Sunday, December 31, 2017

Safe Streets for Seniors


“Streets will always serve as transport routes, allowing citizens to move around the city – yet the forms of transport that dominate those routes will determine if streets can fulfil their other key role, as centres of communities. Streets that prioritise pedestrians, bikes, buses and other types of mass transit are far more likely to be places where people want to meet, socialise, shop and live.” – Mark Watts, “Streets can kill cities: on the Fossil-Fuel-Streets Declaration,” City Metric, December 18, 2017 

San Francisco’s dense population of 874,000 residents in 49 square miles and ride-hails (45,000 Uber and Lyft drivers account for 15% of all vehicle trips inside San Francisco) put pressure on streets.  Uber and Lyft account for two-thirds of congestion-related traffic violations in Downtown SF. 

Over 800 pedestrians are struck in traffic collisions each year in San Francisco, which has the highest level of pedestrian collisions in the state, and over 50% of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians, the second highest rate in the country.  Each year, over 200 people are seriously injured and another 30 are killed while traveling the streets of San Francisco.  
In 2014, San Francisco adopted Vision Zero to prioritize street safety and eliminate traffic deaths within a decade, or by 2024.   
To accomplish this goal, Vision Zero SF (VZSF) is implementing its Two-Year Action Strategy 2017-2018, and focusing on a 3-prong effort of E’s: 
  • Engineering: SF Municipal Transportation Authority (SFMTA) implemented reduced speed limits earlier this year, and identified safer street designs. Based on data obtained from SF General Hospital (about 50% of its trauma patients are people injured in traffic crashes) and SF Police Department (SFPD)’s Collision Report, SF Department of Public Health (SFDPH) released a High Injury Network map showing red lines on high injury streets, where traffic safety improvements are most needed.  According to SFMTA, 70% of San Francisco’s severe and fatal traffic injuries are focused on just 12% of the City’s streets.
  • Enforcement: SFPD implemented Focus on Five mandate of 50% of all tickets issued for the most dangerous traffic violations (speeding, running red lights, failing to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks, failing to yield while making left or U-turn, failing to fully stop at stop signs) that contribute to traffic injuries and death.  However, because annual tickets issued by SFPD have dropped since 2016 (by 23,000), making it easier to meet its mandate, street safety advocates favor a bill (AB 342) to legalize Automated Speed Enforcement cameras. 
  • Education: SFMTA, SFPD, SFDPH and Walk SF collaborated on Safe Streets SF  education campaign to promote safer habits (take pledge to slow down and look around, know the rules of the road, be alert, etc.) to reduce the number of pedestrian collisions, injuries and deaths.  
Just last month before his sudden death, 65-year-old SF Mayor Ed Lee created a Vision Zero “rapid response team” directing better collaboration among city agencies to speed up transportation and street improvement projects at sites of traffic-related fatalities.

Seniors and people with disabilities top the list of vulnerable populations at risk of injury inequities.  Seniors make up only 15% of San Francisco’s population, but accounted for 44% of all traffic deaths in 2016.  If one counts only pedestrian deaths (not motorists or cyclists), seniors make up 88% of people killed in San Francisco’s traffic collisions. Seniors are four times more likely than people under 65 to be killed by a traffic collision. To ensure that Vision Zero does not exacerbate existing inequities, community engagement is essential with targeted outreach for Safe Streets for Seniors to obtain input to identify and request engineering and enforcement improvements.

Walk SF Walk Audit

Community Organizer Natasha Opfell and Executive Director Jodie Medeiros of Walk SF  and Transportation Planner Shayda Haghgoo of SFMTA (dressed in orange vest) facilitated walk audit with residents from Rhoda Goldman Plaza (RGP) Assisted Living in the Western Addition.  Walk SF provided yellow Vision Zero safety vests for participants.
  • Curb ramps: present (one side or both sides of street)? lead straight across the road—not into center of street or aligned across the street? street curb landing level is appropriate (e.g., smooth/blended to avoid tripping)?
  • Crosswalks: marked (continental or standard striping)? paint is clean/bright and uninterrupted?
  • Street conditions: good (no cracks, potholes, or other uneven surfaces)
  • Signals: pedestrian countdown on each side of crossing (if yes, auditory or non-auditory? if auditory, can hear clearly or not clear/loud enough?), crossing time is sufficient to make it all the way across to the other side of the street?
  • Drivers, speed and turns: most drivers seem to be obeying speed limit? most drivers yield to pedestrians when turning? cars allowed to turn right on red?
For consideration prior to the walk audit, Natasha provided an overview of engineering improvement solutions (“person might fail, but road should not”) for reduction in crashes:
RGP residents voiced concerns about cars speeding along Scott Street, increased car traffic by drivers seeking to avoid Divisadero and Geary corridors (one block away from Post and Scott Streets) during rush hours, lack of pedestrian countdown so they don’t know how much time left to cross before signal turns red, need for mid-block crossing as short-cut from RGP front entrance to park or Western Addition Branch Library across the street, fixing uneven pavement at corner of Post and Scott. 
Shayda presented an overview of Western Addition Community-Based Transportation Plan for near-term intersection improvements to include: advance limit lines (more separation between cars and pedestrians), daylighting, leading pedestrian intervals (let pedestrians walk before giving green signal to drivers to turn vehicles), and painting continental crosswalks.  She explained that a pedestrian countdown might take longer to happen due to high cost (new signal is $300,000); however, she encouraged residents to continue advocacy efforts with Walk SF.

SDA Crosswalk Timing Campaign


Beginning in the 1990s, Senior Action Network (predecessor of SDA) has advocated for senior pedestrian safety in San Francisco with demands for banning use of cell phones while driving, banning right turns on red light, increase timing of crosswalk signals.  


Since April 2017, SDA’s Transit Justice Group (TJG) has held 4 press conferences to emphasize to City officials that seniors and people with disabilities—even without canes and walkers--don’t have enough time to cross the streets of San Francisco safely.  In late October, SDA received a DPH grant for Safe Streets for Seniors to fund pedestrian safety activities.  Last month, SDA held a bilingual Spanish-English Pedestrian Safety Leadership class at Centro Latino de San Francisco Senior Center in the Mission District.

 According to 2009 Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD), walking design speed is 3.5 feet per second.  Previously MUTCD suggested 4 feet per second as a normal walking speed.  Yet, in one study of people age 70 or older, the normal walking speed for 90% of the group was less than 4 feet per second.  Other research estimated pedestrian speeds at 2.5 to 3.25 feet per second for older people.  Researchers also found:
·       older pedestrians cross more slowly than younger pedestrians;
·       within both age groups, women walk more slowly than men;
·       those who comply with traffic or pedestrian signals cross more slowly than noncompliers 

SDA Health Care Organizer Ligia Montano and TJG Organizer Pi Ra, who holds up sign in Spanish that reads in English translation: “CAUTION! Many pedestrians have been hit at this intersection. QUESTION: At this intersection, DO YOU NEED MORE TIME TO CROSS SAFELY? Contact 415.546.1333 or srira@sdaction.org.”


Pi explained that the 4 feet per second formula (i.e., 10 seconds to cross 40 feet crosswalk) was based on 1970s test of college students walking in Boston, and he met one former participant who is now 75 years old and cannot cross so quickly.  Pi said the City favors 3.5 feet per second, though the federal standard is 3 feet per second in areas with a lot of senior pedestrians.  SDA is advocating for the City to adopt 3 feet per second standard.  

 Starting January 2018, TJG will conduct observation studies (walking speeds and crossing capabilities of seniors and people with disabilities at 10-12 high injury intersections) and opinion surveys (asking which intersections they routinely walk that are difficult to cross safely), and present data analysis by early Spring 2018.

Pi also proposed a solution from Singapore, which has the world’s fastest walkers:  Green Man Plus provides that Singaporeans who are age 60+ or with disabilities can apply for special transit cards, which can be swiped at sensors in intersections for an extra 3 to 13 seconds to cross streets.  

(Effective January 1, 2018, in California, pedestrians can legally enter a crosswalk during a countdown signal if there is enough time to reasonably complete the crossing safely.) 
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5 comments:

  1. Awe someJanuary 5, 2018 at 11:15 PM

    'Vision Zero' Report: 20 Traffic Fatalities Citywide In 2017
    Fri. January 5, 2018
    by Teresa Hammerl
    Acting Mayor London Breed and city agencies yesterday shared a progress report on Vision Zero, the city's initiative to eliminate traffic fatalities by 2024.
    According to the report, last year saw the fewest traffic deaths in San Francisco since record-keeping began in 1915.
    "While this is an important accomplishment, our work is not done," Breed said in a statement, adding that the city already had a serious pedestrian incident on Geary Boulevard this year.
    "We must push forward with safety improvements until we reach our ultimate goal—zero traffic deaths on our streets," she said.
    In 2013, the year before Vision Zero launched, there were 34 fatalities, compared to 20 in 2017, a decrease of 41 percent. Of that total, 14 were pedestrian fatalities.
    In December, a pedestrian was struck and killed near 19th Avenue and Quintara in Parkside. Three months earlier, a pedestrian was killed in a collision at Dore and Brannan streets. And in May, pedestrian Thor Thomas was struck and killed on an on-ramp to southbound U.S. Highway 101.
    Data show SFMTA implemented about 700 engineering measures on city streets last year, including more than 70 concrete bulb-outs, 50 painted safety zones, 50 speed humps and 50 signal system upgrades. Additionally, the agency installed 12 miles of new and upgraded bikeways.
    As we reported last year, officials also released an updated map of the city’s high-injury network.
    Combining data from San Francisco General Hospital with SFPD's collision report data, the map is used to inform agencies of where safety improvements are most needed.
    Seniors are disproportionately victims of traffic collisions in the city, making up 50 percent of pedestrian deaths last year, while comprising just 15 percent of the population.
    Police continue to prioritize Focus on the Five, the most dangerous driving offenses: running red lights or stop signs, violating pedestrians' right of way, speeding, and failure to yield while turning. In 2017, 38,193 traffic citations were issued for such violations.
    "Twenty lives lost is too many," said said Cathy DeLuca, Policy and Program Director of Walk San Francisco. "One is too many."
    http://hoodline.com/2018/01/vision-zero-report-20-traffic-fatalities-citywide-in-2017

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  2. Awe someMay 10, 2018 at 7:35 PM

    Pedestrians get more time to cross the street
    By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on May 9, 2018 3:09 pm
    Greg Gary, a stylish man in his “late 70s,” sported a peacoat, his signature curled mustache and his cane Wednesday morning, which helps him walk despite a life-long handicap. He said San Francisco streets have been difficult for him to cross since he moved here in 1965.
    “The lights are so short no one can get across in time,” he said, standing at Geary Boulevard and Presidio Avenue with a group of seniors.
    Now, however, Gary and others like him will get more time to cross the street.
    In a major win for safety advocates, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency on Wednesday pledged to re-time San Francisco’s 1,200 street signals as regular maintenance to street timing is conducted. The current timing of signals allows people who walk four feet per second to cross, but now signals will be re-timed for people who walk three feet per-second, the slower pace of some seniors and people with disabilities.
    “We’re already underway retiming many intersections in the South of Market neighborhood,” said SFMTA spokesperson Ben Jose, as well as north of Market Street. “It’s a lot of intersections.”
    The process may take just shy of ten years to finally complete, but advocates laud the change. In July last year, sign-carrying seniors organized by the group Senior Disability Action and Walk San Francisco protested at the busy intersection of Geary and Masonic Avenue by simply crossing the street. Many seniors could not cross in time, demonstrating their point to transit officials.
    Supervisor Sandra Fewer, who represents the Richmond District, lauded Wednesday’s announcement as a victory for families with small children and strollers, too. “With the added traffic in our streets, it’s wise and prudent to do this,” Fewer told the gathered seniors.
    At Geary and Presidio, Sam Alicia Duke, an 85-year-old activist who uses a motorized wheelchair, smiled and acknowledged some drivers may not be happy about the change.
    “The people turning in that automobile may be a little upset, ‘oh no, I have to stop for a bit!’” she said, eliciting laughter from the crowd. But, she added, “the pedestrians are safe.”
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/pedestrians-get-time-cross-street/

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  3. Awe someJuly 26, 2018 at 9:08 PM

    City data shows vulnerability of senior pedestrians
    By Ian Williams on July 26, 2018 1:00 am
    San Francisco’s senior population is struck by drivers and injured — and sometimes killed — more frequently around “priority areas” such as senior centers, libraries and providers of free services, according to new data revealed by The City…
    The data was presented Wednesday at a Public Safety and Neighborhood Services committee hearing called by Supervisor Norman Yee around senior traffic collisions.
    Traffic impediments like visual obstructions, limited crossing time, fading crosswalks and novel, but confusing pedestrian safety measures were all cited as factors by department officials, citizens and the supervisors themselves.
    “A lot of the causes of collisions are turning and speed,” said Cmdr. Teresa Ewins of the San Francisco Police Department.
    Ewins cited three recent examples of pedestrian fatalities that stemmed from collisions in a crosswalk, the most recent of which was the death of Dmitry Scotkin, 69, who was killed at 36th Avenue and Sloat Boulevard last week.
    Seniors account for a disproportionate number of people killed in traffic collisions, according to analysis from the San Francisco Department of Public Health. In 2017, half of all pedestrians killed in traffic collisions were seniors, even though they make up only 15 percent of San Francisco’s population.
    Seniors were struck often near senior centers, libraries, public health programs, free meal sites, and paratransit pickup and drop-off locations. Though the results may seem like common sense, the analysis gives city planners new impetus to bolster safety measures around such sites — basically, a new way to focus on safety for seniors.
    Of those streets where seniors were struck by drivers, 35 percent were “traffic calm-able” streets, according to the SFMTA, indicating the agency has the tools to craft those streets to be safer.
    …San Francisco’s Vision Zero initiative, which aims to reduce pedestrian deaths to zero through a combination of traffic engineering, education and enforcement efforts, has seen some success, officials noted.
    “Last year we saw the least number of traffic deaths ever recorded in San Francisco,” Yee said. “This is an accomplishment…but 20 people still passed away.”
    The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, Department of Public Health and San Francisco Police Department, among other city departments, are working together to identify and address the problems.
    The San Francisco County Transportation Agency is also working to give more time to pedestrians crossing the street, revising the crosswalk signal time to reflect a walking speed of three feet per second.
    “Flags,” the ads seen on the side of sheltered bus stops, will be filled with multilingual notices reminding drivers to be aware of people crossing the street, particularly seniors.
    The adoption of a pedestrian safety measure known as HAWK was also mentioned. HAWK beacons include a number roadway treatments, including multiple red lights, highly-visible crosswalk markings, and illuminated “crosswalk” signs. These measures, however, were called into question by the committee.
    “The hybrid signals are relatively new to San Francisco,” Yee said. “There have been issues about people not understanding what all the flashing signals mean.”
    This year, 40 percent of all traffic deaths have been in Yee’s district, he said.
    Fran Taylor, a senior who came to the committee hearing, said she feels a sense of contempt from passing drivers.
    “[Seniors] are regarded as large wingless pigeons that are supposed to flutter out of the way of the more important cars,” she said.
    With new data on the table, city departments will collaborate to develop a strategy and make specific improvements to San Francisco’s streets.
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/city-data-shows-vulnerability-senior-pedestrians/

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  4. Awe someSeptember 25, 2018 at 12:32 AM

    Elderly woman struck by flatbed truck dies in second SF traffic death this week
    By Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez on September 20, 2018 4:30 pm
    A 75-year-old woman struck by a flatbed truck in Bernal Heights has died, according to the Medical Examiner’s Office.
    Marlene Aron, a San Francisco resident, was struck by the flatbed truck on Cortland Avenue and Ellsworth Street, according to police, who also confirmed the driver remained at the scene to speak with investigators, the San Francisco Examiner previously reported.
    Aron’s death is the second traffic fatality in San Francisco this week. Earlier this month a cyclist was also killed in the South of Market neighborhood.
    Modesto Fergurdo, 61, was struck and killed by an alleged drunk driver Tuesday. Fergurdo was a panhandler who lived in SoMa for two decades, according to locals who knew him. On September 13 Russel Franklin, 56, was cycling across Howard and South Van Ness streets when he was struck and killed by a driver.
    Officials from the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency visited Howard and South Van Ness and redesigned it to make it easier for drivers and cyclists, or pedestrians, to see one another by removing a parking space near the crosswalk.
    Cathy DeLuca, policy and program director at advocacy group Walk SF, noted two of the deaths this month occured at a “high-injury corridor,” which The City has identified as 13 percent of citywide streets where 75 percent of severe and fatal traffic collisions take place.
    Essentially, they are The City’s most dangerous streets.
    “I think we have a crisis in neighborhoods like SoMa and the Tenderloin,” DeLuca said. “In the Tenderloin every street is a high injury corridor, SoMa is a high injury corridor. It’s not a surprise, this is predictable,” and until the streets are engineered to be safer, “this will continue.”
    DeLuca added, “It tells we’re not moving quickly enough.”
    SFMTA has 72 active pedestrian projects across The City, according to its project map website, which includes projects from the Bayview to Tenderloin neighborhoods, in Golden Gate Park and other portions of San Francisco. The agency is also working on 64 street engineer projects to improve bicycling in The City. San Francisco has a stated mandate called Vision Zero to reduce annual traffic fatalities to zero by 2024.
    San Francisco has seen 14 traffic fatalities this year through the end of August, according to the Vision Zero San Francisco monthly report, not counting the three other traffic deaths this month. The San Francisco Department of Public Health tracked three traffic fatalities so far this month, though that data is preliminary.
    By comparison there have been 36 homicide deaths in The City this year.
    Taylor Ahlgren, a San Francisco resident who counts himself as an avid cyclist, came upon Franklin’s collision last week and tried to save his life, as Franklin bled profusely from his head. This week at an SFMTA Board of Directors meeting, Ahlgren spoke to the directors at public comment, and through tears begged for more engineering treatments to make The City’s streets safer.
    http://www.sfexaminer.com/elderly-woman-struck-flatbed-truck-dies-second-sf-traffic-death-week/

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  5. Fix GuiderMarch 11, 2022 at 9:52 PM

    How to add Chinese keyboard to windows 10? Windows 10 Offers us to add one or multiple keyboards. If you want to type in Chinese, you should have to follow the procedure. Also, you will also understand why you’ve configured with the wrong keyboard and the wrong language and how to get rid of this problem. Normally you don’t need to change your windows language settings. But if you want to type in Chinese languages and want to type any Chinese letter or word, you must have to change the language settings. That’s why I am going to let you know how to add chinese input in windows 10.

    Here you’ll find two methods for windows 10 Chinese handwriting input. Following the way step by step, you’ll find it much easier to add any language keyboard. Also, I’ll give you some tips to avoid and solve the common problem related to language and keyboard. Before wrapping up the article, I’ll answer some common questions on adding the Chinese keyboard.

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