Big changes are coming to the bike lanes on Market Street in San Francisco to make the lanes safer for bicyclists. Construction crews will raise the lanes a few inches off the ground, starting Monday on eastbound Market Street between Gough and 12th Street.
Separating user provides comfort and safety for everyone on the road and makes it clear where each person, no matter their mode, should be. View the full article.
“Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said data released Thursday demonstrated that the traffic-calming measures put in place in its first-ever ‘home zone’ project are working.
The project, first introduced in 2011 and completed in 2014, implemented a number of speed humps, shortened and raised crosswalks, narrowed roadways and reduced lanes.”
“The Minna-Natoma Home Zone Project, as it was referred to, focused on a residential area bordered on the north by 14th Street; on the west by Mission Street; on the south by 16th Street and on the east by South Van Ness Avenue.” View the full article.
We are incredibly proud to see the results of new research that shows that our Vision Zero SF publicity efforts are making a difference in pedestrian safety.
“The report, released September 8th, tracked the number of motorists yielding to pedestrians from September 2014 to April of this year at four key intersections. Over that period, officials unveiled bus, billboard and radio ads targeting those intersections. Coupled with increased enforcement, the campaign showed a modest 3-4 percent increase in drivers yielding at the four spots, which the paper’s authors estimate to mean 419 yields per hour at peak commute. Compared to four control sites, yielding increased by as much as 10 percent.” View the full article.
“The San Francisco Police Department’s ‘Focus on Five’ citations have increased 34 percent since 2014. That’s a jump from 7,774 citations in the second quarter of 2014 to 10,398 citations by the second quarter of 2015.
The Focus on Five citations target driver behaviors that risk lives the most: speeding, running red lights, failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, failing to yield while making a left or U-turn, and failing to fully stop at stop signs.” View the full article.
“Big trucks, buses and other large vehicles play an important role in San Francisco’s economy, delivering goods, moving people and providing necessary services citywide. But these vehicles create extra risk in an urban environment like ours, where so many people walk or ride bicycles to get around.
Although just 4 percent of collisions in San Francisco involved large vehicles from 2007 to 2011, these collisions accounted for 17 percent of all traffic fatalities. Collisions between large vehicles are eight times more likely than collisions involving small vehicles to result in death to people walking or biking.
With great size comes great responsibility, so today we’re announcing a new training video to ensure that the folks who drive large vehicles in San Francisco have the knowledge they need to stay safe. It’s part of the Large Vehicle Urban Driving Safety Program, a key initiative to improve street safety in San Francisco.” View the full article.
“A new bike lane, separated from traffic by parked cars, is being constructed on 13th Street between Bryant and Folsom. As Streetsblog reported, the SFMTA Board of Directors approved the design back in June.
That stretch of 13th/Division currently has no bike lane in either the eastbound or westbound directions. Three lanes of traffic are bordered by one lane of parked vehicles, adjacent to the curb.
Under the new plan, the street will be reduced to two lanes of traffic in the westbound direction, with parking spots directly next to moving traffic and a new westbound bike lane between the parked cars and the curb. This “parking-protected” lane design can also be observed along John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park.” View the full article.
“Fewer people are killed on the roads in Sweden per head of population than in any other country around the world. It’s an impressive record that begs a question: What is the secret of this Scandinavian road-safety success?”
Speed limits, accident analysis, and road improvements are just some of the ways that Sweden has paved the way for creating safer streets. View the full article.
Starting on Tuesday, August 11th, the Safer Market Street Project was officially implemented, restricting private vehicles from turning onto Market Street between Third and Eighth Streets. The project is “intended to make the busy corridor safer to cyclists and pedestrians while facilitating smoother sailing for transit vehicles.”
San Francisco Supervisor Jane Kim appeared at the unveiling of the project on Tuesday. “‘For many years, we’ve been hearing that people feel unsafe walking and biking there,” Kim said. ‘You’re getting a lot of drivers who aren’t yielding to bikes and pedestrians,’ but the turn restrictions aim to address that.” View the full article.
This week, the SFMTA, San Francisco Police Department, and Transport Workers Union 250A teamed up to launch a safety campaign for cable cars. New signs on cars throughout the city read “Do Not Pass Cable Cars,” warning residents that “it is illegal to pass a cable car, and they are partnering with San Francisco police to boost law enforcement presence on cable car lines, asking drivers to obey the signs under threat of a $238 ticket.”
“Basically, the city is saying enough is enough,” said Edward Reiskin, Muni’s director of transportation. “People shouldn’t be dying in our streets, people shouldn’t be getting seriously injured in our streets just trying to get around town, and that extends to our own employees and the people who ride the cable cars.” View the full article.
“When San Francisco officials signed on to an aggressive campaign to eliminate traffic-related deaths within 10 years, they promised at least 24 traffic safety improvements in 24 months — a catchy slogan and an ambitious goal many figured would never be met.
With just six months left, however, most of the projects — which range from painted sidewalk extensions to new traffic signals and redesigned streets — have been completed. The rest are expected to be done by the end of the year.” View the full article.