pedestrian safety

Yesterday evening around six I was waiting on the Ocean and Lee K-Ingleside inbound Muni platform, looking east, when I saw a man dash across Ocean from the direction of the Phelan loop. He was struck by an SUV, propelled some five feet into the air, and landed on the streetcar tracks about a car's length from the point of impact.

California as a state ranks at number 17 for pedestrian risk, with 6,616 pedestrian deaths between 2005 and 2014. The California regions with the highest pedestrian fatality rates are Bakersfield, Riverside-San Bernardino-Ontario, Stockton-Lodi, Modesto, and Fresno.

News reports tend to blame the victims of these crashes for transgressions like "distracted walking" or crossing where they shouldn't have. But a new analysis from Smart Growth America highlights how pedestrian deaths are a systemic problem caused by the dangerous design of our streets and transportation systems.

She wanted her kids to be safe in the front yard, so she held the sign over her head and stood in the middle the street. Police slapped her with a jaywalking ticket.

This PSA from Montgomery County, Maryland, has got to be one of the all-time worst examples of pedestrian shaming. The young girl with tire treads across her face, it's implied, was struck and killed by a driver because she was "wearing black."

Caltrans' Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Branch has been working with SafeTREC, UC Berkeley's Safe Transportation Research and Education Center, on a couple of projects to increase safety. The researchers are asking for locally collected data on the number of pedestrians and bicycles using state highways and local arterials roads.

More pedestrians are killed on Halloween than any other day of the year -- by far. The conclusion that transportation agencies all over the country draw from this is that people on foot must be further marginalized with stern admonishments to wear special visibility gear and "follow the rules."

Yesterday some 13,000 San Francisco children at 95 schools walked--and in some cases rolled in wheelchairs--to school as part of the 20th annual Walk-to-School Day (now called "Walk-and-Roll-to-School Day," at least locally). The event is intended to encourage kids to walk to school and spend more time walking and playing outside. This is part of a global event, held in early October, that encourages children, parents, and school staff to make their communities safer and more pleasant for walking. In San Francisco, the event is co-sponsored by several Bay Area groups, including the San Francisco Safe Routes to School Partnership, the Vision Zero Coalition, Kaiser Permanente, and, of course, Walk San Francisco.

Each year, motorists on American streets kill nearly 5,000 pedestrians. The loss of life is enormous -- equivalent to 12 jumbo jets crashing with no survivors -- but the steady drumbeat of pedestrian fatalities doesn't register as an urgent public safety crisis. Maybe it would seem more urgent if the press covered pedestrian deaths as the preventable outcome of a broken system, instead of a series of random "accidents."