Streetsblog San Francisco

UPDATED Friday, 9:05 a.m.

A 22-year-old bicyclist named Derek Allen was killed by the driver of a 44-O’Shaughnessy on 6th Avenue between Geary Boulevard and Clement Street late Thursday afternoon in the city’s second bicyclist fatality of the year. (The raw video above is from CBS5).

A spokesperson for the San Francisco Medical Examiner’s office said Allen lived in the East Bay but he could not say which city.

An SFPD spokesperson said the crash happened around 4:59 p.m. as the bus was traveling northbound on 6th Avenue. A man who works at a nearby bakery and witnessed the aftermath told Streetsblog the driver may have been attempting to pass another 44 bus when he or she collided with the bicyclist.

At the crash site, the bus involved in the collision, 8456, sat in the southbound lane facing north in the middle of the block near a parking lot while another 44 sat idle closer to Geary Boulevard facing north in the northbound lane.

“One bus was headed in the right direction down 6th Avenue here and then the other bus was passing it on the wrong side of the street, and then we saw a bicycle wedged underneath and the body,” the witness said. He didn’t want to be identified and added that he often sees Muni operators speeding and trying to overtake other buses in the area.

The mangled white bicycle appeared to be a 10-speed. Allen’s body was draped in yellow tarp and two SFPD officers held white tarp over it until it was transported by the Medical Examiner more than two hours later.  The bicycle was taken away by uniformed officers and put into the back of a black SFPD SUV.

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The San Francisco Police Department has arrested two men allegedly involved in the theft and fraudulent selling of Muni late-night transfer tickets, a practice that deprives the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which runs Muni, of thousands of dollars a week.

What's worse, one of the men arrested is a Muni mechanic. Edmund King, a San Francisco resident and Muni employee, was charged with possession of stolen property and conspiracy, both of which are felonies. The other man arrested, Leroy Gutierrez, was charged with conspiracy and possession of stolen property, as well as two other misdemeanor theft charges and misdemeanor possession of a concealed knife.

Late night transfer tickets are valuable because they don't expire after two hours, like normal transfers. They are given out on surface stops after 8:30 pm and are valid until 5 am the next day.

The sting that nabbed the two men was conducted by the Muni Task Force, a special unit of the SFPD under Deputy Chief John Murphy that operates throughout the Muni system to deter crime. Some of the task force are in uniform, while others operate in plain clothes. The arrests occurred at 16th and Mission Streets, one of the areas of higher incidents of crime related to Muni, according to police data.

"It's a big deal because this has been going on for years," said SFPD Spokesperson Sgt. Troy Dangerfield in reference to selling late-night passes. Dangerfield also said the stings would continue and they hoped to greatly deter the practice. 

Dangerfield, who previously worked Muni enforcement himself, said it was routine to hear people at 16th and Mission and other areas saying, "late night, late night" when trying to sell the transfers.

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As I was riding my bicycle on Market Street to City Hall yesterday, I saw another SFPD sting for vehicles violating the mandatory personal vehicle diversion on Market Street north of 10th Street.

I was stopped at Van Ness waiting for the light to change with a gray Mitsubishi to my left. When the light changed the driver and three others proceeded forward as I negotiated my space leading up to the protected green bike lane starting at 11th. The driver of the Mitsubishi started toward the mandatory turn lane, then made a last-second merge back to the left and into the bus and taxi lane. 

Not an uncommon sight, in my experience, as I've witnessed numerous drivers ignore the signs at the last second to avoid the mandatory turn. The Mitsubishi stopped half a block in front of me at the red light and as I neared him, I was of half a mind to warn him he could get a ticket for violating the lane.

Rather than get into it with him, though, I simply rode by and proceeded through the light at 10th when it turned green. To my (I have to admit pleasant) surprise, there was an SFPD motorcycle cop positioned by the Muni island near 9th and Market who immediately signaled to the driver to pull over (into the bike lane) to get his ticket.

After taking several pictures of the moment, I rode past the officer, who gave me a knowing smile and asked how my day was. Good I said, and thanked him for making it safer.

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Until a year ago, there was no written agreement between Muni and the city's police department specifying what services Muni was paying for and how much, despite the fact that the police department was sending the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency an $83 million annual bill.

Now, one year after a formal memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the departments was finally released, the City Controller's office has released a report that looks at the patrolling services SFPD is providing in a district that is both the location of a dramatic spike in Muni-related crime and also a potential model for how SFPD can reduce such crime.

The report, entitled "Addressing Crime and Disorder on the Municipal Railway: A Case Study on Data-Driven Policing in the Ingleside District," focuses on the efforts of Ingleside Captain David Lazar to overhaul and strategically target how police are assigned to Muni during their shifts.

The SFPD's Bus Inspection Program, or BIP, which was formally outlined in the 2009 MOU but has been around much longer, requires each sergeant in a patrol division and each officer "assigned to a radio car" to make two transit inspections per shift. Officers on foot patrol are required to make at least four inspections per shift.

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With the recent addition of fully separated bright green bike lanes and a set of traffic changes that have improved conditions for Muni and people on bikes, Market's midsection has become a place to watch for innovative transportation trial projects. Seven months after a pilot program launched, local drivers seem to be catching on to the required right turns at 6th and 10th Streets on Market, even without anyone standing around to enforce the rule.

But the city's innovative experiment isn't without some turbulence. Over a 15-minute period on a recent weekday, 24 drivers heading eastbound on Market traveled straight through the intersection of 6th Street. Just seven drivers made the same illegal move at 10th Street during a similar period, suggesting the extra signage and cues are working better at the first required turn. At both locations, a large majority of drivers got the message.

"It's definitely a work in progress," said Great Streets Project director Kit Hodge. "The first turn at 10th street is a lot easier to follow for people no matter what mode they're using. The one at 6th, which doesn't have as much enforcement and clues for people as to what they should do, is definitely more of a challenge."

There's an upside to that: the different configurations are serving as a test of what works and what doesn't. "The goal is clarity for everyone so everyone can have the best possible experiences," said Hodge. The huge LED sign at 10th Street and a number of smaller clues seem to be sending a clearer message than the relatively small sign at 6th Street.

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One of the jobs I had when I lived in New York City was leading a campaign for Transportation Alternatives (T.A.) against the abuse of parking permits by city, state and federal employees, a rampant problem that led to complete curbside saturation, making deliveries more difficult and compounding New York's infamous traffic. Sidewalk parking and parking in school playgrounds was not uncommon.

We started a user-generated website called Uncivil Servants, which enabled users to take photos of any permit holder parking illegally and geocode the location of the photos; the website then mapped the offenders and classified them by the agency that employed them.

After a number of good stories in the media, including an article in the New York Times and several front-page splashes in the Daily News and the New York Post, Mayor Bloomberg finally got serious about reducing the total number of permits on the street, which he cut by more than half. He also directed the NYPD to enforce the abuse of permits, which upset everyone from teachers to court officers who had previously considered free parking a perk of the job.

So why am I writing this now? We just got an email from the San Francisco Police Department public information office that was sent to the SFPD's media list with the subject header "EMERGENCY ADVISORY." I'd never seen a subject line that distressing, so I was surprised to read the advisory had nothing to do with breaking news:

If you have a Media van parked on California or any other area that is posted NO PARKING please have the vans moved. WE ARE BEING ADVISED THAT THEY WILL BE TOWED. I have no control over this.

Presumably this has to do with President Obama's visit and the Secret Service has a different standard for parking than the SFPD? Is permit parking abuse a bigger problem than we realize?

My request for clarification from the SFPD media team hasn't been answered. I doubt it will.

UPDATED May 26th:

Lt. Lyn Tomioka of the SFPD press office confirmed the advisory was in relation to the President's visit and added the following:

At certain times and situations, it may be okay for media to be in NO PARKING areas. It is best to follow the guidelines on the parking permit and those given by officers on scene. Plus, consider the event...security is so tight during an event like this and we have to be very aware of risks.

As happens at some point to most people who ride a bike in San Francisco, Adrienne Johnson had a scary brush with an irate motorist, though her story took on much darker implications when she found out who that driver worked for.

The incident occurred a week and a half ago on Valencia Street, between 16th and 17th streets, as Johnson recounted in detail on her blog, Change Your Life, Ride a Bike. She had been riding her bike when a motorist started to turn right on 17th Street, veering into her path. When she told the motorist there were two cyclists trailing her (her son and husband) she thought she heard him call her a bitch. She gave him the finger and he raced up beside her, threatening to knock her off her bike. When he drove ahead of her, Johnson saw red and blue lights through his rear window (visible in the photo above) and realized he was a plainclothes officer in an unmarked patrol car.

Johnson did the prudent thing and filed a complaint with police at Mission Station. She was thrilled with the reception she received from the desk officer and his supervisor, both of whom encouraged her to proceed with her formal complaint and provide as much evidence as possible.

"I went in expecting them to try to talk me down, but I got the sense as soon as I started describing the guy in the car, the officer knew who I was talking about," said Johnson. "There was no doubt that what I was saying was true."

That sense of satisfaction evaporated when Johnson heard that investigations at the Office of Citizens Complaints (OCC) take on average nine months to be completed, and longer if litigation is involved.

"If it were reversed, if I had threatened him or he had perceived that I had threatened him, he would have arrested me and I would have to have a lawyer right now," said Johnson. "Citizens are discriminated against by the fact that they are not in a uniform. It's okay for us to wait."

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Over on Change Your Life, Ride a Bike, Adrienne Johnson writes about a terrifying encounter she had while riding a bicycle when a motorist behaved aggressively and then escalated with threats of violence. The motorist, according to Johnson, was an SFPD officer in an unmarked vehicle.

Johnson, a regular contributor of beautiful photos to our Flickr pool, explained the encounter [edited, read full version at her site]:

Last Saturday I had a very frightening encounter while riding on Valencia St. with my husband and older son. As we approached the intersection at 17th St. I found myself being cut off by a driver turning right, no signal. I was in that weird place where you can't stop but you are still behind the car, so I rang my bell a couple of times and gave a shout out. The driver slowed the car but kept moving, slowly enough for me to pass but fast enough to be nerve rattling. The windows were down on the car and I could see the driver and his two passengers looking out at me. They were paying so much attention to me, I was worried they didn't see James and Cameron behind me, so I told the driver there were two more bikes behind me and kept riding. I could hear the driver yell something at me in an angry voice. It sounded like he called me a bitch but I couldn't really hear him.

At this point I did something kind of dumb, I flipped him off. This wasn't the most intelligent thing, but at some point you just get sick of being called names for not wanting to be run over.

The car raced up next to me, just a little too close for comfort, to force me to slow down. I kept moving but he paced me. The driver leaned over his passenger and said "Shut your fucking mouth bitch or I'll knock you off your bike". He didn't yell it at me, he just stated it like there was no way it could be any other way, straight to my face. My nature is to not show fear, especially with people like this- I have found it makes them more bold. I looked right back at him ( I started taking note of all the details- the driver, the passenger in the back, the colour of the car....) and asked him if he would like me to call the police to report his harassing me? I got another "shut up bitch" and he started to drive away, slowly to see if I would try to pass him.

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The citywide Stand Against Sit Lie campaign Saturday March 27 was a big success by all accounts. The website claims over 100 events took place on San Francisco sidewalks, and over 1000 people participated. That doesn’t sound overwhelming at first glance, but if you recall that this began as a brainstorm in a bar just a couple of weeks ago, and relied heavily on Facebook and personal networking, it is an impressive beginning.

Mayor Gavin Newsom, Police Chief George Gascón, and the S.F. Chronicle suburban-values attack-dog C.W. Nevius have been drumming up an Astroturf grassroots effort to criminalize sitting on sidewalks. The focus has been the Haight-Ashbury, where there are actual homeowners who have been contributing their energy to this effort. The joke at our 24th and Shotwell sit-in was that these same upscale homeowners in the Haight have been trying for over 30 years to “clean up” Haight Street. They had an organization for a while in the 1980s called RAD (Residents Against Druggies) and you could reliably buy pot or acid by looking for them, and then seeking the cluster of dealers who trailed them around the neighborhood!

Anyway, these folks, egged on by the powers-that-be, are clamoring for a new law to give police carte blanche to evict anyone they want to from the neighborhood’s sidewalks. The proposed ordinance is drawn very broadly, allowing for police to accost anyone on any sidewalk in the city and fine them and, if there’s a second offense, have them jailed for 30 days. This is being promoted as a means to enhance public safety, despite the fact that there are already laws against blocking sidewalks and aggressive panhandling. It’s unclear what purpose this new ordinance is supposed to fulfill, other than a new tool of arbitrary power for the police to use against “undesirable” populations.

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