San Francisco Bike Blog

It shouldn’t take a 20-year old girl getting run down by an outlaw car driver to get a stop sign installed, but that’s where we’re at. At least if we act now we might be able to prevent the intense suffering and misery of yet another family:

Stop signs in S.F.: Flowers, candles and tributes continue to be placed at the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and San Juan Street, where a 20-year-old woman was killed on Oct. 9. Stacey Krause was hit by a car as she crossed the intersection at night. Along with notes that say “RIP Stacey” and “Always and forever in our hearts” are signs that say “Slow Down” and “Pedestrians Crossing.” ChronicleWatch reader Clysly Desales phoned the paper after the accident to say he had previously asked the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to add a stop sign at the busy Outer Mission intersection. Green pedestrian signs - the diamond-shaped kind that show a person walking - were already installed at the intersection to warn drivers about foot traffic, but the signs weren’t enough to prevent Krause’s death. Desales, who had contacted the transportation agency’s traffic engineering division, followed the recommended procedure for people who want to request a stop sign in San Francisco. Those with requests should explain the location, their justification for adding the sign and leave detailed contact information. The petitions can be sent via e-mail to dpt.website@sfgov.org or regular mail to: SFMTA, Attention: Traffic Engineering, 1 South Van Ness, Seventh Floor, Room 7046, San Francisco, CA 94103. The agency may take up to 120 days to approve or deny the request. Desales says his petition was denied, but perhaps the agency will reconsider it in the wake of Krause’s death.

Original Chronicle coverage of the incident here.

I don’t know about y’all, but I’m feeling intense anger. I want people fired, and I want the city sued for negligence, and if the guy who killed Stacey Krause was at fault I want him punished to the fullest extent.

I want these damn STOP signs installed tomorrow morning by 9 AM.

We need a tool to be able to tell us which district a particular trouble-spot is in so we can get hold of the appropriate supervisor pronto. From looking at the SFBC page on the death trap that is Alemany Boulevard, this intersection is in Sandoval’s district.

From the ‘pedestrians need to stay always vigilant and beware of crazy speeding outlaw drivers’ aspect of things, I found an interesting fact in Tom Vanderbilt’s book, Traffic, the other day — pedestrians regularly overestimate the distance at which cars can see them. So this particular incident seems like it could fit that situation. Pedestrians can see a car from pretty far away, relatively speaking, because the car is huge (relatively speaking) and, at night, brightly lit - a pedestrian is neither. So, basically, if you are a biker or pedestrian, you have to assume that the outlaw driver cannot see you at all, no matter how counter-intuitive that may be - it’s the only way to guarantee your own safety.

Tom’s book also got information from a professor - and don’t quote me on this, as I’m the text of this section seems to be unavailable online - who said that the maximum speed a car could travel at night and be able to see all the objects that come into its path in time to avoid them or stop is about 20 MPH. This speed corresponds pretty closely - by design or accident, I am not sure - to the 30 KM/H that many European cities use as their neighborhood street speed limits (30 KM/H == 18.6 MPH).

Tom has a similar blog post up today about idiotically-set speed limits and how they end up killing innocent people.

I think we should make it into law - if a pedestrian or cyclist dies after the city refuses to act on a dangerous road condition, then someone has to lose their job - preferably the person at the top who denied the request. We know someone at SFMTA Traffic Engineering is at least partially to blame for the death of Stacey Krause - I think that person should be fired. It’s like a domestic disturbance call to the police - I don’t care who said what to whom and who threatened to kill who’s stuffed animal - someone is going to jail tonight. We need the same policy for the City. I’m sorry that someone has to lose their job - Mr. or Ms. Traffic Engineering Person - really - but I’m a lot more sorry that someone had to die because of your negligence.

OK - I gotta make my calls and send my emails.

…done. Also hit the Google Maps Help Group to ask for Street View at that location. For some reason it’s not done yet.

…Just so we don’t allow the City to get away with thinking of only a statistic, and maybe even to remind ourselves that every death caused by an automobile is unacceptable:

Stacey Lynn Krause December 4, 1987 - October 9, 2008 Stacey Krause tragically passed away on October 9; she was 20-years old. Loving daughter of Roy Krause, and cherished twin sister to Kimberly and older sister Stephanie. Stacey, a native San Franciscan, attended Phillip and Sala Burton Academic High School and recently graduated from Heald Business College. Her passion was photography and she spent countless hours expressing her thoughts and feeling through her pictures. She was an articulate, smart and energetic lady to all who knew her and will be truly missed. There are billions and billions of stars in heaven. There are more stars in the heaven than there are people on the planet. Among the billions of stars in the heaven, there is one new star that shines brighter than the rest. Star-Stacey who shines for her dad, twin-sister Kimberly, older sister Stephanie and love of her life Cris. Friends and family may visit Sat., Oct. 18, 2pm and attend a celebration of her life at 4pm at DUGGAN’S SERRA MORTUARY, 500 Westlake Ave., Daly City, CA.

…I took some pictures of the memorial site and area around the intersection of Alemany Boulevard and San Juan.

Citizens started installing their own signs to try to get cars to slow down.

A little ways down the road from where Stacey was killed, the intersection of Alemany and Santa Rosa Ave has a full-on traffic light:

…The 20 MPH ‘relatively safe speed for a car to be driving at night’ would probably need to be 10 MPH or less down at this intersection of Alemany and San Juan - it’s that dark and dangerous. I don’t know what the speed limit is along this stretch of road, but the cars all seem to be going at least 30 MPH, and many seem to push 50 MPH or more - especially those cars heading south on Alemany, towards Ocean. If they managed to get the green light on the previous intersection, it’s an absolute free-for-all through this intersection. And it very much feels like a neighborhood - I could definitely see how pedestrians would be lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that this was a regular neighborhood street, when in fact it was a highway for outlaw car drivers that activated on a moment’s notice. As soon as the onrush of cars had passed, it would go quiet again - super-quiet - and then seemingly without warning, again, the torrent of cars would come zipping by again. It’s scary.

Just to get a sense of what it is like out there, even during the day, here is some quick footage. Notice the cars on the right zip by. They’re already starting to slow down because of traffic light up ahead - that slows them down through this intersection from 40+ MPH to 30+ MPH - sometimes. If there is a green up ahead, or there is nobody slowing down to turn off into the neighborhood on the right, it’s go time - full speed ahead.

Speeding Cars on Alemany Blvd from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

In this next video, I ride my bike slowly down towards the intersection where the collision occurred - it’s only just past dusk and it was already difficult to see anything a couple of hundred feet ahead, at the intersection - just because the area is dark. To make matters worse, there are these tree/shrub things in the median that makes seeing across the median virtually impossible. It almost seems like this intersection was intentionally designed to be a perfect kill zone. After crossing the street a few times as a pedestrian, I wasn’t able to remember any intersection in the city or anywhere else I’ve ever lived where it seemed so likely I would be hit by a speeding car - sooner or later.

Lack Of Sightlines On Alemany from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

This next clip is all too telling. I was just trying to get some footage of the lighting situation and had planned for this to be a throw-away clip, but something interesting happened as I was busy pointing the camera up towards the street lights - or lack of them. I saw a lady actually run across the street, in the crosswalk. You can see her enter the frame from the right, on the opposite side of the street, at about the 7-second mark (hold your mouse over the movie to see the timer). As I was panning back to the left, at the 17-second mark, you can see this strange-looking figure very briefly - strange-looking because the camera zips by so fast - that was the older woman booking across the street. I didn’t turn the camera back on her when I saw her running because it just didn’t seem right. I didn’t come there to spy on people trying to living their lives, but it definitely seemed to show how residents of that area are regularly terrorized by the motor traffic illegally speeding through their neighborhood. Again, I don’t know what the legal speed limit of that particular stretch of Alemany is, but if it is more than 10 MPH it is set way too high. It will be just a matter of time until more people are injured or killed.

Lady Running Across Alemany To Safety from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

This next, narrated video shows the low-light situation in the area. The street lights that could best illuminate the presence of pedestrians - on the corners of the narrow throughway - don’t exist. The streetlights in the median - I’m not sure if they help at all. The set on the north side are set back off the intersection 10 or 20 yards, thereby guaranteeing that anyone trying to cross in the intersection will be invisible to speeding cars until it is too late.

Alemany Boulevard Shows Lack Of Lighting from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

This last clip just tries to show what night conditions are like - it doesn’t adequately portray just how dangerous the intersection feels from a pedestrian point of view.

Nighttime On Alemany Boulevard Looks Dangerous from Peter Smith on Vimeo.

…I wanted to add that those yellow and black ‘Pedestrians Crossing’ warning signs don’t seem to be at all effective - that is, drivers don’t really pay attention to them at all, and they don’t know how to react to them. While walking back and forth across the street, some drivers slowed down for me, others stopped, others wanted me to run across the street while they slowed down, and others plowed right through the intersection regardless of my intention to cross. Some drivers didn’t even see me. The signs are just kind of there and don’t seem to actually carry much force of meaning - they’re ambiguous, and therefore, ineffective. At least for me, I actually have no idea what they mean, except that maybe a pedestrian might try to cross the street at sometime, somewhere - which is basically any and every street in America, so again, these signs seem to be essentially meaningless to me. If we at least had a ‘Stop’ sign, then we might have speeding outlaw car drivers starting to pay attention to them. A full-on traffic light might be what is actually necessary, but the immediate installation of a ‘Stop’ sign would be a good start.

…Calling around today to let some supervisors know about the upcoming StreetFilms event, one of the Supervisor’s voice mail messages let me know about the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. The District 11 liason is Alfredo Pedroza. Use this contact form to let him know we need some assistance. I just sent in my request, and I’ll try to follow up with a phone call on Monday. Phone calls are always best, and they should be followed-up by emails.

…I got a chance to speak with Alfredo Pedroza today and he mentioned he is working with MTA and various other people to address the situation on Alemany. Among possible short-term and long-term solutions they are looking at:

• Trim hedges in the median to increase visibility.
• Up the wattage on street light bulbs to increase visibility; also, check for any damages to lights.
• MTA will look at the possibility of adding a stop sign, and Alfredo is trying to get the reason why the original petition to MTA was rejected, as well as obtain any information about traffic studies done in the area.
• Police will look at more enforcement along that stretch of road.

I suggested that, even though I appreciated all of these things, I was skeptical that anything but a true ‘brutal’ traffic calming device could be successful there in slowing down cars - in other words, the only thing that will slow drivers down through that intersection is either a full-on traffic light, or a full-on STOP sign. This is far outside my area of expertise, but this is my gut reaction after visiting for a single day/night of watching the traffic pour through the intersection. Alfredo mentioned that increased enforcement has been successful in other parts of the city. Really, anything seems possible still, at this point.

We also talked about the one-of-a-kind pedestrian crossing outside of the civic center. It flashes when a pedestrian is crossing - at night it’s very bright. I took some quick video footage and will upload it soon. Check back here. There is a similar, but not identical system on Mission at Santa Rosa in the Excelsior (4500 Mission St.). This crossing at Mission has a big yellow light on either side of the street that just flashes continuously all the time, whether a pedestrian is crossing or not.

I’d be curious to get input from the folks who live in all the houses right near/at that intersection. I would want to about their experiences at that intersection, in general, and get their input on what they think should or should not be implemented there.

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