Pedestrian Safety

The SFMTA held an openhouse last night to get feedback on initial designs for bike and pedestrian safety improvements on 11th Street, which runs from Market to Division. Some 20 members of the public, most of them cyclists who commute through the area, showed up to see design boards and talk to SFMTA officials at the SoMa StrEat Food Park on 11th, across from the Costco warehouse.

The San Francisco Public Utilities (SFPUC) cut the ribbon on its Holloway Avenue Green Street project today, which added permeable surfaces and cisterns for better storm water management on an eight-block stretch of this relatively calm residential street through the Ingleside neighborhood.

The mainstream media was all over it: private cars to be banned from Market Street under the city's "Better Market Street" plan. It will also have sidewalk-level protected bike lanes. For advocates in the safe streets community the design announced by the city this week is a major victory and a reason to celebrate.

Guy Place Park, a small 'pocket park,' is now fully funded and will be built, said Paul Chasan of the San Francisco Planning Department, during a presentation last night on the South Downtown Design and Activation Plan (SODA), given at the Bay Area Metro Center on Beale Street. The new park will be built on a 4,000-square foot parcel near the intersection of 1st and Folsom, on a lot that the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department purchased in 2007.

Advocates with Walk San Francisco are organizing seniors to push for safer streets in their communities.

Robert Bennett of Resource Development Associates, a consultant for public and nonprofit social justice advocates, was walking his dog in the crossing at Harrison Street and 23rd on Friday, June 2, when he was fatally struck by a motorist.

The intersection of 51st/Pleasant Valley and Broadway in north Oakland lies at the confluence of three of Oakland’s most walkable and bikeable districts – Temescal, Rockridge, and Piedmont Avenue – adjacent to Oakland Technical High School, California College of the Arts, and several senior housing complexes. Yet, it has always been a barrier to connecting these districts and destinations. Recent construction at three of the four corners of the intersection presented a unique opportunity to create a safer and more inviting area while filling the void left by a previous generation of auto-oriented strip malls. The Shops at the Ridge, a 300,000 square foot, 1,000 parking space development which redeveloped the Safeway/Longs Drugs complex on the northeastern corner, could have been the centerpiece of this revitalization. However, due to a lack of vision coupled with mismanaged implementation, the 51st and Broadway area has become even more of a mess today than it was before.

Yesterday's Sunday Streets on Valencia Street in the Mission was Victoria Ruddick's first time on a Ford GoBike. "The handlebars and steering are a bit heavy," she said. Ruddick said she normally drives to work and wouldn't consider cycling on a normal day. "I'm scared of biking around cars."

For some time now, advocates have called on SFMTA to work with more urgency to get safe-street fixes on the ground. And, it seems, this is starting to happen. "We'll pour concrete on top of asphalt to make bus boarding islands," explained Bradley Dunn, a spokesman at SFMTA, at last night's "Folsom-Howard: Safer Streets Sooner Near-Term Open House #1," held at the Gene Friend Recreation Center.