Santa Monica has invested in making our streets more bike and ped-friendly. But motorists are still speeding on our streets, and speeding kills. So if you’re a Santa Monica parent who isn’t quite ready to let your kid bike / walk / scoot to school on their own due to safety concerns, you are not alone.
Santa Monica Families for Safer Streets is a group of motivated families and neighbors committed to making our schools as walkable and bikeable as possible through investments in infrastructure (think: protected bike lanes, sidewalk extensions, traffic calming, and more.)
Together, we can improve the quality of life for families in Santa Monica, especially for those who are walking or biking, whether it is by choice or because they cannot afford a car.
Priorities for 2024:
Pass a city-wide ballot measure to fund safe streets in Santa Monica, including safe routes to school. This measure is being studied by the city.
Support Santa Monica families who want to try family cargo bikes by sharing information and opportunities for families to come together and try family bikes.
Priorities for 2023:
Restore Santa Monica's Safe Routes to School program. The City Council cut the staff and budget for the Safe Routes to School program when cutting the city's budget by 25% in 2020. The city's 2023 operating budget is the right time to restore this program at pre-COVID staffing levels now that students are back in person and traffic levels are back to pre-COVID levels. Without Safe Routes to School program staff, the City of Santa Monica will lose out on a windfall state and federal grant funding for safe routes to schools made possible by the state's 2022 budget surplus and the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
Provide Resources for Quick-Build Safety Improvements. In 2020, The City Council cut over 40% of the city's transportation planning and engineering budget and staff. This year, the Santa Monica City Council should restore the jobs capital planners and traffic engineers and provide them with a budget needed for quick-build safety improvements that have become common in the City of Los Angeles.