City of San Diego leaders moving toward safety overhaul on Jackson Drive, other streets

A memorial of bouquets of flowers, stuffed animals, notes and religious candles for the children who were hit by a car, with one killed, at the site of an October accident on Jackson Drive. The city of San Diego continues to make changes for safety. Photo by Karen Pearlman

By Karen Pearlman

Feb. 27, 2026 (San Carlos) -- The San Diego City Council is paving the way for safer streets in the city, including along heavily traveled Jackson Drive in San Carlos, where speeding vehicles, line of sight issues and pedestrian safety have been a growing concern.

The City Council in mid-March will consider passing a plan that will reduce vehicle traffic speeds along Jackson and in other high-priority areas where safety concerns are the most pressing.

For years, residents in San Carlos near the La Mesa border warned that the stretch of Jackson Drive near Lake Badin Avenue was an accident waiting to happen, and on Oct. 20, 2025, those fears became a reality.

Andrew Olsen, an 11-year-old sixth grader at Pershing Middle School, was walking to campus with his two sisters when an eastbound vehicle struck them. Andrew was killed; his sisters survived but sustained critical injuries.

According to police, the driver -- who remained on the scene -- reported being blinded by the morning sun. While no criminal charges were filed, the tragedy ignited a firestorm of community outrage and a demand for immediate infrastructure reform.

Some in the community have not forgotten when a pedestrian was hit and injured on Jackson in 2016, just two blocks from the Lake Badin intersection.

The fatal accident in October was a touch point that has led to a fundamental shift in how the city prioritizes lives over what might be called “commuting conveniences.”

In February, the San Diego City Council’s Active Transportation and Infrastructure Committee voted unanimously to approve a series of safety improvements for Jackson Drive. The proposal moves to the full City Council for final consideration on March 16 or March 17. You can read about the plan and specific streets slated for change here.

At the heart of the plan are changes to reduce the roadway from four travel lanes to two between Lake Shore Drive and Lake Murray Boulevard, along Lake Murray in San Carlos where it meets La Mesa. Additionally, the speed limit will be lowered from 40 mph to 35 mph between Cowles Mountain Boulevard and Lake Murray Boulevard.

While road changes somethings called “road diets”often trigger concerns regarding peak-hour gridlock, San Diego City Councilmember Raul Campillo, who represents San Carlos as part of his District 7, noted that traffic modeling suggests the corridor can handle the transition.

“According to City staff, Jackson Drive will likely not experience peak hour delays because its current volumes will be adequately handled by the single lane and intersection turn pockets,” Campillo said.

Campillo said that physical design is the most reliable way to enforce safety.

“We know that reducing speed limits alone isn’t enough and that lasting change often requires more than just regulatory change," he said. “That’s why the City continues to develop, design, and fund street safety improvement projects that will complement the speed limit reductions identified.”

“Road diets are a proven traffic calming measure that improve safety by simplifying traffic movements, reducing conflict points, and increasing driver awareness. While these projects don’t currently include features like bulb-outs or raised crosswalks, the lane reductions and updated striping are still expected to help naturally slow traffic.”

Reforming an “outdated” system and a citywide plan

The Olsen family has filed a lawsuit against the city alleging negligence, and while Campillo noted that his office is “unable to comment on active litigation,”the tragedy has accelerated an overhaul of city policy.

Historically, the intersection at Lake Badin failed to meet the city’s “point-based” criteria for stop signs and crosswalks. It is a system city leaders have called outdated.

“As local lawmakers, we have a responsibility to increase safety in high-risk areas before heartbreaking incidents occur,” Campillo said. “Our colleagues in District 3 recently brought an informational item to identify amendments to the Council Policy that determines the point threshold for crosswalks, referencing the incident at Jackson Drive. Our office fully supports these efforts and is advocating to identify high-risk areas in District 7 that would benefit from additional safety improvements.”

The city is zeroing in on and prioritizing funding for intersections with histories of fatal accidents, specifically focusing on areas within a quarter-mile of schools, parks and neighborhood playgrounds.

The changes on Jackson Drive are the proverbial canary in the coal mine for a major Comprehensive Speed Management Plan that the Council will vote on in mid-March.

The plan, bolstered by a $680,000 federal grant and new California traffic laws (Assembly Bill 43 from 2021, AB 1938 from 2022 and AB 382 from 2025), allows San Diego to bypass the traditional “85th percentile” rule -- where speed limits were often set based on how fast people were already driving.

Under this new framework, more than 20 percent of city of San Diego streets (679.1 centerline miles) are eligible for speed reductions.

Major corridors that could see similar diets or 5 mph reductions include streets identified with high concentrations of fatal and serious-injury crashes, commercial districts where frequent parking and loading increase the risk for pedestrians and in school zones -- streets where child activity is high, which could allow for speed drops to 15 mph or 20 mph.

“While the citywide Speed Management Plan is not a formal amendment, it functions as a major update to how the City prioritizes and implements traffic safety measures by establishing a proactive, corridor-based approach for speed reductions,” Campillo said.

If the City Council gives the green light in March, the work in San Carlos will move quickly, Campillo said.

“The three projects along Jackson Drive that will include striping updates to reduce the number of lanes and help lower speeds are all on schedule to pave and stripe within the first half of 2026 and prior to the end of the fiscal year,” he said.

“We will continue to provide monthly status updates on these projects as they near paving completion and striping implementation.”