50 miles of deadly streets will get some safety fixes; we’re asking for more on the 10 most dangerous

Here in San Francisco, 68% of traffic crashes occur on just 12% of streets. Together, these ~150 miles of streets are what’s called the “high-injury network.”

Redesigning all streets in the high-injury network for greater safety is key to the City making progress toward Vision Zero. In the last eight years, the SFMTA has made improvements (or has projects in the works) on about 100 miles of the high-injury network.

But more than 50 miles of high-injury streets await any safety improvements. The SFMTA committed to bring fixes to these streets by the end of 2024 in the City’s 2021 Vision Zero Action Strategy.

SFMTA staff are about to share their analysis and approach for doing this at the Tuesday, July 18 SFMTA Board of Directors meeting.

Walk SF got a preview, and learned that:

• Approximately 900 intersections are guaranteed to get baseline pedestrian safety improvements by December 2024. This includes high-visibility painted crosswalks and daylighting, plus traffic signals that give pedestrians a head start and more time to cross. In our follow-up with SFMTA staff, we asked about bringing left turn calming, no turn on red, and pedestrian safety zones at the same time – and got a promising response. We hope to hear more about this on Tuesday.
• All baseline safety improvements will be done using the ‘Vision Zero Quick Build’ toolkit, which means that the SFMTA can get these on the ground without an extended planning process or any red tape. (The ‘Vision Zero Quick Build’ toolkit uses only paint, posts, signs, and signal changes to make short-term safety fixes.)
• Completing these baseline safety improvements is being made a top priority by the SFMTA. The SFMTA will launch an online – and public – tracker showing progress in each district in completing these 50+ miles by December 2024.

We are glad to see this focus, prioritization, and accountability by SFMTA. But looking more closely at the streets within the 50 miles, there are 10 deathtraps in urgent need of robust redesigns.

Bryant, Harrison, 9th, 10th, Guerrero, Gough, Franklin and Hyde Streets, Lincoln Way, and Silver Avenue are very dangerous for all users, and especially for pedestrians given the speeds that drivers often go on these wide, multi-lane streets.

In the dozens of speed surveys Walk SF did last year, we consistently saw how much faster drivers went on 3-, 4-, and 5-lane streets (read more in our speed report). The SFMTA has shown what a difference a lane reduction and narrowing lanes makes for driver speeds with projects like Taylor Street (which used the ‘Quick Build’ toolkit). We need them to apply this approach to these 10 deathtraps; without this, “fixing” these 50 miles will fall far short in preventing tragedies on our streets.

Join Walk SF in asking for more on the 10 deadliest streets on Tuesday, July 18

At the Tuesday, July 18 SFMTA Board of Directors meeting, Walk SF will give public comment after SFMTA staff present their plan for the 50 miles.

Join us in both supporting the SFMTA in meeting their goal to bring fixes to the 50+ miles of high-injury streets, and echo our call to also bring robust redesigns to the 10 deadliest streets also by December 2024. You can give public comment at City Hall or via phone; we’ll share everything you need to know after you sign up.

Questions? Contact Nick at nick@walksf.org.

Banner image: William McLeod