San Diego is moving to put some of its most dangerous intersections on a diet of quick fixes and bigger overhauls, after city engineers flagged a cluster of high-crash spots from downtown to Pacific Beach and Otay Mesa.
This week, the Transportation Department's traffic engineering team rolled out a plan to fast-track safety work at a set of intersections that have seen multiple injury crashes. The team is recommending a mix of quick-build improvements and longer-range capital projects, with short-term ideas such as brighter crosswalks and flashing beacons, and potential larger upgrades that could include new signal equipment and more extensive curb and lane changes. City crews say they will tackle what they can in-house while chasing capital funding for the more expensive work.
The traffic team also released a prioritized list of 14 locations for deeper engineering study and possible safety upgrades. The list covers intersections across the city, including 15th Street at F Street, 8th Avenue at Broadway and University, 10th Avenue at A Street, Garnet Avenue at Mission Bay Drive, Otay Center Drive at Siempre Viva Road, and Mission Gorge Road between Twain Avenue and Mission Gorge Place, according to the City of San Diego.
Recommended countermeasures on the menu include additional signs, pedestrian countdown timers, flashing beacons, new or improved crosswalks, upgraded signal lights and replacement or addition of speed-limit signs. Interim Assistant Director Margaret McCormick said the city's "engineers and field operations teams are working hand in hand to ensure these safety upgrades are implemented to maximize safety for all road users," according to the City of San Diego.
Transportation crews report that they have finished or are wrapping up some of the recommended changes along stretches of Fairmount Avenue, Main Street, Mission Gorge Road and Imperial Avenue. At the same time, the department is warning that several projects will have to wind their way through the city's Capital Improvement Program and secure additional funding before they can be installed more broadly, as reported by 10News.
How the sites were chosen
The 14 intersections came out of the city's annual High Crash Locations review, which sifted through city collision data from calendar year 2024 and flagged sites where five or more injury or fatal crashes occurred. The idea is to use that data-driven filter to focus limited engineering resources where they can cut the most harm, as reported by the Times of San Diego.
Daylighting, curbs and enforcement
Some of the problem spots may also see longer red-curb zones under California's "daylighting" law, which bans stopping, standing or parking within 20 feet of the vehicle approach side of marked or unmarked crosswalks. The rule is spelled out in the Legislature's bill text for Assembly Bill 413, which amended Vehicle Code section 22500, and it lets cities mark different distances if they use signs or paint. San Diego and other cities have started painting curbs and adjusting parking as part of their Vision Zero work, although local reporting has noted that rolling those changes out across thousands of intersections can take months, according to the California Legislature.
A wider problem
The latest push lands on top of a much larger safety backlog. A December analysis identified nearly 500 intersections across San Diego as elevated risk, and advocates pointed out that the new hotspot list arrived after a series of high-profile pedestrian fatalities that had already fueled demands for faster fixes. That reporting and the local advocacy that followed ramped up calls for the city to put safety spending at the front of the line, according to Axios.
The full lineup of high-crash locations and details on the city's broader Vision Zero effort, including maps, project tracking and how to report a concern, are available on the Vision Zero page. Additional local coverage of the announcement is available from CBS8. Residents who want to follow progress or request a review can find resources at the City of San Diego Vision Zero.
