San Fran Mayor Ed Lee recently announced plans to improve the safety of San Francisco streets after a spate of deadly crashes involving cars, pedestrians and cyclists.
The city’s streets are becoming more crowded and tensions are mounting between safety advocates and the city’s fire and police departments, which are widely seen as blocking many life-saving measures like enhanced crosswalks and bubble-outs.
“I know there are things all of us can do better and I know the police department is working to make sure every San Franciscan is safe,” said Supervisor David Campos.
CBS San Francisco reports that 21 pedestrians died on San Francisco streets last year in addition to four cyclists.
One of the cyclists killed last year was 24-year-old Amelie Le Moullac. Her death was a flash point between cycling safety advocates and the city’s police department. Police officers failed to arrest the truck driver who killed the cyclist and did not obtain valuable footage of the crash until members of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition brought it to their attention.
Safety enhancements planned for San Francisco include increased traffic enforcement and safer street designs. Some of the issues are already being addressed at some of the most dangerous intersections through the installation of traffic enforcement cameras.
