Media Watch

When KQED asked Jason Henderson in a recent interview whether distracted pedestrians are contributing to a rise in traffic injuries and fatalities, he countered the nonsense. "Well, let's think of it this way," said Henderson, the author of Street Fight: The Politics of Mobility in San Francisco. "A pedestrian talking on the phone that bumps into another pedestrian is probably not going to result in a fatality."

Might the talking heads at Fox Business turn their gaze to the Plaza Hotel's lawsuit against a nearby Citi Bike station and sneer at the frivolous litigation tying up our courts? Of course not.

Perhaps we shouldn't expect much from KTVU these days in the way of fact-checking -- Bay Area viewers should be used to the exceptional sloppiness seen in reports like the attempted hit on bike-share, the self-documented harassment of bicycle riders who don't wear helmets, and, of course, the infamous fake names of pilots involved in the Asiana plane crash at SFO.

Stanley Roberts asked me to come out yesterday for one of his "People Behaving Badly" segments and help explain how drivers should legally make a right-turn, since CBS 5 didn't get it quite right. Roberts still didn't touch on the point that CBS got wrong -- drivers can't just jump in front of people on bikes because they got to the intersection first -- but it's good to see him devote attention to the issue.

KGO 810's "The Monty Show" was kind enough to invite me to speak this weekend as host Tim Montemayor took on the topic of bike/car relations in light of the recent truck crash that killed cyclist Amelie Le Moullac, the sentencing of Chris Bucchere, and confusion about right-of-way laws in bike lanes.

A clear understanding of California's right-of-way laws is crucial if drivers are to avoid colliding with people using San Francisco's bike lanes. As we saw this week, a "right-hook," in which a driver turns right into the path of a bike rider, can be fatal.

We've gotta spotlight this op-ed that appeared in today's edition of the SF Chronicle calling upon the SFMTA and city leaders to make Polk Street more like "a Paris street, where people saunter and stay for hours, not just one errand."

Featured on the front page of today's San Francisco Chronicle and ABC 7 is an epic exposé on the lack of legal accountability for drivers who kill pedestrians in the Bay Area. The piece is by Zusha Elinson, a journalist at the Center for Investigative Reporting.

KTVU sure blew away viewers yesterday with its latest muckraking segment on the government scandal that is bike-share.