SFist Photo: Luxury Car Parking vs. Pedestrian Safety

Here's the intersection. Click on "Full Screen" and take a gander. Go ahead, we'll wait for you.

So, what you see is a grand total of one lane that allows drivers to go from the West Side to the 101 or the Bay Bridge. This is the situation about 90% of the time. The right lane is open only when there's no parking allowed, which is basically a few hours each day during rush hours. The problem is that rush hour is hardly confined to the traditional morning and evening drives. "Rush hour" can now mean Saturday in the middle of the day, as this recent shot of cars backed up on Oak reveals:

This area becomes a tangle of herky jerky lane changes and congested streets in the neighboring Lower Haight and Western Addition. So drivers can get confused.

What's that, gentle reader? We're "transit first" so screw those drivers and their death monsters? Well, O.K., but wouldn't having more relaxed and less confused drivers lead to fewer car vs. ped collisions? That's the theory. How do we get there?

Maybe preventing street parking on the right side of Oak between Laguna and Octavia at all times? Is that so outrageous? This guy thinks we're ready to give it a try. He wants to get rid of parking on the other side (aka left side, north side) of Oak. That sounds good too. Maybe the Lexuseses, Jaguars, and Volvos that park for free on this one block would have to find another place? What would the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association think of that? How about Walk SF or the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition? Worth a try?

It's not like these issues haven't been considered before, but do the powers that be realize how things actually are working at this intersection these days? This is from a MUNI Town Hall meeting from last year:

Q. On Oak from Laguna to Octavia (1 block), parking is allowed on the northern curbside during morning peak hours, creating a bottleneck where 4 lanes of in-bound traffic are forced into 3 lanes. This creates substantial delays for both drivers and MUNI. Why not prohibit morning parking between Laguna and Octavia, bringing that block into line with the rest of the corridor?
A. [Palliative cliché omitted.] We are working with Supervisor Mirkarimi's office to address this issue. It is pending Board of Supervisors review, and a committee hearing is to be scheduled on the item.

Considered, rejected, still pending? Will anything change in light last month's news regarding ped safety? Remember that there aren't a lot of peds here compared to other intersections, so the chances of a walker getting hit here can be something like 100 times higher than a walker in a crowded crosswalk at a better-designed intersection. Beware beware.

Agitated drivers routinely show a lack of respect to peds at this intersection. Here, a brace of stopped vehicles intrude upon the well-marked crosswalk. The driver in the green Honda (is that a sandwich AND a cell phone?) then proceeded to make an illegal turn.

Of course, the controversial Octavia Boulevard experiment will continue remain controversial. Fine. But what's wrong with a few drivers taking one for the team by trying to park somewhere else for a while in the interest of pedestrian safety? Just asking. Would allowing cars to flow more naturally and easily on this one block get drivers onto the superslab any faster? Maybe not, as Octavia Blvd. itself is oftentimes jammed up. But allowing this block to function as it could would result in calmer drivers and fewer injured peds. Wouldn't that be good? Really, having a car of any sort is a luxury in our urban village. Asking people to walk a little farther from their cars to their homes isn't asking all that much. Is it?