Ask SFist: Cyclist Hit-and-Run This Morning In the Mission?

as could mission! from embarcadero out to excelsior!

It was actually at the intersection of 16th/Capp at 8:43-ish (according to my 911 call timestamp), and it looked like the bike probably swooped out from Capp into traffic expecting cars to slow for the crosswalk (which they don't unless they see someone crossing).

I didn't see it happen, but I heard it, turned around to look, then called SF emergency on my cell phone. I waited till the cops and ambulances showed up before heading down to BART and work.

There was nothing unusual, aside from the hit itself. I don't know if it was a hit and run. A driver who was stopped right near the bicyclist when I turned around (one beat after I heard the noise) pulled off onto a side street after trying to help the bicyclist. The driver didn't seem too flustered herself though, so maybe she wasn't the hitter. I just don't know.

The biker was lucid but shaky and not bleeding in any noticeable way. Took the cops about 3-4 minutes to show up, and the ambulances another few minutes. Meanwhile the biker and some people who were helping her were in the street unprotected. There were four people with the biker, helping her to the ground, checking her out and talking to her, so I stayed on the curb and kept an eye on the scene.

It was unpleasant but people responded in a helpful way, didn't look like anything tragic, and was under control by the PD and FD within 10 minutes.

Protip - if you live in SF program 415-553-8090 into your cell phone and name it "911 SF". If you call 911 from a mobile you might get the CHP, which delays emergency response by several minutes. Some other local emergency direct-dials:

Oakland - 510-777-3211
Berkeley (city) - 510-981-5911

I'm not paid by the number of microprocessors we ship either, but if we stop shipping microprocessors then we go out of business and I don't get paid at all.

14th is one-way, and if you're going someplace that is on 16th, it doesn't help to be riding on 17th. You can't see what's playing at the Roxie from 17th, nor can you see if your buddy is tending bar at Gestalt, nor can you check how crowded the outside tables are at Ti Couz, etc. There are plenty of reasons to take 16th over 17th.

drive a car and be part of the problem.

I second Brock's solution.

Wait, the driver had a problem too, what with hitting someone with their call and all. Has to poop all over your day when that happens.

Another thing that driving doesn't solve - getting cockblocked by Critical Mass. My sweet elderly mother was visiting from the nether regions of Pennsylvania when we got stuck for 45 minutes trying to cross Valencia when those self-righteous anarcho-fascist pedalestrians decided to disrupt traffic in the very neighborhood that half of them live in, with their ironic mustaches and trust funds. Asstards!

My solution: walk to BART and take a plane. If I can't walk there, take public transport there, or fly there, I don't want to be there.

i got cockblocked by critical mass last month and i was riding my bike. but i happened to be actually going somewhere but they took over the entirety of market street, making it impossible for me to keep going to work until they had all passed.

way to make this city better for bicyclists!

"it looked like the bike probably swooped out from Capp into traffic expecting cars to slow for the crosswalk (which they don't unless they see someone crossing)."

so, the car is automatically at fault here? while i don't know the exact circumstances of this accident, nor do i condone the fact that the driver did not stop after-the-fact, I think cyclists in this city need to learn that they too have to obey the rules of the road. That means, stopping at signals and signs, yielding when appropriate (as if they were a vehicle), riding on the correct side of the road, signaling turns, etc.... its hard enough to pay attention to what is happening on the road without having to worry about some of the cyclists in this city that dart here and there because they think they are the only ones out there. you do something illegal-you pay the consequences.

share the road education goes both ways.

Plus, you're not allowed to ride through a pedestrian intersection. You need to dismount and walk your bike across if you want the protection that a crosswalk affords.

There's a reason for that. Car drivers looking for pedestrians don't extrapolate enough to accommodate the speed of a bicycle crossing an crosswalk. Instead of looking at the nearest 6' around the ends of a crosswalk, you have to look at the nearest 30'.