SFist: Traffic Counter Installed at Market and Octavia

March 12, 2008

Traffic Counter Installed at Market and Octavia

traffic%20counter%20at%20octavia.jpg
Photo: Brian_Brooks

Returning back to the drawing board over at the deadly Market and Octavia intersection, a new traffic counter was recently installed. Due in part to this past weekend's fatal hit-run accident? Probably.

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Comments (20)

[1] | 03/12/08 11:31AM

Um, okay. And what is the traffic counter supposed to do exactly? The problem is people making a right where they are not supposed to. So, unless this traffic counter is set up in conjunction with a camera that sends tickets to drivers who make the illegal move, I'm not quite feeling it yet.

[2] | 03/12/08 11:41AM

There was also a motor cop sitting at Oak + Octavia catching those bastards in Acura SUVs making those pesky illegal right turns on red that cause horrific accidents and ALSO kill bicyclists and pedestrians.

When will people learn that driving in San Francisco is not like driving in Mill Valley or Walnut Creek or anywhere else that has a population density of less than 50,000/sq mi.

[3] | 03/12/08 11:43AM

It appears to be just over the bike lane, so only counting bike traffic. Interesting.

[4] | 03/12/08 11:45AM

Market Street has one of the most-used urban bike lanes in the country. A traffic study can be done for many reasons.

It may or may not be related to the recent accident? (Fatal? That's news to me.)

A camera might be coming next year.

This accident relates to having our national east-west Interstate touch down directly on Market Street, primarily for reasons of aesthetics.

[5] | 03/12/08 11:51AM

a dog died, hence "fatal."

[6] | 03/12/08 11:59AM

Roger. I thought the dog's owner might have died in the hospital.

A sad story.

[7] | 03/12/08 11:59AM

The driver of the truck was on Octavia and the bike rider was heading east on Market. Who ran the light?

[8] | 03/12/08 12:19PM

One published account had the driver entering the intersection on a green or a yellow. If so, the driver might not be held responsible.

The alleged felony hit and run is a different issue entirely, of course

A video traffic camera would be nice to have at this busy intersection if only for the sole purpose of trying to improve things there. You would need some evidence like that to know for sure which party was at fault.

[9] | 03/12/08 12:32PM

Want more bike safety at the Octavia intersection? Just spend five minutes with your and run over that damn counter like a crazy person. I wonder if the system knows what time the system is triggered, or if it is just a simple counter.

[10] | 03/12/08 12:33PM

driving in Mill Valley or Walnut Creek is different. when i roll through there, i'm not wearing pants.

[11] | 03/12/08 01:07PM

helmets are sexy.
please use one.

[12] | 03/12/08 02:45PM

What's this "GenenBus" I've been seeing around town (and also in the picture above, heading onto 101)? Genentech's employee shuttle or is it for a conference or?

[13] | 03/12/08 02:52PM

The GenenBus is the Genentech Shuttle. Since Google started their own transportation network, other companies are doing the same (but with less frequency). As far as I know, it picks up at Church and Market at 7, 8,and 9 each morning. You can store bikes in the luggage areas below.

[14] | 03/12/08 03:14PM

Companies have been running private shuttles from San Francisco to the peninsula for a lot longer than Google has been in existence. I wouldn't be surprised if Genentech's predates google's.

[15] | 03/12/08 04:49PM

"""When will people learn that driving in San Francisco is not like driving in Mill Valley or Walnut Creek or anywhere else that has a population density of less than 50,000/sq mi""

Anywhere else that has a population density less than 50,000/sq mile, is everywhere else in the country, and almost the world.

San Francisco's population density is on the order of 16,000/sq mile, NYC is about 25,000

If you break out Manhattan alone, it does shoot up to 75,000, so I am assuming the most crowded places in SF probably top out at 50,000 at the MOST. But that is the exception rather than the rule.

[16] | 03/12/08 06:39PM

You know what would solve all these problems? An overpass.

[17] | 03/12/08 11:29PM

Overpass! Screw that! What we need is a Monorail!

[18] | 03/13/08 08:42AM

Overpass? Monorail? Nah, we just need a zip-line!

[19] | 03/13/08 09:17AM

Now they're going to count bicyclists -- but any bicyclist who can avoid that intersection will, because of the mounting death count, so they'll end up with some artificially low number that will justify not doing anything at all to fix it.

[20] | 03/13/08 10:46AM

Sort of like Caltrain counting the people bumped off the 8:14 Southbound. That's the perfect train - express to Palo Alto for all the Stanford Grad students, faculty, etc... but nobody tries to take their bike on it because you always get bumped. Ergo Caltrain reports happily that cyclists are not being denied boarding!