A scooter rider fatally struck a pedestrian crossing Market Street on Friday. From a release from advocates:
Walk SF learned from the San Francisco Police Department that on the afternoon of Friday, July 18, a 77-year-old man was hit and killed while crossing Market Street at 6th Street by a person riding an electric scooter. No additional information is available at this time.
“Our hearts break for the victim and his loved ones,” said Marta Lindsey, communications director of Walk San Francisco.
Walk San Francisco (Walk SF) and San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets (Families for Safe Streets) are here to support the friends and loved ones of the victim however possible. Resources are available at walksf.org/fss.
That represents the ninth pedestrian killed this year on the streets of San Francisco. The rest, of course, were killed by motorists.
Walk SF added that:
Market Street has some of the highest numbers of pedestrians in San Francisco. The intersections along Market Street are very busy – and can be very dangerous. There have been 46 traffic collisions, including 13 pedestrian-related crashes, at the intersection of 6th and Market since the beginning of 2015. The SFMTA recently completed some pedestrian and transit improvements along Market Street between 5th and 8th Streets as part of the Better Market Street project including pedestrian bulb-outs, traffic signal updates, repaved sidewalks, and ADA-compliant curb ramps.
Market Street, despite the improvements, continues to be a nexus of collisions: Streetsblog witnessed one such crash directly just last month. This, again, isn't because of scooterists. It's because "car-free" Market Street isn't actually car-free. Cabs, city cars, and delivery vehicles—not to mention the massive amounts of cross traffic—continue.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is also using the tragedy to remind people that not all road users are equal. From the SFBC:
This tragedy reinforces that there is a hierarchy of road user safety that runs a spectrum between users who can cause the most damage but are least vulnerable—and therefore bear the greatest responsibility for keeping others safe—to those who are most vulnerable and deserve the most caution by others. “Streets are our largest civic space, and we all share responsibility for the safety of others, especially those who are more vulnerable than ourselves,” says Claire Amable, Director of Advocacy for the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “That means the most vulnerable road users should be given deference and as much space as possible; pedestrians are more vulnerable than bike and scooter users, and people biking and rolling are more vulnerable than those driving cars.”
Also from the SFBC:
...we vocally represent and advocate for everyone biking and rolling in San Francisco, including those who ride scooters. Scooter share––like bikeshare––can provide a flexible, affordable, sustainable transportation option citywide. Scooter share provides a gateway for people to get interested in and comfortable riding scooters, often leading to them purchasing their own scooter. This means those companies are in the best position to educate their customer base on how to safely use micromobility devices.
The SFBC is correct about scooter share operators and education. But, again, this crash was an outlier: Market Street remains a high injury street primarily because of motorists and a failure to priortize safety.
