How Many More Lives Need To Be Lost for Cities To Act Faster
The intersection at King and 4th Street in San Francisco, where a 4-year-old was struck and killed by a car on August 15. (Source: Google Maps.)
On Tuesday, August 15, a couple sight-seeing in San Francisco were struck by a car while attempting to cross King and 4th streets with their 4-year-old. Fourteen years ago, that very intersection was singled out by transit riders for its dangerous design. Soon after San Francisco adopted Vision Zero in 2014, it identified 4th and King as part of its High Injury Network of particularly unsafe locations. Nevertheless, between 2019 and 2023, the intersection witnessed 12 collisions and 19 injuries. On August 15, it had its first fatality.
The 4-year-old succumbed to her injuries while her father was being treated for his own at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. In the aftermath of the tragedy, the city expressed condolences and announced it would tackle the intersection in three weeks.
Safe Street Rebel, a decentralized and largely anonymous activist group fighting for “car-free spaces, transit equity, and the end of car dominance,” decided three weeks is too long and intervened immediately. “Today at the vigil, SFMTA [The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency] said it would take 3 weeks to do a ‘quick build’ to make the intersection safer. That's too long to wait. So we did our own quick build tonight and closed one of the turn lanes," the group said on X, formerly known as Twitter.
A week ago, a driver turning right at 4th/King killed for a four year old. Today at the vigil, SFMTA said it would take 3 weeks to do a “quick build” to make the intersection safer. That's too long to wait. So we did our own quick build tonight and closed one of the turn lanes https://t.co/PhacZvQie9 pic.twitter.com/DOO0xCblwo
— Safe Street Rebel (@SafeStreetRebel) August 23, 2023
Within days, CBS reported that Safe Street Rebel closed off one of the two southbound right turn lanes from 4th Street onto King Street, which leads to an onramp of Interstate Highway 280. The group then installed flexpost barriers, tightening the corners of the intersection. They—alongside several urban planning and street design experts—identified those two adjoining right-turn lanes as fundamentally dangerous by design.
“This is an appallingly dangerous design that should never have been approved,” Strong Towns Senior Editor Daniel Herriges wrote last week. “If you are a driver turning right, it is all too easy to fail to see a person in the crosswalk. This is all the more true if you are in the middle lane and a vehicle is also in the rightmost lane, obscuring your view of anyone who might be crossing on foot.”
The latest pedestrian killed in San Francisco was 4-year-old in a stroller pushed by her father.
— Warren J. Wells, AICP 🚴🏙️🦀 (@WarrenJWells) August 16, 2023
According to witnesses, the driver turned right from the middle lane. He had a green light while the family had a walk signal.
This design is deadly, and should be outlawed. pic.twitter.com/wrDhSwXVe4
While Safe Street’s tactical urbanism collected mixed reviews online, the attention prompted SFMTA to begin official work on the intersection. City crews even removed one of the two southbound right-turn lanes. “Glad to see SFMTA crews are out at 4th & King putting in official safety improvements. Direct action moved up the timeline by 2.5 weeks,” the group wrote 10 days after the death of the 4-year-old child.
Nevertheless, the praise was short-lived. Safe Street noted that when SFMTA removed the guerrilla intervention to install their own, the agency stopped short of adding life-saving barriers like flexposts or bollards. Additionally, SFMTA returned the corner radii to their former widths, undoing Safe Street’s effort to curb speeds while turning.
“Large corner radii allow vehicles to make a turn without reducing their speed,” America Walks, the leading nonprofit championing walkability, asserts. “This creates unsafe conditions for pedestrians, as drivers are less likely to yield to pedestrians and drivers have an increased stopping distance.”
While the city’s swifter response was encouraging—even if catalyzed by unsanctioned action—advocates can’t help but interpret the approach as lackadaisical. As Safe Street Rebel wrote over the weekend, “We deserve better.”
This right turn lane should have been filled in with concrete by now, not replaced with a watered-down version of what unpaid volunteers could achieve within an hour. We deserve better.
— Safe Street Rebel (@SafeStreetRebel) August 26, 2023
Asia (pronounced “ah-sha”) Mieleszko serves as a Staff Writer for Strong Towns. A dilettante urbanist since adolescence, she's excited to convert a lifetime of ad-hoc volunteerism into a career. Her unconventional background includes directing a Ukrainian folk choir, pioneering synaesthetic performances, photographing festivals, designing websites, teaching, and ghostwriting. She can be found wherever Wi-Fi is reliable, typically along Amtrak's Northeast Corridor.