero value that traffic deaths are preventable. In San Francisco, just 13 percent of the city’s streets account for more than 75 percent of the severe and fatal injuries that happen. Half of those streets are within Equity Priority Communities. Civic Edge’s skilled team of multilingual outreach ambassadors are specially trained around the sensitive messages about traffic safety and collisions, as well as the specifics of any given project, to engage on a one-on-one level with residents, merchants, and workers in a community-focused, grass roots campaign. Materials are consistently developed in Spanish, Chinese, Filipino, English, and Vietnamese.
Since 2016, our team has engaged with more than 25,000 community members in meaningful conversations about street safety and Vision Zero SF. This includes engagement at in-person neighborhood events, attendance at special events, partnerships with community based organizations, and specific campaigns, such as the 2020-21 Safety - It’s Your Turn focused on raising awareness of 40 percent of traffic deaths involving left turns and 2022 speed limit reductions.