The board unanimously voiced support for the , a citizen-led initiative that will appear on the ballot March 5 requiring the city to create over 2,500 miles of street improvements. 

The updates are outlined in the city’s , laying out specific guidelines for street and transit improvements to be completed by 2035 — including protected bike lanes, bus-only lanes, safer crosswalks, new street lighting and wider sidewalks. 

But since the Mobility Plan was adopted, the initiative is only about complete, which activists say is not fast enough. The measure would make sure these improvements outlined in the Mobility Plan — actually get completed by 2035. 

“Our kids can’t afford to continue to wait years for the improvements that would make our streets safer and more walkable for them and their families,” said LAUSD school board member Kelly Gonez. “If the measure were approved by voters, we would make significant progress in achieving safer, greener and more walkable streets that our children and families deserve.”

The measure calls for the construction of various enhancements each time the city repaves at least one-eighth of a mile of a street. It would also require the city to create a tracking webpage that allows residents to view the progress of the Mobility Plan and see where and when improvements are being made.

Michael Schneider, the founder of , has been working for years to get the enforcement plan in place after seeing the city fail to efficiently implement the Mobility Plan.

“It’s supposed to be a 20-year plan, and they’ve turned it into a 160-year plan at our current pace,” Schneider said. “That’s just not acceptable, especially when more and more people are dying every year.”

Schneider’s organization created the measure and collected over 100,000 signatures in 2022 so it could get on the ballot this year.

Among improvements that would increase safety for bicyclists, pedestrians and drivers, Schneider, a father of three, also explained how it can keep children safe on their way to school.

“Crashes are going to happen,” Schneider said. “But the problem is when the cars are going about 20 or 25 miles an hour — that’s when they start to turn deadly. If we slow cars down through changes in the environment and make them pay more attention when they’re driving, it would make a huge impact on road safety, including around schools.” 

Board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin referenced students who have been on their way to school, including one fatal crash involving a student from last year.

“While we have a lot of urgent issues in this city, nothing is more important than the safety of our children,” Franklin.  

The measure will also give LA residents the power to sue the city if it fails to comply with the requirements.

Schneider also emphasized that the measure is coming at a time of increased risk and dangerous streets.

On Jan. 24, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released the end-of-the-year on crime statistics, which shows a significant increase in traffic fatalities, fatal hit-and-runs and fatal pedestrian and bicyclist collisions in 2023.

For the first time in nine years, LA saw more deaths from traffic crashes than homicides. There were 336 fatal traffic crashes and 327 homicides in 2023, LAPD officials .

From 2022 to 2023, felony hit-and-runs in LA increased 23% while DUI crashes increased 32%. Additionally, fatal crashes involving pedestrians increased by nearly 13% from 2022 to 2023.

“When I was collecting signatures, one of the biggest questions we would get from voters is: ‘I don’t understand. The city already adopted this plan. Why is this needed?’” Schneider said. “But they’re just not getting it done. That’s why this is needed.”

This article is part of a collaboration between ����Ӱ�� and the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

When Michelle Mihalik was hit by a car on March 8, 2018, she didn’t see it coming.

After a night with friends at a Las Vegas casino, she was dropped off at a nearby Walmart and planned to walk home. But Mihalik, 54, didn’t realize the area had no public transportation available. As a legally blind person, this presented a major issue, but she decided to get home by walking along the side of the road, which didn’t have a sidewalk.

Next thing she knew, she was in the hospital with six pelvic fractures. A vehicle had struck her from behind, and she didn’t wake up until the following morning. “I was happy to be alive,” Mihalik said.

Walking can be dangerous, depending where you live. In Mihalik’s case, Nevada is ranked eleventh in pedestrian fatalities, according to a report by . And Clark County, which includes the Las Vegas metro area, 78 pedestrian deaths in 2017— the highest in county history.

Erin Breen, traffic safety coalition coordinator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, said the built environment was constructed for vehicles, not people.

A typical Las Vegas intersection is nine lanes long, and a standard street is 120 feet at minimum. Wide lanes make drivers more comfortable speeding, Breen explained. Even with recent infrastructure improvements in Clark County, “we still kill a stupid amount of pedestrians,” she said.

This pedestrian-unfriendly environment also exacerbates inequality. In the Las Vegas metro, the people most likely to walk as a primary mode of transportation tend to be low-income. And in a state where traffic infractions are considered misdemeanors, a jaywalking violation can cost nearly $250 in fines and could even land you in jail.

“A lot of times when you hand them a ticket, you are handing them a warrant for their arrest,” Breen said.

That’s why Breen and Laura Gryder, project director at the UNLV School of Medicine, teamed up in 2017 to create , an organization that teaches pedestrian safety classes. It operates autonomously under the Vulnerable Road Users Project in the Transportation Research Center at UNLV and works with local courts and law enforcement.

The program, previously held in person and now online because of the pandemic, allows people to dismiss pedestrian-related citations and fines — as a walker or driver — by sitting in a three-hour educational course. Taught three times a month by Breen herself (and once a month in Spanish), the free course addresses case studies and historical data on pedestrian crashes, provides an overview of local laws, and offers do’s and don’ts for walkers, bikers, and drivers. At the end, in addition to having their pedestrian tickets dismissed, participants receive reflective vests and slap bands. More than 2,800 people have graduated from the course since 2017. According to data provided by PedSAFE, most people who leave the course have a better understanding of pedestrian safety and pedestrian rights.

PedSAFE typically serves 100 to 200 people per month, but with traffic court closed due to the pandemic (felony charges are still being seen), fewer violations are being enforced and attendance is down to 25 people per month.

After Mihalik’s accident, her attorney and the driver ended up settling the case. As part of the settlement, Mihalik was required to attend the PedSAFE pedestrian safety course. “I think all people should be required to take this course to get a driver’s license,” she said, citing “wear bright-colored clothes” as a safety tip she had never thought about. She’s unsure if the driver who hit her was ordered to take the course too. She places part of the blame on herself for having worn all black at the time of her accident.

But advocates warn that the cause — and not just the symptoms — must be treated.

Angie Schmitt, former national editor at Streetsblog and author of Right of Way: Race, Class and the Silent Crisis of Pedestrian Deaths in America, says programs like PedSAFE are useful for reducing fines, but in general, she doesn’t see the value in enforcing jaywalking laws.

“[Local governments] are punishing the individual for a systemic problem,” Schmitt says. Enforcement is often , and many people jaywalk because streets don’t have accessible crosswalks in the first place.

On March 1, the state of Virginia jaywalking and reclassified it as a secondary offense — meaning people won’t be ticketed unless they’re violating another law. The change also reduces unnecessary interaction with the police. “As long as jaywalking was a primary offense, it was going to be a big source of harassment,” Peter Norton, associate professor of history in the University of Virginia’s Department of Engineering and Society, NBC 12.

Decriminalization is also being considered in California. In March, California State Assemblymember Phil Ting, who represents part of San Francisco, the Freedom to Walk Act (AB1238), which would legalize safe crossings against the traffic light or outside the crosswalk, and eliminate jaywalking fines. Ting cited the 2018 killing of , a Black pedestrian Tased and beaten by police officers during a jaywalking stop, and heavy fines as evidence of the bill’s urgency.

“It’s easy to send police out and feel like you’re solving a problem,” Schmitt says. “It’s harder to think about how streets are laid out and what problems are inherent to the environment.”

Even as the city of Las Vegas has lowered speed limits and added buses in some areas, it still has a long way to go until it’s safe.

“Until we give pedestrians reasonable places to cross the street and we lower the speed limit to something survivable,” Breen says, “humans will be human.”

This article originally appeared at and is published in partnership with