Fix Masonic

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee told Streetsblog today that he will look into having the SFMTA figure out a way to speed up the timeline for redesigning Masonic Avenue, a dangerous traffic sewer that has been the scene of two deaths in the last nine months, including a 61-year-old pedestrian who was killed one week ago by a drunk driver.

A 23-year-old San Francisco man accused of killing a pedestrian crossing Masonic Avenue at Turk Street early Friday morning while driving intoxicated made his first court appearance today but did not enter a plea.

An alleged drunk driver traveling more than double the speed limit on southbound Masonic Avenue at Turk Street struck and killed 61-year-old James Hudson of San Francisco in the crosswalk early this morning. The driver then continued his destructive path for another 13 blocks, according to police, damaging four parked cars along the way before crashing into a planter in the parking lot of St. Mary's Medical Center on Shrader Street.

North Panhandle neighbors gave significant support once again for a complete re-design of Masonic Avenue in an online survey completed by 377 residents. Of the total, 87 percent favored the Boulevard option as the best way to make Masonic a safer street for all users. The plan offers a complete package of traffic calming measures, including a fully-landscaped median, bus bulb outs, a separated bicycle lane, improved traffic lane configurations, and sidewalk upgrades for pedestrians.

Lawyers for the family of Nils Yannick Linke have filed a wrongful death lawsuit [pdf] against Joshua Calder, the Oakland man charged with drunk driving and vehicular manslaughter for allegedly mowing down the 22-year-old as he was riding a bicycle on Masonic Avenue last August. The suit also names Calder's girlfriend, Nicole Mairs, and her grandmother, June Soelberg, who was the owner of the 1989 Mercedes involved in the crash.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency's (SFMTA) options for fixing Masonic Avenue, a major north-south traffic sewer that was the scene of the city's first and only bicycle fatality this year, have been narrowed to two designs. While each option would calm auto traffic in slightly different ways and offer different amenities for bicyclists, both would significantly transform the street into a greener, friendlier corridor for all users.

The girlfriend of a drunk driver charged with killing a 22-year-old bicyclist on Masonic Avenue a month ago is still being investigated for allegedly taking over the wheel and fleeing the scene after the crash, though a spokesperson for District Attorney Kamala Harris said a decision has not been made on whether she'll be charged.

More than a hundred people turned out last night to remember a man most of them never knew. His abrupt and violent death at the hands of a drunken driver on the city's streets had enraged and saddened them, and led to calls for immediate improvements on one of San Francisco's most notorious traffic sewers. 

A week after a 21-year-old German tourist on a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver on Masonic Avenue, the first death of a bicyclist in the city this year, advocates who have been working for years to calm the major arterial are calling on the SFMTA to make immediate safety improvements.