Weekend Roundup: Activists Install Posts in S.F., Hopkins Fight Renews in Berkeley

Here are two Streetsblog news items to start your weekend.

Activists put in a guerrilla safety installation in Mission Bay

On Friday, Feb. 27, a driver killed a two-year-old child at the intersection of Channel and Fourth. San Francisco crews were out the following Monday repainting crosswalks. But for advocates, the horror of what happened at this notorious intersection required more than “thoughts and prayers” and some fresh paint. From a blog post from Safe Streets Rebel:

SFMTA has done nothing to make the street safer for people outside of cars besides repainting the existing crosswalks in a photo-op stunt next to a vigil of mourning community members.

Last night, residents were forced to take matters into their own hands to prove that traffic calming infrastructure can be installed both quickly and effectively when the city and the Mayor’s office sit on their hands. A curb extension, consisting of temporary materials, was constructed on the southwest corner immediately next to where the child was killed and her mother injured by the driver. This both shortens crossing distances for people walking and slows turning traffic towards the adjacent crosswalk.

And:

The vehicle lane here is unnecessarily wide, and turns can be taken at high speeds with a poor view of people crossing the street. By tightening this turn and returning more space to people outside of cars, these community members have demonstrated that changes can be quickly made to improve the safety of this intersection.

This intervention is by no means a silver bullet, and there are many more steps that SFMTA must take here. They can start by making this installation permanent, as well as banning U turns and right turns on red from all approaches. Research has shown that these changes can make a real difference in protecting vulnerable road users.

Unfortunately, city crews usually rip out such guerrilla posts in short order. Streetsblog hopes the city will do the right thing, leave the installation in place, and use its resources to upgrade it with concrete.

Berkeley advocates again demand safety on Hopkins

Berkeley advocates held a demonstration and march to city hall on Thursday evening to demand protected bike lanes on Hopkins. From a statement from the community organizers:

Hundreds of Berkeley community members, students, and families will gather on Hopkins Street in North Berkeley today to demonstrate broad support for the protected bike lanes that were approved by the City Council in 2022. The event is a direct demand for the City to move forward with the project, which was abruptly halted in 2023 despite major public expense and thousands of hours of community engagement.

And:

The Hopkins bike lanes, prioritized as a critical east-west link in the 2017 Berkeley Bike Plan and reaffirmed in the latest 2025 draft update, have been the subject of extensive community, merchant, and city department input. However, in late January 2026, Councilmembers Rashi Kesarwani (District 1) and Shoshana O’Keefe (District 5) introduced an item to repave Hopkins without the already approved-protected bike lanes and transit improvements.

“This would be a quiet rollback of a clear City and Council commitment,” insists Ben Gerhardstein of the local advocacy group, Walk Bike Berkeley. “Repaving without bicycle safety upgrades violates past votes, ignores adopted city plans and community input, and leaves a dangerous street. It would be a waste of public money and a missed opportunity to make Hopkins safe for everyone.”

If you live in the area, be sure to sign up for updates and get involved.