These deaths strike close to home because I, like a lot of Castro residents, have had drivers come to a stop within inches of my knees at this intersection, as well as 15th/Noe, Noe/Market, and Duboce/Steiner. Just about everyone has had close calls with cars at local crossings.
I’d like to put forward some suggested action items that you might take up in your role as supervisor.
Dear Scott,
I was saddened to read this morning that yet another pedestrian was killed by a vehicle near my home:
http://sfappeal.com/news/2011/09/pedestrian-struck-and-killed-in-castro.php
These deaths strike close to home because I, like a lot of Castro residents, have had drivers come to a stop within inches of my knees at this intersection, as well as 15th/Noe, Noe/Market, and Duboce/Steiner. Just about everyone has had close calls with cars at local crossings.
I’d like to put forward some suggested action items that you might take up in your role as supervisor.
1 – insist that local police and traffic officers issue citations for “strafing” (that’s proceeding through an intersection while a pedestrian is within the crosswalk). Such driver behavior is actionable by the police, yet I’ve never, ever seen nor heard of local enforcement.
2 – mount an anti-strafing publicity campaign, not just in District 8 but across the city. Drivers head through intersections while pedestrians are in the crosswalks all the time. It’s wrong and it’s part of why SF pedestrians are 4x as likely to die walking our streets than vehicle riders/drivers.
3 – push DPW and SFMTA to greatly increase crosswalk striping — not just at select intersections but all crossings (including the ones that DTNA surveys show are being ignored, like Hermann/Steiner and Walter/Duboce, both currently with ramps but not a single stripe).
4 – advocate for reducing 14th Street from 3 lanes down to 2 lanes. There’s absolutely no reason that there need be 2 full eastbound lanes on 14th Street (and I wonder how this high-speed double-wide corridor may have impacted this recent death). The amount of traffic transiting from Buena Vista to Church/Market is negligible. We need you, and other folks with power in government, to insist on a 2-lane 14th Street.
5 – remove parking within 15 feet of street corners. Yes, this loses precious parking spaces for car owners who use public property to house their vehicles. But how many pedestrians must die before lives lost trump car owners’ need for free public storage space?
6 – get increases across-the-board for moving violations involving crossings.
7 – actively oppose placing obstructions on sidewalks (such as those refrigerator sized ATT boxes). Each visibility-reducing element added to our streetscape increases the odds that pedestrians and cars won’t see each other. Undergrounding objects higher than 3′ should be the law, and I hope you’ll eventually see that your support of adding 500+ big boxes to sidewalks is contributing to this ongoing pedestrian nightmare.
These are just a few suggestions that would make material improvements in pedestrian safety. None of them are new ideas.
At the same time, I can’t help but be dismayed about news that you’re pushing “nudist sit on towel” legislation. I can’t think of a single case of disease transmission related to someone’s exposed anus on a chair. It’s an law that will result in zero impact on city disease transmission, despite claims about ‘public health’. Fecal matter is more likely on the clothing surface of homeless people, but do restaurants ban the dirty homeless? What about businesses posting signs stating, “We reserve the right to not serve anyone” mean? Why not just allow enforcement on a case by case basis? Do we truly need a new nudist-specific law here?
I’m just bummed to see you focusing on stuff that matters little in terms of real safety, when we’re having pedestrians dying on our streets. I realize that you don’t have unlimited energy and resources. That’s why I’d rather you spend your limited capital in ways that have real impact.
Sincerely,
Patrick Santana
63 Walter Street