Street safety group plants plastic posts throughout SF

A group taking bike and pedestrian safety measures into its own hands was at it again this week.

The San Francisco Municipal Transformation Agency, a play on San Francisco’s own transit agency, installed reflective plastic safety posts Tuesday night at four different locations in The City because of slow action from transportation officials on implementing bike and pedestrian safety improvements.

Those locations include inside Golden Gate Park at the Crossover Drive crosswalk, the bike lane on Scott and Fell streets, at the “pesky stretch of” Folsom at Division streets and at the crosswalks on Geary and Leavenworth streets.

We've been active tonight.

Take photos of any new installations you see tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/wrARvjSUM2

— SF Transformation (@SFMTrA) October 12, 2016

A member of the group emailed a statement to SFBay that read the group chose those four locations based on feedback from private citizens.

The member also explained why the group chose to focus both on pedestrian and bike improvements on Tuesday night:

“In particular last night we made a point of installing both pedestrian and bicycle protections, because The City is moving too slowly in implementing vision zero solutions for both of these vulnerable populations.”

In the email, the member added that the group choose another location inside Golden Gate Park because members were “outraged” by the speed of vehicles in the park:

“The lack of permanent infrastructure to keep pedestrians and bikers safe in our city’s flagship park leaves us wondering why this isn’t a higher priority in City Hall. ”

Members of the SFMTrA had recently placed the white safety posts on the painted buffer zone between vehicles and bicyclists on John F. Kennedy and Kezar drives.

Photos of orange cones labeled SFMTrA have also been seen popping up around The City near bikeways and crosswalks.

Paul Rose, the spokesman for The City’s transportation agency, said the transit agency does not encourage the installations of the posts or cones despite the good intentions of the group. He said the posts and cones could be dislodged posing a hazard for bicyclists.

He added:

“We tend not to put posts on single stripes along bikeways, as that puts the posts immediately adjacent to motor traffic, making them more likely to get hit and potentially lean into the bikeway.”

The transit agency tries to put posts on wider painted buffer zones and where this no parking to avoid vehicles hitting the post, said Rose.

More posts could be coming soon in The City. The group’s next project is to add about 30 safety posts on the raised Market Street bikeway. The group started a fundraiser to purchase the safety posts. which had raised $1, 376 as of Wednesday night. The group was seeking $900.

The group formed in 2016 after the deaths of two bicyclists, Katherine Slattery and Heather Miller, happened on the same day on June 22, 2016.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.