Traffic Enforcement

The SF Police Department is issuing more traffic tickets, and a greater share of them are going toward the five most dangerous violations, according to early SFPD data on traffic citations issued so far this year.

Update 6:09 p.m.: SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose said "this is a low cost measure to remind and prevent auto drivers from using transit only lanes," and that the agency will implement the treatments on these street segments this week:

New SFPD data indicates that the Park District's most dangerous intersections have nothing to do with the Wiggle, where Captain Greg Corrales has devoted his station's limited traffic enforcement staff to ticketing bike commuters who roll stop signs.

Supervisor John Avalos posted the above photo on Facebook with the following explanation:

Here's a good practice the SFPD could adopt to help the public keep track of the department's progress toward Vision Zero: monthly reports showing the department's traffic crash and citation data. It's already a practice at the New York Police Department, where it was mandated by law.

Police have declared no wrongdoing on the part of a cement truck driver who ran over and killed a 91-year-old woman on Fillmore at California Street last Thursday afternoon. According to reports, the woman was crossing Fillmore mid-block, in front of the stopped truck, when the driver began driving forward and ran her over. She was taken to SF General Hospital where she died of her injuries:

Here's another sign that the SFPD is continuing to make good on its pledge to increase enforcement against reckless driving.

You'd better have a pretty good reason to park a car in the heavily-used Fell Street bike lane during the evening rush hour, forcing commuters to squeeze by alongside three lanes of motor traffic. Police response to an emergency might qualify, but the two SFPD officers who returned to this cruiser from the adjacent Bank of America, carrying an envelope, didn't appear to be in any particular rush.

An official from the SF Fire Department explained SFFD's position on bulb-outs and road diets last week to the SF Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee. According to Assistant Deputy Chief Ken Lombardi, the department's main concern isn't about curb extensions, but raised "hardscape" structures like planters or railings that can prevent a fire truck from mounting them.