Op/Ed: Landmark Report on San Diego School Safety Demands Urgent Action
In the wake of anOctober 2025 tragedy that claimed the life of sixth-grader Andrew Olsen and injured his two sisters as they crossed a busy street to school, the San Diego Unified School District took action. They went to every school in the district and asked principals, “What do your students face on their way to class?”
The result is “Building Safe Routes to School” a document that lays bare the daily dangers children navigate just to get an education broken down by City Council District. This is the most comprehensive look at school route safety ever produced in San Diego and a call to action the city couldn’t ignore.
107 schools responded to the District’s survey and submitted 311 specific safety requests. Two Council Districts (2 and 4) alone account for more than 40 percent of the concerns, but no part of the city is untouched.
Most of the requests are low-hanging fruit:practical and actionable. For example, Muirlands Middle School, would like a countdown pedestrian signal and a scramble crosswalk. Washington Elementary needs lighted crosswalks and speed bumps. Roosevelt Middle School is asking for Zoo Drive to finally be designated a school zone.
What’s Working: The Speed Management Plan
The city’s data-driven plan to reduce traffic injuries and deaths calls for lowering speeds on nearly 680 miles of streets, including 371 miles that qualify for school zone reductions. That is more mileage than any other city in California has yet to commit to reducing its speed limits.
Earlier this year, the city got to work, including in areas around schools. Crews started installing lower-speed-limit signs in San Ysidro and Otay Mesa as part of the first phase of the Comprehensive Speed Management Plan, enabled by California’s AB43 and AB382. On Calle Primera and Willow Road, speeds dropped to 20 mph, and to 15 mph when children are present at Willow Elementary.
Credit goes to the advocates who refused to let this slide. The Vision Zero Coalition — including BikeSD, the San Diego County Bicycle Coalition, Families for Safe Streets San Diego, Circulate San Diego, and SanDiego350 — pushed hard. Councilmembers championed the effort at City Hall, with Councilmember Whitburn, as the Chair of the Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, keeping it on the agenda.Mayor Todd Gloria lent his support, and Transportation Department staff made it happen.
Lower speeds are a huge step, but they’re only part of the equation. The city acknowledges that reduced speeds must be paired with traffic calming, street design changes, and enforcement. Data from the District’s survey backs that up. In all-but-one council district, installing traditional traffic calming such as speed humps, narrowed lanes, or better pedestrian crossings was identified as a top priority
Principals also flagged poor signage, faded crosswalks, missing lighting, broken sidewalks, and dangerous drop-off zones. Across the city, schools are requesting safer bike infrastructure and traffic calming measures that go beyond just posting speed limits.
For example, La Jolla High School is asking the city to explore creating a bike lane on Nautilus Street in an area where students on two wheels mix with cars in a notoriously tricky stretch. University City High School wants a dedicated bike lane on Genesee Avenue to support the high number of students riding bicycles, especially with ongoing construction impacts. At Muirlands Middle School, the principal is asking for a painted diagonal scramble crosswalk. That is the kind of design that stops all traffic at once so students can cross in every direction, which dramatically reduces conflict points.
What’s Possible: the Pershing Model
The city has already demonstrated what is possible when political will aligns with good design. The Pershing Drive redesign is a 2.3-mile protected route through Balboa Park that turned a dangerous four-lane road into a two-lane street with separated walking and biking paths, speed reductions from 50 mph to 35 mph, and new roundabouts.
Credit belongs to SANDAG for designing and funding the project through its early-action program, part of the voter-approved TransNet sales tax. Credit also belongs to the City for implementing a temporary “quick build” version in September 2021 following two tragic deaths on that corridor, demonstrating that safety can move quickly when lives are at stake.
But these improvements should not have required deaths to happen first.
The improvements at Pershing are similar to the kinds of changes principals are asking for now. At Logan Memorial Education Campus (LMEC), the principal is requesting speed bumps inside the drop-off and pick-up roundabout areas to slow traffic. At Wilson Middle, the principal wants a lighted stop sign at a dangerous intersection where drivers routinely ignore crosswalk lights. And at Language Academy, they’re asking for permanent cones or bollards on double yellow lines to prevent drivers from going the wrong way.
When we know where danger is concentrated, and there are proven solutions, the city must act before more families are devastated, not after.
A Moment We Can’t Afford to Waste
The school district has done its part.
This report is a clear, urgent, and unprecedented call to action. District leaders met with the Mayor and every City Council office during the 2025–26 school year to discuss these concerns and advocate for solutions. They have done the research, documented the hazards, and brought the receipts. Now they are waiting, and so are thousands of families, for the city to respond with the urgency this crisis demands.
The tragedy that sparked this survey should not be in vain. The principals who filled out those surveys didn’t do it to be ignored.
The route to school should be the safest route in the city. Let’s make sure it becomes a reality.
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