LOS ANGELES — Last year, according to Los Angeles Police Department numbers, nearly 300 people were killed in traffic collisions despite the launch of the Vision Zero initiative in 2015, designed to eliminate traffic deaths by 2025.

John Yi, executive director of Los Angeles Walks pedestrian advocacy organization, said there’s a disconnect between car and pedestrian culture in LA, which feeds into the problem.

“Walking is important because you run into community. You are part of community, you move with community,” Yi said from the intersection at Hollywood and Highland, a high incident area. “But if you’re stuck in your car and you’re moving about your day, then I think you remove yourself from that, and I think that has impacts on our societies and as a city.”

Last year’s traffic collision death toll is a 21% increase from the previous year. Half of those people killed were not themselves in vehicles.

“I think this state of pedestrians here in LA is not good,” added Yi. “We’re still losing, every 30 hours, an Angeleno and our city’s vision to go to zero traffic fatalities by 2025. Things have only gotten worse since that policy.”

Jasmine Waddle knows firsthand the cost of reckless driving. On June 25, 2020, a car carrying three passengers was rear-ended by a big rig at an intersection in Wilmington.

“Three lives are gone: the driver, my daughter and my unborn grandson,” Waddle said, attending a dedication of a Rainbow Halo Memorial at the intersection where her daughter Chyna and fellow passengers were struck.

Waddle explained how she has no choice but to raise her voice now.

“This will continue to affect our community,” she said to the crowd attending the dedication. “To care for safe streets is to care for the Black and brown bodies that navigate them every day.”

Waddle noted that the way officials handled her daughter’s case also caused dismay, with poor communication and lack of empathy.

“I don’t have closure,” she said. “What happened? How do we get here?”

Waddle added that losing her daughter Chyna and unborn grandchild is a painful reminder that changes need to be made to ensure these senseless and preventable deaths do not continue.

Despite Vision Zero’s ambitious goals, John Yi speaks for many who say greater leadership, resources, and awareness are required to make the city more equitable for all modes of transportation.

“At the end of the day, you can blame drivers, you can blame people for being distracted, but it’s how we design our cities that ultimately influences how we navigate our spaces,” said Yi.

Although Mayor Eric Garcetti has publicly defended Vision Zero, for folks like John Yi and Jasmine Waddle, a traffic collision death every 30 hours is a stark reminder there is much work to be done.