Vision Zero

This is a great name for a commitment to reducing pedestrian collisions. Perhaps there will be no way San Francisco will see not a single pedestrian collision in a year, but this does not preclude having a collective conscious vision to move towards absolute a perfect goal in which no one makes contact.

High Injury Network, HIN for short, is the term for listing hot spots where collisions are high. As a person interested in transit planning, I absorbed the Vision Zero data with a passion as though I could make a difference with my experience on the road.

I have noticed several categories of factors leading to collision: Unfamiliarity, off ramp, mental illness, signal walk cycle, senior housing, visibility, and downhill speed.

Unfamiliarity

North Point and Hyde and Francisco and Taylor are two HIN intersections that fall into the pedestrian and motorist unfamiliarity category. Setback triangles from the crosswalk help transit operators stop back from the stop line to give a big picture view of intending sidewalk pedestrians a space cushion to avoid pushing too close to the crosswalk, which limits reaction time to stop for a stroller or senior. LED flashers would be indicated at these locations. These intersections are located close to a high visitor population by Fisherman’s Wharf.

Freeway Off-Ramp

Seventeenth and Vermont could also use pedestrian activated crosswalk flashers for the reason of unfamiliarity, but also because of the category of downhill speed and freeway off-ramp. Motorists, frustrated by the Central Freeway and Bay Bridge backup, exit 101 and book to try to make up for lost time. Indeed, making Bryant an alternate arterial for freeway overload might be a good release valve to help the Essex/ Folsom merge downtown. This Vermont offramp also suffers from downhill speed, as motorists regain clutter free traffic once leaving the freeway. Flashers at the exit offramp by Slovenian Hall might also help when pedestrians attempt to cross this first stop line off of the freeway. The same could be said of Folsom and Ninth by Bed Bath & Beyond in SOMA. Pedestrians crossing right by a freeway off-ramp need to be mindful that cars coming directly off of the freeway may not have adjusted from a suburban mindset to an urban one.

Downhill Speed

17th and Roosevelt, 14th and Noe, Jackson and Spruce, also identified as an HIN, suffer from visibility problems, either from hills or large tree canopy. Motorists can’t see pedestrians, particularly after dark, because of limited sight distance as they gain speed going downhill. Street stencils and pedestrian barriers would help, as would chirpers on a button, mainly as a warning to pedestrians, they are crossing at a High Injury Location. Another idea I have is to use baby signs oriented towards the sidewalk with a red exclamation point in a yellow inverted yield sign, alerting those who cross, that this is a dangerous crossing.

Signal Walk Cycle

Too few intersections have isolated pedestrian cross cycles, the most glaring example at Fourth and Townsend by the Caltrain Station. I understand the necessity to keep heavy traffic moving, and this is exactly why the walk cycle needs to be isolated. Traffic cannot make turns or proceed smoothly due to laggards and distracted walkers consuming the green for traffic to start moving. Dear Engineer, here’s a concept to consider: during peak traffic hours, from 3:30 p.m. to 6:30 p.m., only allow pedestrians their four corner crossings every other or every third green cycle for Fourth Street. Give them those precious extra five or ten seconds to cross diagonally during their cycle: the point is “Darn, why didn’t we get the crosswalk signal? Oh we can cross both walks at once, killing two birds with one stone, a bird in hand, and not in the bush, and not on the evening news or in an operator’s transit safe driving record.” 

When the Third Street Bridge was closed, and a single lane was permitted to turn from Townsend, only one or two cars could make it through the green. This bottleneck took an extra thirty minutes to crawl on Channel Street, when an isolated pedestrian signal would give Fourth Street a solid twenty-five seconds to clear cars from the single lane choke point. Seeing DPT controllers standing by useless doesn’t go over big after waiting thirty minutes to pull-out from Woods to start my afternoon run.

Isolated pedestrian cycles at Kearny and Post, Kearney and Bush, would help us make the green without any life histories flashing across the memories of late runners blocking the green for transit and cars trying to clear the crosswalks. Deny pedestrians a cycle for uninterrupted flow of traffic, then give them a four points crossing.

Fourteenth and Folsom also needs a pedestrian flow isolation as seniors and those with groceries from Foods Co. and Rainbow Grocery need time without fear of turning cars. This is an HIN crossing.

Solutions

Chirpers, LED flashers, Syncopated signal crossings using a two or three interval cycle for pedestrians, electronic speed limit signs with MPH red flash for speeders, pedestrian barriers, SFMTA signage and baby signs in line of sight with eyeballs sitting in a car, and stencils are all good changes to reduce high injury network intersections. Granted Pedestrian barriers are often ignored, but it reduces claims when a pedestrian violates the law. Most No Parking signs are ignored simply because they are too high up from line of sight from a driver’s view in the car. Lowering signs to bike sign size is a great visibility change and I get why engineers are hesitant to use them: defacement and graffiti. Plus outright removal, such as the Muni flags on Market. 

We need a vigorous sign replacement team to keep the message clear. Destructive urges, by passing angry individuals, needs to be addressed, and those damaging signs and barriers need to realize their actions are not in a consequence free environment. I saw this anger first hand, when an angry youth did not understand why my 21 bus would not open the door while stopped on the island at a red light. Most of the damage to our MUNI Flagpoles occurs during the wee hours after a pass-up. If I can’t get on the bus, then I’ll be damned if anyone can either. The hell with these useless signs!

Kudos to the extra police presence on Market during peak PM hours. This helps save our peace of mind and can maintain a happy destiny to get home from work without any drama.