Trader Joe’s ‘Frogger’ is real – and deadly

Often, when somebody puts a plan in place, they’re thinking idealistically. If circumstances stand as they imagine, this is how the situation will unfold.

Ha!  The gods laugh at your pitiful attempts at planning! When does it really work? Just ask any parents who’ve tried to plan a family vacation with small children involved.

What is meant to be a four-hour jaunt becomes an eight-hour slog when one parent inevitably forgets something and the little munchkins have to stop too pee every ten minutes.

Or, ask the Bush Administration how that quick in-and-out of Iraq turned out.

For a local example, talk to whoever designed the parking scheme for Trader Joe’s on Masonic. I bet they didn’t plan for a woman to get killed in the street last month, but that’s what happened when she tried to jaywalk across six lanes of cars.

Even a tragic fatality isn’t enough to get other pedestrians from dashing across the same busy, dangerous road every day, bags of Trader Joe groceries in hand.

The intersection has notoriously poor visibility. As SFist noted back in 2008, drivers need to be attentive:

“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars.”

In fact, The City has been talking about the need to fix it since at least a year ago when Mayor Ed Lee and then D5-supervisor Ross Mirkarimi highlighted the issues at a press conference.

One proposed solution is to install a pedestrian signal and crossing. That would be the second attempted fix after the city failed to change anything by moving a lane.

It’s unfortunate that The City has yet to affect any real change in this hazardous location. Still, you’d think San Franciscans would make smarter decisions with their own lives. Isn’t it just common sense that fast-moving vehicles with the force and velocity to kill you should be avoided?

Until they figure this out, this particular clash between idealism and reality will continue to be a giant headache for The City. Let’s hope that’s as far as the pain goes.