Streetsblog San Francisco

Image: SF Planning Department's City Design Group

A plan for sweeping safety improvements on deadly Masonic Avenue was unanimously approved by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors yesterday. It’s the final decision needed to move the project forward, though the SFMTA says planners still need to finalize the design and secure funding before it’s implemented. The agency doesn’t have a timeline for that yet, but construction is likely still a couple years off.

Michael Helquist, a member of the neighborhood group Fix Masonic, called the approval ”a huge accomplishment for grassroots organizations” like the SF Bicycle Coalition and the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association working with the SFMTA in pushing for the improvements. “This has been six years or more coming, and this is a big hurdle,” he said.

The plan would revamp most of Masonic, from Geary Boulevard to Fell Street, with features like raised bike lanes, reduced traffic lanes, a tree-lined median, sidewalk bulb-outs for pedestrians and buses, and more. The transformation is expected to calm motor vehicle traffic and help reduce injuries on the street, which residents say they’re afraid to travel on by any mode. The plan would also bring a plaza to Masonic and Geary.

The physically raised bike lanes would be San Francisco’s first, adopting the kind of bicycle infrastructure proven to make bicycling safer and more comfortable for a broad range of people in cities where they’ve been widely implemented, like Copenhagen and Amsterdam.

Roughly a dozen neighbors and advocates spoke at yesterday’s hearing, most in support of the project. Two speakers were opposed to the removal of car parking, including a store owner who said he had a petition signed by 300 people in opposition. However, surveys conducted throughout the widely-praised outreach and planning process have found broad support for the design, which was developed through community meetings aimed at creating a more livable corridor.

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Photo: SFMTA

Safety improvements are coming to Ortega Street in the Outer Sunset to calm the street for students and parents walking and biking to AP Giannini Middle School and Sunset Elementary School, as well as the stretch next to the Sunset Reservoir.

The plan, approved by the SF Municipal Transportation Agency Board of Directors this week, would help calm Ortega with pedestrian islands, bike lanes, speed humps, continental crosswalks, daylighting, and sidewalk bulb-outs. The improvements are actually two projects along different stretches of Ortega: one between 37th and 41st Avenues next to the schools, and one between 24th and 28th Avenues along the reservoir. The bike lanes would run on Ortega from 20th Avenue to the Great Highway, and the eastbound bike lane would be buffered on the few blocks adjacent to the schools, according to the project plans [PDF]. The bike lanes would be striped between parked cars and moving cars and would not be protected.

The changes, which were developed in community meetings over the past year, would narrow the excessively wide roadway — a characteristic typical of streets in the Sunset — to help reduce speeding, stop sign running, and pedestrian right-of-way violations by drivers. The improvements are expected to be constructed by the end of the year, though the bike lanes wouldn’t go in until summer of 2013, according to the SFMTA website.

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Eddy and Larkin during the two-way traffic conversion in April. Photo: geekstinkbreath/Flickr

Updated 6:57 p.m.

A man was killed on Saturday evening by a taxi driver who allegedly ran a red light at Eddy and Larkin Streets, the Bay City News reported as published by SF Appeal this morning. He is the eleventh known pedestrian killed this year in San Francisco.

According to the SF Chronicle, Edmund Capalla, 38, was crossing the street just before 7 p.m. when the driver ran a red light, was struck by another driver entering the intersection, and slammed into him. Cappalla was taken to San Francisco General Hospital where he died of his injuries. “Police are continuing their investigation and will pass the results on to the District Attorney’s office which will decide what charges, if any, will be filed against the cab driver,” according to the Chronicle.

Despite that stretch of Eddy being converted to a two-way street in April, which helped calm motor traffic, the Tenderloin continues to see some of the highest rates of pedestrian injuries in the city.

“If you look at the maps that we have of where the most injuries occur to people walking, the Tenderloin is a real hot spot,” said Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe. “We need to see a renewed conviction from the city to making improvements that save lives.”

In February, a driver was caught on video running over a man in a crosswalk at Eddy and Leavenworth Streets, two blocks away. The driver was only cited after a show of outrage from pedestrian advocates, and will apparently not face charges since the victim didn’t die.

Assuming the preliminary reports regarding this latest crash are correct, more traffic calming measures and traffic enforcement are clearly needed to curb the amount of dangerous speeding and other violations committed by drivers in the neighborhood.

As information becomes available, we’ll follow up with more details on the crash and any charges that may stem from it.

Eighth and Mission Streets. Photo: Aaron Bialick

A new buffered bike lane was striped on 8th Street last week, re-purposing a traffic lane for bicycles on one of SoMa’s fast, one-way motorways. The new configuration, which removes bicyclists from the door zone and provides a much wider lane, is an improvement over the four speed-inducing traffic lanes and skinny bike lane that previously existed. Still, many say it’s just a small step toward a truly safer street.

The bike lane upgrade was included as part of a re-paving project at the urging of bike advocates and D6 Supervisor Jane Kim, who wanted to seize the opportunity to re-configure the street striping as a cost-effective way to help calm motor traffic, create a more comfortable space for bicycling, and reduce crossing distances for pedestrians.

“Eighth Street was prioritized partially because of its history of pedestrian injuries,” said Kim. “While SoMa is a mixed use neighborhood, we have many residents — families and seniors, in particular — on Eighth between Mission and Folsom, that cross these dangerous speeding intersections daily. The traffic calming efforts, repaving, bike lanes and speed limit reductions on Howard and Folsom are helping to change that dynamic.”

“Eighth street is an important connector corridor between the Civic Center, Tenderloin and SoMa neighborhoods,” she added. “As the neighborhood grows, I want to see more people walking and biking as their first choice of transportation to make short trips.”

Leah Shahum, executive director of the SF Bicycle Coalition, said the organization urges “the city to take advantage of more of these opportunities to piggyback onto existing repaving projects to make low-cost, yet significant, safety improvements.”

“In the case of Eighth Street, it was originally scheduled to be put back the way it was, which was more room for auto traffic than was needed and sub-standard bike space,” she said. “Now, thanks to the changes, we have a more comfortable bikeway for the growing number of people riding and we have a safer street for people to cross on foot.”

However, advocates and readers have noted that the layout is far from ideal. “There’s still the need to slow down the traffic on this street, as it still moves far too fast for what it should be — a neighborhood street,” Shahum said. Some motorists also drive in the bike lane, as it’s wide enough to accommodate them and lacks any physical barrier keeping them out. Muni buses must also now cross the wider bike lane and the parking lane to access bus stops.

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Speed limits have been lowered from 30 MPH to 25 MPH on Howard, Folsom, Harrison, and Bryant Streets in the South of Market area, the SFMTA announced yesterday.

Howard Street. Photo: geekstinkbreath/Flickr

The agency approved the speed limit reductions last year as “an effective way to improve pedestrian and traffic safety in the area,” said SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin in a statement. “When traveling at a slightly reduced speed motorists have more time to react, making the roadway safer for everyone.”

Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe applauded the measure to calm traffic on “wide, fast, freeway-like streets,” which see the highest rates of pedestrian fatalities in the city. ”Every day, more people are living, working, and walking in SoMa, and safer speeds here will be better for everyone.”

But while physical changes to the street will also be needed to effectively slow car traffic, SFMTA board member Cheryl Brinkman said that “enforcing those speed limits will continue to be a challenge,” and she’s “determined to get camera-based speed enforcement on the legislative agenda for next year.”

“If we cannot afford the level of police officer coverage needed to keep drivers from routinely breaking the law and endangering our citizens, we need to move with the technology of the times and start automating enforcement as Chicago is doing,” said Brinkman. Chicago recently approved a program that enables the city to blanket streets near schools with speed enforcement cameras.

A statement from SFPD Chief Greg Suhr didn’t mention any plans to increase enforcement in the area, though he said “traffic safety is one of the many missions of the SFPD.”

“Through the combined efforts of SFMTA traffic engineers and SFPD education and enforcement campaigns, we can make the city’s streets safer for all who use them,” said Suhr.

The new speed limits are now in effect on Howard from the Embarcadero to South Van Ness Avenue; on Folsom and Howard from the Embarcadero to 13th Street; and on Bryant from the Embarcadero to 11th Street. The SFMTA said it installed 13 signs in addition to the ones they replaced to help ensure drivers are aware of the change.

Brinkman said she’s “thrilled that we’re continuing to review and lower speed limits in SOMA and across the city,” adding that she ”can see a time coming when all but a few key streets will have 20 MPH speed limits, making walking, biking and just being on the street much more pleasant and safe.”