Streets of danger

November 23, 1:54 AMSacramento Environmental News ExaminerHarry Osibin

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watoday.com.au

San Francisco is my hometown.  From Sacramento I will occasionally read a local SF paper online.  Well, some new official numbers from the city give one pause: San Francisco is one of the most dangerous places in the country in which to walk or ride a bike.

The main intersection near San Francisco State University has a body count that rivals a war-zone.  That’s hyperbole, but not by much.  Drivers of private vehicles are many times the ones running down walkers and bikers on city streets.  With some drivers the mantra is the same, i.e. the walker or biker was “at fault for being in my way”.

Couple of things should be noted.  According to the law, the pedestrian has the right-of-way on the street.  Period.  If the walker is crossing against a red light, s/he is (foolishly) in the right and might end up dead-right.

Bicyclists are bound by the same rules of the road as are motor vehicles.  Stop at red lights, stop at stop signs and do not run down pedestrians.

In San Francisco the public transit agency (MUNI) complicates things by being one of the major participants in vehicle-human encounters.  Some say It’s ironic that people are encouraged to get out of their cars and walk, cycle or take public transit , but the transit company emerges as both part of the problem and the solution.  The dual hopes are to establish safer and cleaner communities, fight climate change and save fuel.

A city such as San Francisco, which is geographically small and was not planned with autos in mind , is in many ways a driving, walking and biking nightmare.  Newer cities (though sprawling) have developed “transportation” plans which are focused on moving around cars, not people.  A TV feature a few years back highlighted suburban Atlanta, which in some "developed" parts have no sidewalks for pedestrians.  Walkers were forced into the street or onto expansive lawns or to cross driveways in which to get anywhere.  A few years ago the "planners" in Santa Rosa, CA, wanted to remove crosswalks from busy roadways, because they felt crosswalks give pedestrians a “false sense of security.”

The solutions will be slow in coming, but moral scolds of the traffic world are encouraging the public to develop respect for others.

Drivers of motor vehicles do not “own” the road; for that matter neither do cyclists nor pedestrians.

“People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along?”  That is a quote attributed to one infamous driver.  It's a valid question.  One way to find an anwer is to start sharing the road.

Note:  Upon finishing this post I noted the Sacramento Bee reported that a Rio Linda woman has been arrested for driving under the influence and apparently running down a 17 year-old male on a bicycle who was riding on the shoulder of the roadway on Elkhorn Boulevard on Wednesday.  The young cyclist was taken from life support on Saturday.