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

FOX NEWS: Pulled pork potato chip nachos: Try the recipe The inspiration for this next-level recipe started innocently enough. The result? Genius.

Pulled pork potato chip nachos: Try the recipe The inspiration for this next-level recipe started innocently enough. The result? Genius. via FOX NEWS https://ift.tt/3lsRfQ5

Telangana man pretending to be 'sadhu' rapes minor; thrashed by locals https://ift.tt/2IkpJmI

A 14-year-old girl was allegedly sexually assaulted by a man under the pretext of performing exorcism in Nizamabad district in Telangana, police said on Tuesday. As the news surfaced, a group of enraged women activists barged into the office of the man, who also reportedly runs a local newspaper, and thrashed him.

New top story from Time: At Thanksgiving, Biden Seeks Unity as Trump Stokes Fading Embers of a Campaign

https://ift.tt/3q4cU1i WILMINGTON, Del. — On a day of grace and grievance, President-elect Joe Biden summoned Americans to join in common purpose against the coronavirus pandemic and their political divisions while the man he will replace stoked the fading embers of his campaign to “turn the election over.” Biden, in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation, put the surging pandemic front and center, pledging to tap the “vast powers” of the federal government and to “change the course of the disease” once in office. But for that to work, he said, Americans must step up for their own safety and that of their fellow citizens. “I know the country has grown weary of the fight,” Biden said Wednesday. “We need to remember we’re at war with the virus, not with one another. Not with each other.” President Donald Trump, who has scarcely mentioned the pandemic in recent days even as it has achieved record heights, remained fixated on his election defeat. He sent his lawyer Rudy ...

New top story from Time: RushTok Is a Mesmerizing Viral Trend. It Also Amplifies Sororities’ Problems With Racism

https://ift.tt/3iZ1hHp While what goes into the curation of every TikTok user’s For You page remains a mystery , one thing has become clear—content from University of Alabama students vying for a spot at the school’s sororities has dominated the app over the last week. This trend, dubbed “RushTok” by TikTok netizens, started when sorority hopefuls began making videos of themselves and what they were wearing for “Bama Rush,” University of Alabama’s Greek recruitment week. The formula for a RushTok video is simple yet mesmerizing: state the rush day and the activity, and then name the brand of every item of clothing and accessory you’re sporting. Typical Bama Rush TikTok videos share common characteristics, including a bevy of blondes with Southern accents, hashtags of the school’s call, “Roll Tide,” and a widespread affinity for brands like Michael Kors, Shein, Steve Madden and Kendra Scott. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Perhaps it should come as no surprise that the vide...

New top story from Time: COVID-19 Deaths Eclipse 700,000 in U.S. as Delta Variant Rages

https://ift.tt/3uzWYGB It’s a milestone that by all accounts didn’t have to happen this soon. The U.S. death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 700,000 late Friday — a number greater than the population of Boston. The last 100,000 deaths occurred during a time when vaccines — which overwhelmingly prevent deaths, hospitalizations and serious illness — were available to any American over the age of 12. The milestone is deeply frustrating to doctors, public health officials and the American public, who watched a pandemic that had been easing earlier in the summer take a dark turn. Tens of millions of Americans have refused to get vaccinated, allowing the highly contagious delta variant to tear through the country and send the death toll from 600,000 to 700,000 in 3 1/2 months. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Florida suffered by far the most death of any state during that period, with the virus killing about 17,000 residents since the middle of June. Texas was second with 13,000 dea...

New top story from Time: 4 Takeaways From Billie Eilish’s New Album Happier Than Ever

https://ift.tt/3zYNXIR Last January, Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas responded with audible groans when their album, When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go? , was awarded Album of the Year at the Grammys. “We didn’t make this album to win a Grammy… we didn’t think we would win anything ever,” Finneas, who produced the album, told the crowd in a sheepish acceptance speech . “We stand up here confused and grateful.” Eighteen months later, the pair has returned to a much bigger audience and much higher expectations, as Eilish’s sophomore album, Happier Than Ever , arrives on all streaming platforms. Eilish, at just 19, is one of the most adored pop stars in the world, a seven-time Grammy winner and the subject of her own documentary ( The World’s A Little Blurry on Apple TV). And in its first day, the 16-track Happier Than Ever (Interscope) immediately shot to the top of Apple Music’s albums chart in the U.S. and many other countries; the album sees her expanding ...

New top story from Time: FDA Authorizes Johnson & Johnson’s One-Dose COVID-19 Vaccine

https://ift.tt/3kDiCVt WASHINGTON — The U.S. is getting a third vaccine to prevent COVID-19, as the Food and Drug Administration on Saturday cleared a Johnson & Johnson shot that works with just one dose instead of two. Health experts are anxiously awaiting a one-and-done option to help speed vaccinations, as they race against a virus that already has killed more than 510,000 people in the U.S. and is mutating in increasingly worrisome ways. The FDA said J&J’s vaccine offers strong protection against what matters most: serious illness, hospitalizations and death. One dose was 85% protective against the most severe COVID-19 illness, in a massive study that spanned three continents — protection that remained strong even in countries such as South Africa, where the variants of most concern are spreading. “This is really good news,” Dr. Francis Collins, director of the National Institutes of Health, told The Associated Press Saturday. “The most important thing we can...

New top story from Time: Why It’s Crucial to Talk to Kids About Gender Pronouns

https://ift.tt/3fKr8kO It’s only been a week since Katherine Locke’s newest book was published, and they’ve already received messages from parents of trans and nonbinary children saying how much it spoke to them. The book, What Are Your Words? , tells the story of a kid named Ari, who is gender fluid and nonbinary and tries out different pronouns depending on how they feel on different days. Aimed at readers aged 4 to 8, the book follows Ari and his nonbinary uncle Lior as they try to figure out what words fit them. “I certainly didn’t grow up talking about pronouns that weren’t she/her, he/him, and I didn’t know how to have these conversations either,” says Locke, who released their first picture book last November and has previously written novels for young adults and adults. “It’s been really gratifying to see people embrace the book and its concepts.” [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] With colorful illustrations by Anne Passchier, the book emphasizes that pronouns are...

UK Covid strain 70% more infectious, could have entered India before December: Randeep Guleria https://ift.tt/3hvgb5H

It is possible that the new UK strain of coronavirus could have entered our country even before December, AIIMS director Randeep Guleria has said as he underlined that the mutant strain was first reported in Britain in September. Speaking to news agency ANI, Guleria said that the new Covid-19 strain is "more infectious" and is a matter of concern. According to him, it is 70 per cent more infectious than the existing disease.

New top story from Time: Summer Tutoring Is Not the Solution to a Lost Year of Schooling. It Might Hurt Kids More Than It Helps Them

https://ift.tt/2Wpnci1 Summer tutoring has become the rallying cry by politicians and pundits as a way to address the learning loss from months of remote and hybrid learning. A frightening number of students did not show up to class last school year, including up to 15% of kindergarteners in some school districts. But tutoring is the not the easy solution many think it is. Before parents sign up their children, they need to do their own homework and, except under specific conditions, they should not pursue tutoring. Simply put, most children do not benefit long term from standard tutoring. Moreover, current trends in supplemental education can end up hurting children. [time-brightcove not-tgx=”true”] Tutoring can work well under certain conditions for children. Unfortunately, those conditions are quite strict. First, tutors should have a strong command of the content and must find ways to connect it to the student’s interests. Second, tutoring is more effective when ...

My precise view

Search This Blog