In 2015, the city adopted Vision Zero, a policy framework from Sweden with the principle that no one should be killed in traffic. Then-Mayor Eric Garcetti set benchmarks for reducing traffic fatalities over a decade, culminating in the final goal of getting to zero traffic deaths by 2025.
The opposite has happened. Since the program’s adoption, traffic fatalities in L.A. have increased. In 2024, 303 people died in traffic fatalities in L.A., according to preliminary LAPD data reviewed by LAist.
“Lack of political will” could be used to describe every shitty thing in the USA for the last god damned fifty years.
“Lack of political will” is why we have avoided trying to finalize whether or not a President is actually above the law since Nixon, and now it’s biting us in the ass with full-on authoritarianism.
Lack of political will is why we have all these trucks and SUVs built to run over people instead of follow any sane safety standards.
Lack of political will is why Teslas are still on the road despite being deathtraps more dangerous than the fucking Ford Pinto.
Lack of political will is why we can’t import small, cheap EVs from Europe.
Lack of political will is why we don’t have good public transit or bullet trains crosscrossing the country.
For real. It’s really just a fancy way of saying “they don’t wanna”