Cupertino dashboard tracks traffic collisions

One West Valley city is dissecting data to improve traffic safety.

Cupertino recently released a public dashboard charting 1,950 traffic collisions between 2018 and 2024, compiling data from the California Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System. The data reveals that within about six years, collisions resulted in 47 severe injuries and 10 fatalities primarily along the city’s major corridors, including Stevens Creek and De Anza boulevards, as well as Homestead, North Wolfe and Bollinger roads. The dashboard is one of the city’s first steps toward Vision Zero, a national movement that aims to reduce and ultimately eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries.

The total number of collisions has gone down from 387 in 2018 to 234 in 2024, according to the dashboard. The number of severe injuries also dropped from 10 in 2018 to six in 2024. But the number of deaths has stayed consistent year to year — and out of 10 deaths, eight were the result of a crash between a car and a pedestrian or cyclist.

Cupertino will continue updating the dashboard as it receives more data.

Interim City Manager Tina Kapoor said the dashboard offers transparency needed to help identify problem areas and encourage safety.

“This clear and accessible information can guide targeted improvements to make our streets safer for everyone,” she told San José Spotlight.

Cupertino first implemented Vision Zero last year, after the City Council unanimously passed it, following in San Jose’s footsteps.

Councilmember R “Ray” Wang said the data is useful because it will inform his decisions as a public representative. He said it could show the need to move protected bike lanes off of main roads, like Stevens Creek Boulevard, and concentrate on safer neighborhood streets. He also wants unsafe drivers and cyclists to be held accountable.

“If we’re going to put all these vehicles and all these modes of transportation on the roads without any enforcement, this is what you get,” he told San José Spotlight. “You get a lot of chaos because people don’t feel like they have to follow the rules.”

Former Mayor Rod Sinks, board member of pedestrian and cyclist safety group Walk-Bike Cupertino, is glad the city is working on traffic safety as someone who almost became one of the dashboard’s statistics last year. He said he was biking along Stevens Creek Boulevard and had to swerve as a car turned in front of him.

He wants the data to serve as a reminder to city officials how important traffic safety is, adding he was disappointed by the city’s defunding of a Bollinger Road traffic study in May.

“I hope this becomes a heads up to both policy makers in the city and residents to say we can do better,” Sinks told San José Spotlight. “We can do better than 10 fatalities in seven years, and 47 injuries on top of that.”

The city is working on safety measures, including safer walkways and bike lanes near Interstate 280. It has completed some projects, including protected bike lanes and flashing crosswalk signs on McClellan Road.
Muni Madhdhipatla, who sits on the city’s Bicycle Pedestrian Commission, helped implement the flashing signs after his daughter was almost hit crossing the street near home. He said it not only helped his daughter, but also his 93-year-old neighbor who avoided crossing the road. He wants the city to use the dashboard’s data-driven approach to assess safety measures to evaluate their improvements.

“I wish we would make lot of decisions based on the data,” he told San José Spotlight. “We don’t collect the feedback so we do a lot of work, but then how did that help improve the situation? Or (not)?”

Contact Annalise Freimarck at [email protected] or follow @annalise_ellen on X.