Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street

Enhancing Safety on Franklin Street
By Mark Dreger

We're excited to share an update on the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project, an effort to enhance traffic safety on Franklin Street between Broadway and Lombard Streets. This roadway stretch was the site of 38 collisions between 2017 and 2021, including the tragic loss of a Sherman Elementary School paraeducator in November 2021. Our data-driven approach focuses on several key safety improvements, and we are ready to share the evaluation results and the next steps to bring further safety changes to Franklin Street.

The project includes the implementation of a suite of safety measures focused on the intersections where neighborhood stakeholders expressed most concerns during the outreach process.

Painted safety zones (PSZs) have been installed to increase pedestrian visibility at crosswalks by keeping the corners of intersections clear.

Slow-turn wedges have been added to encourage drivers to turn at safer speeds and at angles that make people crossing more visible.
Daylighting, or removing parking spaces next to intersections, was used to keep areas near crossings clear. This ensures that parked cars don’t prevent drivers and pedestrians from seeing each other.
Right-turn-on-red restrictions have been applied to keep crosswalks clear and minimize conflicts between people driving and walking.

A city crosswalk with enhanced safety designs. A slow-turn wedge at the intersection of Franklin and Broadway implemented as part of the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project.

The initial results offer some signs of progress:

Reduced close calls: After implementation, there were no recorded 'close calls' between people driving and people walking in crosswalks, compared to three such incidents before.

Right-turn compliance: Drivers complied with the new right-turn restrictions 94% of the time, indicating that drivers are adhering to the new rules.

However, there are areas where the project did not yield significant changes:

Driver yielding rates: Drivers yielded to pedestrians 60% of the time after these changes were implemented, as opposed to 61% before.
Vehicle speeds: Both turning and mid-block speeds remained largely unaffected by the changes. Turning speeds are holding at approximately 10-11 mph, which is below the 15-mph safety threshold set by the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO), and mid-block speeds remain slightly above the 25-mph speed limit.

What's Next

While the project did improve intersection safety, it was not effective at reducing speeds along Franklin Street. The corridor is on the Vision Zero High-Injury Network – the 12% of streets that account for 68% of severe and fatal traffic collisions. So, in line with our commitment to Vision Zero, we’re taking the following steps to further increase safety on Franklin Street.

Road diet: We plan to reduce Franklin from three lanes to two between Broadway and Lombard Street. This lane reduction should reduce mid-block speeds. People driving more slowly are more likely to see people crossing the street and have time to yield to them.

Enhanced intersection designs between Market Street and Broadway: The remainder of Franklin Street from Market Street to Broadway will see enhanced intersection designs using the Quick-Build Toolkit — including painted safety zones, slow-turn wedges and daylighting — creating a uniformly safer walking experience along the corridor.

Long-term projects: Our team is brainstorming how to incorporate more significant changes with future projects on and around Franklin Street.

Improving traffic safety is an evolving process and we're committed to making Franklin Street safe and accessible for everyone. While the project has made some headway, it's clear that more work is needed. We appreciate the community's ongoing involvement and look forward to your continued support as we embark on the next steps.

For more information on the Franklin Street Quick-Build Project, please visit our project website (SFMTA.com/FranklinQB) or contact our project team by email at FranklinQB@sfmta.com.

Published September 13, 2023 at 10:37PM
https://ift.tt/9MJZypV

Comments

Muni Drivers Prove the Perfect Muse for this San Francisco Artist

Muni Drivers Prove the Perfect Muse for this San Francisco Artist By Jonathan Streeter Muni has long been an enjoyable part of artist Kurt Schwartzmann's life, riding the bus to work, to school and as a sightseer. Kurt — utilizing his monthly pass — has ridden countless trains and buses and befriended several operators. Taking the time to learn their names and stories, Kurt envisions both the reality and the dream of navigating a bus through San Francisco streets. Pointing to an image he created (see above photo far right), Kurt noted, "I drew an escape hatch for this driver, so he could get away when he needed a break." In fact, Kurt’s website " Yellow Line Art ," is named in honor of the demarcation at vehicle entrances behind which passengers are asked to stand. "Conversation welcome but cannot interfere with safe operation of the bus," has real meaning for Kurt, who sees the yellow line not a...

FOX NEWS: Teacher catches mother bear and cub playing on school playground Even bears like to play.

Teacher catches mother bear and cub playing on school playground Even bears like to play. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3ATd0he

New top story from Time: Russia Is Murdering the Kremlin’s Biggest Critic in Plain Sight. Who Will Save Alexei Navalny?

https://ift.tt/2PgkHLS “If you saw me now—maybe you would have a good laugh,” Alexei Navalny wrote on Facebook April 20. “Look at him! A skeleton walking, wobbling around his prison cell. In his hands he is holding his court ruling, rolled up in a tube. With that tube he fervently swings away at mosquitoes covering the walls and the ceiling of his cell. Those buzzing stinging monsters can finish up a man faster than any hunger strike.” The tone is characteristic of the world’s most famous political prisoner: comic stoicism in the face of approaching death combined with a Gogolian fascination for all the absurdities and trivialities still imposed by a cruel Russian system responsible for its arrival. Navalny has been starving himself for three weeks. It is a feeble protest, perhaps, against being an involuntary guest of a 21st century gulag, but at least it is wholly his own. For someone who eight months ago was almost killed with a weapon of mass destruction (Novichok),...

New top story from Time: These Are the Best Fantasy TV Show Adaptations to Watch Now

https://ift.tt/3eQcVRN Netflix’s Shadow and Bone , which dropped on April 23, marks yet another hit fantasy book series getting inducted into the TV adaptation circuit—or rather, two series in one, as the new show creates one cohesive narrative out of storylines from Leigh Bardugo’s Shadow and Bone trilogy and the first book in her Six of Crows duology. The series, starring newcomers Jessie Mei Li, Archie Renaux and Freddy Carter, flies by over the course of eight episodes of magic, espionage, violence and romance—in other words, all of the necessary ingredients to satisfy a fantasy fan. The good news for fans is that TV adaptations of fantasy series have become essential television in recent years, with more en route. (Look out for Amazon’s future Lord of the Rings show.) While we wait for season two of Shadow and Bone , however, here are the best fantasy TV show adaptations you can watch right now. Game of Thrones It’s been 10 whole years since Game of Thrones p...

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion

Van Ness Improvement Project Nears Completion By Nehama Rogozen After years of planning and construction, work on the Van Ness Improvement Project is progressing rapidly and the end is in sight! Construction is projected to be finished by the end of this year, with Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) service running on Van Ness Avenue from Mission to Lombard beginning in early 2022. Work on the red transit lanes between Broadway and Pacific is almost complete. Crews have been busy on Van Ness Avenue. You may have noticed them building new medians and sidewalks, paving the roadway and installing poles that provide lighting and power to the BRT system. Most recently they have installed the red lanes that will allow buses to move Muni and Golden Gate Transit riders quickly along the corridor, without getting stuck in traffic. To ensure durability and reduce fading, these red transit lanes are made from poured red concrete, as opposed to red paint or thermoplastic on top of concrete. We are als...

New top story from Time: Quarantine, What Quarantine? Nicole Kidman, Expats and White Privilege

https://ift.tt/38jNJQt The unsaid but common understanding about foreigners in many parts of the non-Western world is that there is one group of them who can get away with a great deal: white people. They are mostly referred to as expats, whereas non-white aliens fall into such categories as immigrants and guest workers . And being an expat comes with a range of privileges. Call it white privilege if you want. It does not only exist in America ; it is a global phenomenon. This privilege was the subject of heated debate last week in Hong Kong, a city that has for a long time been enthralled by all things Western due to its 150 years of colonization by the British. But even in Westernized Hong Kong, outrage was sparked because the Hollywood actor Nicole Kidman was allowed into the city without quarantine (7 days for Australian travelers at the time of her arrival, but increased shortly after to 14 days for the fully vaccinated and 21 days for the unvaccinated). This waiver was...

New top story from Time: “It’s Not Just About Shots.” Judith McKenna, Walmart International CEO, Talks Vaccination Rollout

https://ift.tt/3w38j2i (Miss this week’s Leadership Brief? This interview below was delivered to the inbox of Leadership Brief subscribers on Sunday morning, March 28; to receive weekly emails of conversations with the world’s top CEOs and business decisionmakers, click here .) Doug McMillon ‘s last job before the CEO slot at Walmart was running its international division. That position is currently held by Judith McKenna. It’s a really big job. McKenna, as CEO of Walmart International, is responsible for 5,141 stores in 23 countries—from Costa Rica to India to China—staffed by nearly 550,000 employees. In addition, she is responsible for Walmart’s global sourcing operation, arranging for the purchase and delivery of the goods that contributed to Walmart’s $ 559 billion in revenue last year. In a recent video conversation from her office at Walmart’s Bentonville, Ark., headquarters, McKenna discussed Walmart’s vaccination efforts and the country with the fastest delive...

New Express Service Comes to the 1 California

New Express Service Comes to the 1 California By Melissa Culross Newly painted Muni flag stop indicating the pilot 1X California Express Beginning February 21, 2023, a pilot program will offer express bus service on the new 1X California Express between the Richmond neighborhood and the Financial District. The SFMTA plays a significant role in San Francisco’s economic recovery, and this pilot that serves downtown is part of that. We have been working on improving travel time and reliability over the last several years. Travel times are now 11% quicker on the 1 California thanks to new transit lanes on California, Clay and Sacramento streets. But our work is not done on the corridor! The new 1X California express will provide another option for riders to zoom from the inner Richmond into and out of downtown even faster. We also expect this service to ease crowding on the 1 California as more people head back to the office. Three morning 1X California Express buses will ...

New top story from Time: Watch TIME’s Exclusive Footage of NASA’s Most Powerful Rocket Ever Under Construction

https://ift.tt/3xqnVOf Rockets are built slowly—slowly and exceedingly carefully—which is in keeping with giant machines on which humans stake their lives and nations stake their prestige. In NASA’s cavernous Vehicle Assembly Building at Cape Canaveral, America’s next great moon rocket—the Space Launch System (SLS)—is being constructed with all that in mind. It is here too that TIME set up half a dozen cameras over the course of two months, capturing 3 million images for a time-lapse video that makes it possible to compress those months of work into just a few kinetic minutes. Under the eyes of the cameras, the rocket’s twin solid-fuel boosters came together—each of them 177 feet tall, weighing 1.6 million pounds and generating 3.6 million pounds (1.6 million kg) of thrust. Twenty-five percent taller than the solid boosters on the space shuttle, the twin engines are made of five separate segments, compared to the shuttle’s four. When they are completed, they will be attached ...

New top story from Time: Chris Paul on the Legacy of the NBA Strike, 1 Year Later

https://ift.tt/3jiooN4 Even before Aug. 26, 2020—the date, one year ago today, on which the sports world shut down in protest of violence against unarmed Black people—NBA players were having difficulty processing the shooting of Jacob Blake . The video of police in Kenosha, Wis. shooting and wounding Blake emerged during the NBA’s 2020 postseason while players were isolated at Walt Disney World in a COVID-19 “bubble.” The surreal August playoffs were taking place after the season had shut down in March because of the pandemic. “It was weighing heavy on a lot of guys,” says Chris Paul , who was the president of the National Basketball Players Association (NBPA) for eight years before he stepped aside this summer. Paul told TIME in an interview this week that when George Floyd was murdered on May 25, 2020, he was home and could explain to his children Chris II and Camryn, then 11 and 8, what was unfolding on television. “Whereas when this situation happened, with Jacob Blake,...

My precise view

Search This Blog