Long Beach leaders have recommended making city streets safer by improving the way the city responds to traffic concerns from residents, as well as by updating its goals to reduce fatal traffic collisions.
The City Council unanimously approved recommendations this week for the city manager and Public Works Department to look at ways to make those improvements, such as by creating review standards for traffic evaluations, minor improvements to be brought to the council quarterly, and updating the city’s Vision Zero goals, among others.
Council members and residents during this week’s meeting shared their ongoing concerns with Public Works and its traffic engineering team, saying there are consistent delays when responding to traffic safety and calming requests.
“We need to do something about how we deliver on these traffic safety projects,” said Second District Councilmember Cindy Allen, who brought the item forward with the support of Councilmembers Mary Zendejas of District 1 and Megan Kerr of District 5. “As you can hear, the residents all over the city, not just in District 2, are frustrated; they feel unsafe and they feel unheard.”
While staff have logged and reviewed requests, the number of fully implemented improvements remains limited, and the time between request submissions and completion often exceeds community expectations, particularly for safety-related concerns, officials said.
Out of 220 traffic calming requests received since 2023, 180 locations were evaluated, but only 17 were ultimately prioritized for traffic calming improvements, according to a city memo released on Dec. 30.
Although evaluations are occurring, relatively few requests result in near-term safety interventions, officials said. This has contributed to growing frustration among residents and has led to an increasing number of constituents reaching out directly to council offices to follow up on long-pending traffic safety requests.
“I’ve waited almost three years for responses to concerns for residents,” Ninth District Councilmember Joni Ricks-Oddie said, “and admittedly – I’ll speak for myself – it makes my office sometimes look ineffective, because I’m not able to provide answers.
“I really think that daylighting this issue regularly will enhance transparency for council as well as residents,” Ricks-Oddie said, “and my hope is that it will increase accountability with our traffic engineering team to make sure these enhancements are complete and in a reasonable amount of time.”
City leaders added that they hoped improving the ability to deliver timely safety improvement will help increase safety for pedestrians and bicyclists, and reduce the number of fatalities caused by vehicle collisions.
In 2025, Long Beach recorded 53 fatal traffic collisions, one of the highest totals in more than a decade, according to the staff report, with pedestrians representing a disproportionate share of deaths
As part of the agenda item, the city will look at updating its Vision Zero goals. Part of the city’s Safe Streets Long Beach initiative, Vision Zero is a road safety philosophy that states that no loss of life from traffic collisions is acceptable, according to the city’s website. Long Beach’s goals when it first introduced Vision Zero in 2016 were to reduce traffic-related fatalities and serious injuries to zero by 2026.
“We really need to make some changes in the spirit of efficiency and transparency,” Allen said.
“And I just hope that we all can work together,” she added, “and making sure that we’re making progress on our goals for zero fatalities, and I think with a commitment to do better, that we can get there.”
Along with updating Vision Zero, the item also requested the city manager pursue outside contractors to help complete traffic evaluations; set clear deadlines for traffic studies; bring minor traffic safety – such as painting, maintaining and enhancing crosswalks – and quick-build improvements to the City Council on a quarterly basis; and require consistent reporting to track progress.
The council also asked city staffers to identify funding options to expedite completion of critical safety improvements and include a status update on these efforts within the city’s financial reporting structure for City Council review, as well as identify funding to improve traffic safety, and make evaluating and delivering traffic studies a top priority for the development of the fiscal year 2027 proposed budget.
Councilmembers also said they “recognized and deeply appreciated” the hard work of Public Works and the traffic engineering team in keeping the city running as smoothly and safely as possible, but also recognized the need to address these traffic safety concerns.
“I am deeply saddened by the injury and loss of life that we continue to see across our city,” Fifth District Councilmember Megan Kerr said, “and I think it’s time for us to look at the workload that we have and expectations we have of our current employees, and we look for ways to alleviate that with some support in the name of public safety.”
During public comment, people from different Long Beach neighborhoods – including the Roosevelt Linden Historic District near Poly High School, the Rose Park Neighborhood and Bluff Park Historic District – shared their issues and concerns with traffic safety improvements not being met by the city.
Stephen Sutton with the Bluff Heights Neighborhood Association said that area has suffered “countless” injuries and deaths associated with unsafe driving and street crossing conditions.
“If we can’t rely on our city leaders and our city for street safety, what can we rely on the city of Long Beach for?” Sutton said. “One thing is painfully clear: we must do more. We must do better to improve pedestrian and bike safety throughout this city.”
Public Works has already begun tackling these concerns with a new neighborhood traffic safety request portal, and making requests and Traffic Calming Priority Index rankings available for public viewing, department Director Josh Hickman said during the Tuesday, March 3, City Council meeting.
In December, the City Council also approved a pilot program for automated speed enforcement cameras, which will help with enforcement and also generate some revenue to address other traffic safety and calming requests, officials said.
Even though the upcoming 2027 fiscal year will have some difficulties with balancing the city’s looming budget deficit, City Manager Tom Modica said this is an area where the city can still make some significant changes.
City staffers will return to the council within 90 days to update on what recommendations Public Works can begin addressing, as well as looking at a new rollout of a Vision Zero plan and what future actions can be taken by the department to address traffic safety concerns citywide, Hickman said.