San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum was quoted as saying, “These counts back up what is apparent on our streets everyday — that San Franciscans love bicycling, and that bicycling has never been more popular. We look forward to continuing to work with city leaders, neighbors and local businesses to help even more people bicycle by connecting the city with safe and inviting crosstown bikeways, helping the city reach its goal of 20 percent of trips by bicycle by 2020.”

According to the study, the top 10 cities with the highest percentage of commuter walk and bike share were:

1. Boston
2. Washington, DC
3. San Francisco
4. Seattle
5. New York
6. Portland, OR
7. Minneapolis
8. Philadelphia
9. Honolulu
10. New Orleans

You can see the exact breakdown of pedestrians and cyclists among the top 10 cities in the graph below:

In addition to looking at the number of cyclists on the road, the study also focused on the cyclist’s behavior, looking to see whether San Francisco’s bike community was following the rules of the road. The study found that 94% of observed cyclists were indeed following the law. And, the areas that accounted for the highest amount of cyclists riding against traffic or on the sidewalk were locations with no bike lane and potentially unsafe or inadequate conditions.

This raises the question of what improvements need to be made if the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition hopes to reach its stated goal of having 20% of all trips into the city on bike by 2020. According to the study, “Bicycling and walking projects create 11-14 jobs per $1 million spent, compared to just 7 jobs created per $1 million spent on highway projects.” The study adds, “Cost benefit analyses show that up to $11.80 in benefits can be gained for every $1 invested in bicycling and walking.”

With San Francisco also ranking eighth in the country when it comes to bike and pedestrian fatalities, maybe it’s prudent to invest in additional safety measures to protect people walking and riding to work. If San Francisco (and the U.S. as a whole) wants to compete with countries where cycling accounts for 9 to 26% of all trips, cyclists need to feel confident they can get where they’re going efficiently and safely. It’s encouraging to see that the number of cyclists continues to grow, but there’s still a lot that can be done to make streets safer for pedestrians and cyclists alike.

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/edmdusty/2339484629/

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

To ease this problem, bridge representatives have installed signs and laid down paint to help designate which parts of the sidewalk should be reserved for cyclists, and which should be kept for pedestrians. “The weekends are the times it has become most chaotic here,” said bridge spokeswoman Mary Currie. “We wanted to help with the weekends, where it has become congested chaos.”

Despite the clear safety dilemma caused by the bridge retrofit project, the response of bridge users emphasizes the city’s unique capacity to roll with the punches and adapt to change. “We appreciate these efforts to help bridge users share the limited space available to them,” said Kim Baenisch, executive director of the Marin County Bicycle Coalition. “It makes sense, we saw the signs and thought ‘we are just going to move over,’” said bridge user Clark Kim. “It makes it a lot easier for the bikes to go by.”

The $661 million seismic retrofit project is designed to make sure the Golden Gate Bridge can survive an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. The bridge’s west sidewalk is expected to open in October. But the safety dilemma will not be solved at this point, as the east sidewalk will be closed, meaning pedestrians will temporarily not be able to walk the entire span of San Francisco’s iconic bridge. The complete project is scheduled to be complete in 2016, so until then, be safe if you’re walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, and make way for cyclists.

Photo credit: Doug Letterman

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

Walk Score assigns cities a numerical score between 1 and 100 based on how easily the average city resident can access essential services like grocery stores, restaurants, schools and parks. San Francisco ranked second, behind New York City, with a score of 84.9, which means “most errands can be accomplished by foot,” according to the Walk Score website. Oakland, ranked the country’s 10th most walkable city, earned a Walk Score of 68.2, meaning “some amenities within walking distance.”

As a current San Francisco resident and former Oakland resident, I can attest to both of their walkability, and especially to the fact that San Francisco is much more walkable. But the significance of these scores would be greater if they included street safety information in their rubric to discover a city’s Walk Score. San Francisco may have great services within walking distance for the average city resident, but this year has shown that the city could improve its safety record for pedestrians and cyclists.

Let’s look at some of the pedestrian accidents might have been considered while determining the city’s Walk Score. In April, a jogger was blindsided on Masonic Avenue and rushed to the hospital with a broken leg. In May, a driver struck and killed 61 year-old James Hudson on Masonic Avenue and Turk Street, and only a week later another pedestrian was put in critical condition when hit by a driver in the Marina district. These are only a few examples of tragic pedestrian accidents, which have contributed to eight total San Francisco pedestrian deaths in 2011 alone.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has vowed to implement a safety plan to improve Masonic Avenue, but the city must get serious and improve pedestrian safety throughout the city in order to truly earn the title of one of the country’s most walkable cities.

Photo credit: Debs (ò‿ó)♪

Visit Eric Goldman’s blog for a great synthesis of the legal issues involved in this decision. Essentially, the court upheld Google’s motion to dismiss because the walking directions were applicable to all users, and was not one-on-one advice that indicated a special relationship between Google and the plaintiff. The court also ruled that although Google gave the directions, they do not provide input on how to interact with traffic. “It is clear that Google was not required to anticipate that a user of the Google Maps service would cross the road without looking for cars,” the court wrote, “and that, absent negligence on the user’s part, an injury while crossing the road would be unlikely.”

That’s not to say that pedestrian victims are always at fault for not taking all of the dangers of the road into account. In fact, Rosenberg also sued the driver of the car that hit her, and the court did not dismiss that aspect of the lawsuit. But the court ruled that the Google claim was too far fetched, since Google can’t be expected to warn of all possible dangers, just because they provide a service for the public. Rosenberg suggested that Google should warn against all potential risks, including “negligent drivers, drunk drivers, dangerous wildlife, sidewalks or roads in disrepair, lack of lighting, and other risks, and other risks that might only exist during certain times of day,” wrote the court.

Goldman seems to agree with the court’s logic here, but he also notes that the decision would likely be different if it dealt with GPS providers, which are generally paid services and work on a more one-to-one basis. It will be interesting to see whether we see additional injury lawsuits against Google or certain GPS providers. So for the mean time, always take extra precautions while navigating city streets, which means obeying all traffic signs, taking an extra second to make sure no vehicles are coming before crossing the street, and wearing all appropriate safety equipment.

Photo credit: GJELblogger

DeathRace will take place this morning at the corner of Third and Yosemite streets at 10:30 in San Francisco’s Bayview neighborhood. The Senior Action Network chose this location because it is near one of the city’s popular senior centers and is known for speeding motorists and dangerous crosswalks. The protest has perfect timing. Last month, for example, more than 50 seniors were injured in pedestrian accidents, and 16 were hospitalized or killed. Over the past decade, San Francisco seniors mourned a fatality rate of 8.1 seniors per 100,000, nearly three times the national average for seniors (2.92) and overall pedestrian deaths in San Francisco (2.9).

Dangerous By Design fingered San Francisco as the country’s 4th most dangerous in terms of pedestrian deaths. And San Francisco ranks as the most dangerous in California.

“Streets are no longer primarily for moving traffic as quickly as possible,” said Noah Budnick, deputy director of the New York based Transportation Alternatives. “Our streets are where we live in this city, and walking is the primary mode of how people get around. But older people simply don’t have enough time to cross the street.” The same is true here in San Francisco, and DeathRace plans to emphasize that officials should plan city streets in terms of pedestrian safety for all ages.

We’ve seen far too many San Francisco pedestrian deaths in the early months of 2011. I hope the Senior Action Network’s DeathRace 2011 will bring much needed attention reducing pedestrian deaths for all ages, including seniors.

Photo credit: Ethan Prater

UPDATE: Here’s The Bay Citizen’s report following yesterday’s Deathrace. Complete with this video: