What markings and street constructions cause you the most consternation?
That's what SFMTA is trying to find out. Michael Sallaberry, from the agency's Livable Streets division, posted the question on Facebook's San Francisco Bike Ride Crew page. The example he gave in the post, as seen in the lead image, was a photo of "shark teeth" yield markers at an intersection in SoMa.
SFMTA is working on some videos explaining new roadway markings, signs, and signals. Is there anything in particular that you see on the street that is confusing? We're doing a video on "yield triangles," for instance, like those in the picture. Anything else you think could use explaining, especially to drivers? We'll be doing videos for bicyclists and pedestrians later too.
Streetsblog's initial thought was that Sallaberry definitely picked the right treatment--the infamous mixing zone and its yield triangles--as an example of a marking that confuses people. Our second thought was: if you have to make videos explaining how to read a sign or use an intersection, you're doing it wrong. Streetsblog tipster Ziggy Tomcich wrote more or less the same thing, a bit less diplomatically, in a comment on the Facebook thread:
Streets should be designed so that it’s instinctively obvious what drivers should do. Making ambiguous intersection markings without any signage, and making a video that nobody will watch, is a dumb f*ck approach to street safety.
Those concrete islands also keep people from parking in ways that obstruct sightlines and render any signage almost irrelevant. Streetsblog New York's David Meyer wrote this great piece about those issues--it includes a video of a cyclist going down in a poorly designed mixing zone that will seem familiar to San Franciscans.
Mike Sallaberry, Project Manager at SFMTA's Livable Streets, riding SF's only protected intersection in 2016 when it opened. Notice the two pedestrians standing together on the protective island that forces cars to make wider, slower turns. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
So what can we do in the meantime? Can we improve signs and emulate some of the features of a protected intersection in the short term, such as Portland did in the intersection pictured below, where a planter substitutes for the protective island?
A heavy concrete planter can emulate some aspects of a protected intersection by forcing motorists to slow and make more careful turns--or bash up their car. Seen here in Portland, Oregon. Photo: Streetsblog/Rudick
L.A. County needs to embrace physically-protected bikeways, robust traffic calming around schools, and similarly transformative, safety-focused projects
Caltrans, we need complete streets everywhere, including at freeway interchanges (or maybe especially there); Public agencies and academics join forces to develop AV standards; Republicans really want to suspend the gas tax; More