Earlier this year, Muni agreed to a record settlement of $5.36 million to the family of David Wheeler, a cyclist who was killed in a Muni accident near Ocean Beach. According to documents filed in the San Francisco Superior Court, the Muni operator Roy Timmons failed to stop before turning left and took an unusually tight turning radius. The description of this accident closely mirrors Dunn’s collision over the weekend.

Portland Oregon has also been plagued by an abnormally large number of bus accidents caused by dangerous left turns. Last year, The Oregonian reported that although left-turn accidents were “alarmingly common,” the city refused to adopt a “no-left” policy. And last December, a group of five Portland residents launched a $30 million lawsuit against Portland’s TriMet bus system, after a bus turned left onto a busy street, killing two and injuring three others. Plaintiffs said the accident indicated that TriMet “approved a culture within TriMet that failed to place safe and defensive driving as the top and overriding priority.”

San Francisco should learn from last weekend’s tragic accident and implement measures to reduce dangerous left-turns among all Muni vehicles. If accomplished successfully, reducing left-turns would save the city a bundle in legal costs and more importantly, save lives of promising San Francisco residents.

Photo credit: randychiu

Unlike most cities, Oakland’s crosswalks don’t automatically tell pedestrians to “walk” when the light turns green. Rather, pedestrians must press the button at the crosswalk in order to get permission to cross. Lauren McFall notes that this creates an inherent conflict between the California Vehicle Code’s rule that “the driver of a vehicle shall yield the right-of-way to a pedestrian crossing the roadway within any marked crosswalk or within any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection” and another which says that “no pedestrian shall start to cross the roadway in the direction of the signal” if it says “don’t walk” or “wait.” By requiring the pedestrian to press a button to cross the street, Oakland streets aren’t granting pedestrians the automatic right of way, as stipulated by the California Vehicle Code.

Fortunately there’s an easy fix to this dangerous problem. Oakland could adopt the more common practice of automatically displaying a “walk” signal when cars going straight or turning right are not turning into a given crosswalk. That way, pedestrians won’t have to worry about whether they will be permitted to cross the street based on whether or not they pressed the button. This is an example of a simple solution to a dangerous problem for California streets.

If you agree with the need for this change, McFall invites anyone to join her at Oakland City Hall on August 18 for the Bicycle & Pedestrian Advisory Committee meeting.

Photo credit: Dylan Passmore

Cherish Johnson, for one, says she constantly runs into near-accidents with distracted pedestrians. “Especially if I’m at a mall, they just step out and I slam on my brakes,” she told ABC Local. Pedestrian accidents are a serious problem here in California, and have already caused 8 pedestrian deaths this year. Safety advocates and city officials have proposed street infrastructure projects to make cities like San Francisco safer for pedestrians, but none have so far suggested that California adopt a distracted walking law.

California Senator Joe Simitian is the most prominent advocate for stricter distracted driving laws here in California. Simitian even caught some criticism earlier this year for writing a distracted driving law that increased fines for cyclists caught texting or talking on the road. “The consequences of a distracted driver are considerably more serious than the consequences of distracted cycling,” said California Bicycle Coalition Communications Director Jim Brown. “As far as I’m aware, there is no accident evidence that points to a problem…this law seems premature.”

Simitian defends the provision against distracted cycling, but uses similar logic to rule out the necessity for a distracted walking law. “At some point we just have to ask folks to be responsible for their own common sense and well being,” he said. But that does not mean, of course, that pedestrians should ignore the potential dangers of texting or talking on the phone while crossing the street. “When you’re a pedestrian, you’re at greater risk than any of us who are out ther at least buckled in and behind the wheel of a car,” he added.

Do your part to avoid additional calls for distracted walking legislation and simply put the phone away while crossing a dangerous or crowded intersection.

Photo credit: Michael Cory

But fatal accidents remain far too common in San Francisco, which has already mourned 8 pedestrians this year. Oddly, these accidents often don’t receive the media attention that they deserve. Below is a complete list of 2011 San Francisco pedestrian accidents with links to more information about the accident and victim.

• January 27: Norman Daly, a 75 year-old pedestrian, was hit by a motorcyclist at the corner of Lincoln Way and 26th Avenue. Daly died on February 23.
• March 14: 87 year-old Aurora Venida was struck and seriously injured at the corner of Geary Boulevard and Arguello. She died in the hospital two days later.
• March 18: San Francisco resident Lourdes Richman was struck and killed by a truck at the corner of Second and Townsend near AT&T park.
• March 19: Weather was called a likely factor in this pedestrian accident at the corner of 8th and Market, the third fatal collision in only a week.
• May 6: 61 year-old James Hudson was struck and killed in a hit-and-run accident while crossing Masonic Avenue and Turk Boulevard. San Francisco sheriff’s cadet Jose Jimenez was later arrested and charged with the hit-and-run.
• May 25: A 22 year-old pedestrian was killed at Lombard and Pierce streets in the Marina district at 1:20 am. Police immediately ruled alcohol out as a potential factor.
• June 18: A 40-year old pedestrian was seriously injured in a hit-and-run accident at 18th and Mission streets in the Mission district. The victim’s injuries proved fatal hours later.
• July 12: A pedestrian was killed on 19th Ave near the ramp for Interstate Highway 280 at around 3 am. The vamp remained closed for hours, as police investigated the accident.

The tragic reality is that many of these pedestrian deaths could have been avoided. Fortunately, the city of San Francisco is taking steps to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists. Soon after the May 6 accident, for example, the SFMTA approved the $20 million Boulevard plan for Masonic Avenue, which was suggested by the Masonic Avenue Street Redesign Study to reduce vehicle speeds and make Masonic Avenue narrower. But even in the midst of SFMTA programs to make the streets safer, remember that walkers and cyclists are never completely safe from danger on city streets. Of course, that doesn’t mean that you should avoid enjoying the city by foot and/or bike. Just be careful, take precautions while crossing streets, and be sure to obey all traffic signs and you should be alright.

Photo credit: Monica’s Dad

The behavior of motorists on Masonic Avenue has contributed to two pedestrian deaths and many more injuries in the past year. Last August, 22 year-old tourist Nils Yannick Linke was killed in a bicycle accident on Masonic and Turk by a drunk driver. And even since last Friday’s fatal pedestrian accident, Masonic Avenue has hosted two traffic accidents. On Tuesday morning, a driver ran the red light at Masonic and Hayes, causing an accident that left both drivers with minor injuries. And on Saturday May 7, a driver ran a red light and caused a motorcycle accident at 60 miles per hour. As an eyewitness told BikeNopa, “the motorcyclist ran right into the side of the car, and flew over 15 feet into the air. His shoe actually flew off, and landed all the way across the intersection, right by me. The bike just exploded, totaled.”

One of the problems is Masonic Avenue’s width, which makes drivers feel comfortable exceeding the 25 miles per hour speed limit and treating the city street like a highway. This Friday, the San Francisco MTA will discuss the $20 million Boulevard plan, developed with help from safety organizations and neighborhood residents, which is designed to reduce speeds and make Masonic Avenue narrower. Visit the SFMTA Masonic Avenue Street Redesign Study [pdf] for more on the Boulevard plan.

San Francisco has pledged to address rising pedestrian accidents for years, but progress has been slow. “We are very frustrated with the progress on Masonic Avenue,” said North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association President Jarie Bolander. “There just doesn’t seem to be the focus from The City on making things safe for pedestrians on Masonic.”That’s why neighborhood residents have been so supportive of the Boulevard plan. City officials including Police Captain Dennis O’Leary, City Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar, and District 5 Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi, have also endorsed the Boulevard plan for Masonic Avenue.

Calling Masonic “tragically unsafe,” Elizabeth Stampe, executive director of pedestrian safety organization WalkSF penned an impassioned letter to the SFMTA in support of the Boulevard proposal. “In our city, 100 people are seriously injured or killed every year,” she wrote. “One of the most powerful things we can do to change this is to reduce traffic speeds on our arterial streets like Masonic. These wide fast streets are where the worst crashes occur and where we have the most potential to save lives.”

Photo credit: crazbabe21

Initially, a group of Senators introduced a bill that would have put aside $600 million for pedestrian and bicycle safety near schools. As the recession continued and budgets were slashed, however, this sum grew more and more unlikely. So last week, a group of 12 Senators introduced a bill that would preserve $183 million for Safe Routes to School as a standalone program. But even this is a stretch due to continually tight budgets and the fact that the bill couldn’t muster up a single Republican co-sponsor, reports Streetsblog.

Safe Routes to School is a catchall organization that promotes pedestrian and bicycle safety in school zones through a variety of measures, including adding new crosswalks, and encouraging more children to walk to school along with an adult supervisor. Currently, SRTS funds are only available for projects that serve grades K through 8. Among other improvements, the new bill would extend street safety projects through high school, as long as they were paired up with middle and elementary school projects.

“In many communities, the high school and the junior high are built very close together,” said Margo Pedroso, deputy director of the Safe Routes to School National Partnership. “So if you’re putting in a mile of sidewalk, for example, to a junior high and the high school is just a quarter mile away, it makes sense to do that extra quarter mile because you can serve a larger group of kids.”

Already, too many pedestrians of all ages are vulnerable to dangerous and reckless drivers in cities. Even in tough economic times, the federal government should be very weary of programs that could make the roads even more dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists… especially when they’re children and teenagers.

Photo credit: aldrin_muya

Part of the problem is that San Francisco is laced with a complicated grid of high-traffic arteries like Masonic (and Geary, Van Ness, Mission, etc), so motorists often don’t consider bicyclists or pedestrians while zooming through the city. “The speeding on Masonic is out of control,” UCSF nurse Annika Ehrlich told Smith. “This is a neighborhood with families and children, yet motorists treat it like a highway.”

But while the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency and the city Board of Supervisors have vamped up efforts to implement a citywide pedestrian safety action plan, critics say the effort should have started and been completed long ago. Such a plan could have prevented three pedestrian deaths in a four-day period last month. Each year, more than 800 people are hit by cars in San Francisco, making it statistically one of the most dangerous walking cities in the country.

Since 1998, pedestrian advocacy organization Walk San Francisco has been an integral force in the push for a San Francisco pedestrian safety plan. The group says the city’s pedestrian accident statistics are unacceptable. “It’s so hard to actually get the information on how many people are hit and how frequent it is that people don’t realize the danger that exists to the pedestrians in this city,” Walk SF Executive Director Elizabeth Stampe told the San Francisco Chronicle. “Two to three people are being hit every day in the city. It’s an outrage.”

Photo credit: krossbow

The task force intends to meet the challenge set by an executive directive from the Mayor’s Office last December, which set the goal post at reducing pedestrian injuries 25 percent by 2016 and 50 percent by 2021. Considering the current numbers, that’s a lofty goal. There are more than 800 pedestrian injuries and 100 serious injuries or deaths each year in San Francisco alone. Statewide, there are 563 pedestrian traffic deaths each year, 14 percent of the national total.

“I am a big fan of that executive directive and I am definitely wanting to lower, if not eliminate, pedestrian fatalities,” said San Francisco interim Mayor Ed Lee. “I am even intrigued with designing these streets immediately so that they don’t have car parking at the corner so that you can see the pedestrians come out.” The task force plans to launch a few initiatives within the next two months, including reducing speed limits to 15 mph in school zones, and working with the San Francisco Police Department to begin a pedestrian safety enforcement program.

“I do think that having this many agencies talking about this topic together is a big step forward for the city,” said Elizabeth Stampe of the pedestrian safety organization Walk San Francisco. When the city began getting serious about pedestrian safety programs late last year, Stampe explained “we’re trying to change the conversation from being about blaming the pedestrian and more into sharing the streets and getting folks to recognize that people who are driving have more responsibility.”

But while lawmakers and safety advocates alike agree that we must do something to reduce fatal pedestrian accidents, funding remains scarce. “We really don’t have enough funding for the pedestrian program, and it’s the hardest source of funding to find for this mode,” said SFMTA Deputy Director of Transportation Planning Timothy Papandreou. “There’s transit money for transit, there’s highway money for roads but for pedestrian safety, for a city pedestrian project, it’s fairly difficult, so we’re taking a different tack, and that is, if we focus on complete streets and work on designing pedestrian safety within those streets we should be able to get the funding we need.

Good luck SFMTA and WalkSF! I’ll be rooting for you and following developments closely.

Photo credit: mrjorgen

Supervisor David Chiu was vocal about the need for safer streets. “What I committed to [advocates in my district] is that in the very first meeting of our County Transit Authority next year, I am going to be calling for a study of what our city has been doing in the area of pedestrian safety to coordinate the efforts to not just think of this not just as a transit issue, but as a public health issue,” he said.

WalkSF has reason for the spring in its step, reports StreetsblogSF. Voters approved Proposition AA this year, which includes more funding for San Francisco city streets, and WalkSF also made a recent agreement with CityPlace retail center to work toward safer streets. It is also notable that neighborhoods within San Francisco have started to develop their own safety plans, apparently rejecting the relatively weak city plan. Chinatown, for example, unveiled a detailed Pedestrian Safety Needs Assessment and related Safety Plan late last month that would put more than $20,000 toward 21 of the neighborhood’s most dangerous intersections.

WalkSF executive director Elizabeth Stampe smartly picked up on an increasingly common gripe among San Francisco pedestrians and cyclists: the tendency to blame these two-footed and two-wheeled commuters for pedestrian accidents. This comes as California lawmakers statewide consider boosting pedestrian and bicycle safety laws, including a three-foot passing radius for cars zooming by bicycles. “We’re trying to change the conversation from being about blaming the pedestrian and more into sharing the streets and getting folks to recognize that people who are driving have more responsibility,” she said.

Photo credit: kyezitri

So far, the Oregon State Police report that 52 pedestrians have been killed statewide, an 80 percent increase over the 29 killed during the same period last year. In response to these deaths, which have been blamed in part on visibility, the state has launched campaigns to raise awareness for pedestrian safety. “Most people just don’t realize how invisible they are,” said Julie Yip of the state’s pedestrian safety program. One campaign commonly advertised in public transportation hubs asks pedestrians to “be visible” and “dress to be seen.”

Here in California, the year’s pedestrian statistics have been much more promising. In 2009, California suffered 563 fatal pedestrian accidents, a 10 percent drop under the 2008 total of 620 according to the state’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. California’s bicycle fatality total also decreased 10 percent in 2009, from 109 the year before to 99.

To assure safety, pedestrians are generally told to cross the street at marked cross walks. But when those aren’t accompanied by a traffic light, they can be even more dangerous than unmarked cross walks because they give pedestrians a false sense of security, a San Mateo jury ruled earlier this year. For this reason, the safest option is always to cross the street at a marked crosswalk that is accompanied by a traffic light and pedestrian signal.

California’s 2009 statistics are encouraging, but whether you’re in the Golden State or up in Oregon, remember to be extra careful and “dress to be seen” on sidewalks and crosswalks during the holiday months.

Photo credit: eflon