PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 12, 2024
CONTACT: Jodie Medeiros, Executive Director, Walk SF, jodie@walksf.org, 415.596.1580 (cell)
Pedestrian killed on Thursday at 6th and Bryant is second pedestrian fatality this year
Bryant is ‘dangerous by design’ says Walk SF
San Francisco, Calif. – A 32-year-old man was hit and killed at 6th and Bryant Street early on the morning of February 8, 2024. The driver fled the scene; the San Francisco Police Department is investigating the crash.
“We grieve this loss of life on our streets,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk San Francisco. “Our hearts break for this man’s loved ones. These tragedies are all too frequent and all too preventable.”
Walk San Francisco and the San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets community stand ready to support the friends and loved ones of the victim however possible.
This is the second pedestrian death in San Francisco in 2024; the first was a 72-year old man on January 31st at Fulton and Arguello.
The intersection of 6th and Bryant is very dangerous for pedestrians, and is on the “high-injury network”: the 12% of streets where 68% of traffic crashes occur. Both 6th Street and Bryant Streets are designated “high-injury” streets.
“It’s not hard to see why this intersection is deadly for people walking,” said Medeiros. “It is designed to be dangerous.”
Bryant Street has five travel lanes – plus two lanes of parking – making the street incredibly wide. It’s also a one-way street. In combination, this design encourages much faster speeds by drivers, which increases the likelihood and severity of traffic crashes. With entrances and exits to the 80 and 280 within a two-block radius, you also have drivers acting like they’re on the freeway in terms of speed.
Walk SF has been calling on SFMTA since August to bring a lane reduction to Bryant Street, and similar wide, multi-lane streets with serious speed problems like Harrison, 9th, 10th, Gough, and Franklin. In August, a four-year-old child was hit and killed at 4th and King, another known dangerous intersection near a freeway on-ramp.
“Speed kills. Streets like Bryant, with serious speed issues, are more likely to kill,” said Medeiros.
Pedestrians are highly vulnerable as speed rises above 25 MPH. The most frequently cited study on speed and risk of fatality shows that at 25 MPH and under, a person has a less than 1 in 4 chance of being severely injured or killed if they are hit. But by 40 MPH, this flips, with 75% of pedestrians suffering life-threatening injuries or dying.
Bryant Street received ‘Vision Zero Quick Build’ basic safety improvements, including high-visibility painted crosswalks, daylighting (removing parking next to the intersection), and traffic signal updates that give pedestrians the headstart and more time to cross.
“Basic pedestrian safety improvements are simply not enough on a street like Bryant,” said Medeiros. “The City must bring serious redesigns – especially lane reductions – to Bryant and streets like it.”
Speed is the #1 cause of severe and fatal crashes in San Francisco, and the faster a driver goes, the more likely a crash is to happen – and the more severe the impact is.
17 people were killed while walking in San Francisco in 2023, and pedestrians accounted for 65% of all traffic-related fatalities. Nationally, pedestrian deaths are at a 40-year historic high.
“The frightening reality for pedestrians is that we face bigger, heavier, more powerful vehicles and more dangerous driving than ever when walking,” said Medeiros. “Every solution possible is needed to turn around these deadly trends – and especially to bring down speeds.”
Walk SF is supporting State Senator Scott Wiener’s new safe streets bills, SB 960 and SB 961.
SB 960 would hold our state transportation department, Caltrans, accountable for designing its surface roads to be ‘Complete Streets’ for the most vulnerable users: people walking, biking, and taking transit. Cities all over the state including San Francisco have Caltrans roads running through neighborhoods. Here in San Francisco, Park Presidio, Lombard Street, 19th Avenue, Skyline Boulevard, Van Ness Avenue, Sloat Boulevard, and San Jose Avenue are overseen by Caltrans. These are all designated high-injury streets because of crash rates and have long needed safer designs.
SB 961 would require all vehicles built or sold in California to have safe driving technology so they are unable to drive more than 10 MPH above the speed limit (emergency vehicles are exempt). SB 961 also includes a much-needed and overdue requirement for large trucks exceeding 10,000 pounds manufactured, sold, or registered in the state to have side underride guards. Underride guards can prevent pedestrians, bicyclists, and motorcyclists from being swept under and run over by a large truck’s rear wheels.
Citywide, around 30 people are killed and more than 500 severely injured each year on San Francisco streets. Older adults make up 50% of these fatalities annually.
The City’s Vision Zero commitment is coming up on a 10-year milestone in March of 2024. Vision Zero is a comprehensive, data-based, preventative, and proven approach to ending severe and fatal crashes that has been successful worldwide. San Francisco has made meaningful strides in embracing Vision Zero, but it’s clear the City must act much faster and more aggressively to take on the rising dangers we all face on our streets.
“Streets must be designed and enforced to protect us,” said Medeiros. “We are calling on City leaders to be laser-focused on Vision Zero.”
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Walk San Francisco (‘Walk SF’) advocates for safe streets for everyone who walks, which is everyone. Since our founding in 1998, Walk SF has been leading the way to make San Francisco a pedestrian-first city where people of every age and ability can walk safely. Learn more.
San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets is a group of people who have been directly affected by traffic crashes, including crash survivors and people whose loved ones have been killed or injured in traffic crashes. Learn more.