On Monday, February 10, SFMTA announced that they will not enforce California's new daylighting law, and killed plans to cite drivers who park next to crosswalks. They stated that they would need to first paint curbs red before citing a vehicle parked dangerously and illegally.
Last year marked a time of record-high traffic deaths in San Francisco. The city signed its “Vision Zero” pledge over ten years ago, but the situation is only getting worse. Finally there was hope: the implementation of the new daylighting law would be a concrete step forward. Crossing the street would become significantly safer for pedestrians. All that was left to do was for the SFMTA to implement the state law and not allow obstructions within 20 feet of a crosswalk, similar to how one is not allowed to obstruct a fire hydrant.
The SFMTA had months to get the word out. They started by writing warning tickets. Plus, the city started to paint some curbs red to further highlight the new law. Activists even sprung into action and started to paint curbs, which also garnered useful news coverage about the change. District 10 Supervisor Shamann Walton implored the SFMTA to paint curbs red in his district to prevent drivers from unwittingly receiving parking tickets. The SFMTA delayed actually writing tickets a couple of times to make sure that they would have more than enough opportunity to warn people to not illegally park close to a crosswalk. But things were finally looking good.
Then came Monday's backtracking. The acting director of the SFMTA claimed that they will now somehow magically paint the thousands of curbs red over the next 18 months.
There are several serious problems with the acting director unilaterally changing SFMTA policy, assuring our streets remain dangerous.
The Board of the SFMTA has the sole responsibility to set policy, not the acting director (nor the mayor, nor the Board of Supervisors). The director is supposed to figure out how to implement the policy set by the board, not to thwart it.
The magical 18 month timeline to paint all curbs red is a cynical ploy to placate safe-street advocates. The SFMTA doesn’t have the resources to do anything that quickly. Remember how the SFMTA was to paint all bus flag stops red? Remember how they were supposed to eliminate double-turn lanes after a child was killed by the Caltrain station? Remember the Better Market Street plan? Remember nighttime and Sunday metering? Remember Transit Signal Priority? Remember center-running transit lanes on Geary? Remember promised traffic calming on Franklin Street after a pedestrian was killed?
Furthermore, SFMTA is inviting more scofflaw drivers to paint over red curbs with grey because doing so will allow them to continue to park without risking a ticket. The painting over of red curbs is already an ongoing problem for the SFMTA, one that they have not been able to successfully address. The policy of only writing tickets for curbs painted red will expand this problem greatly.
Supervisor Walton will no longer be motivated to have the SFMTA paint curbs in his district. In fact, the Supervisors will now be motivated to let drivers continue to park illegally, blocking sightlines. We are losing our allies.
Intersections should be treated like fire hydrants. Illegally parked cars should be ticketed regardless of the color of the curb.
This new SFMTA policy is a safety nightmare. But you can do something. Please get a can of red paint and get to work. We cannot depend on the SFMTA themselves to do so in a timely manner, if ever.
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Michael Smith is a disability and transportation advocate and co-founder of Walk San Francisco.
