Crossing the street while walking is a daily occurrence for many who live in San Francisco. For
some residents in the Richmond District though, crossing the street can seem like a life and death
decision.
Angela Pon is a resident of the Richmond District who also works as an ombudsman in the area.
“I feel like it should be a stressful event when I’m trying to cross the street,” said Pon who lives on
California Street between Seventh and Eighth Avenue. “I shouldn’t feel like I’m taking my life in my
hands when I’m trying to cross the street.”
Pedestrian safety means that “people of all ages are able to walk wherever they’re going without fearing
for their lives” for Marta Lindsey, the communications manager at Walk San Francisco.
Walk San Francisco is a pedestrian safety advocacy group that believes the “streets and sidewalks should
be safe and welcoming for all.”
Pon lives in an area that has been identified by Vision Zero SF as being a “high injury” area of San
Francisco.
Vision Zero is San Francisco’s “road safety policy” that was adopted in 2014 and according to its website,
its goal is to “build better and safer streets, educate the public on traffic safety and adopt policy changes
to save lives.”
Vision Zero SF’s website said that it uses data provided by the San Francisco Chief Medical Examiner’s
Motor Vehicle Death Report and the San Francisco Police Department Report on Fatal Traffic Collisions
to create its fatality reporting map.
According to the Vision Zero Fatality Reporting Map, there have been four fatalities in the Richmond
District involving people who were walking along “high injury” areas since 2015 and two fatalities that
occurred in areas that are not considered “high injury.” Five of the six fatalities in the Richmond District
involved pedestrians 60 years or older.
“In a few months, I’m going to be 70. I’m not looking forward to the day that I’m not able to walk
without feeling safe,” said Pon.
Pon said she believes that the older people are at risk because they walk with canes and walk slowly.
“They say they don’t have enough time to cross the street,” said Winston Parsons.
Parsons works as a Community Engagement Specialist at the Richmond Senior Center and said that
seniors would like to see “a reduced crossing distance.”
“California is double lanes in both directions, it’s rather like Geary Boulevard,” said Pon.
“I think a stop sign would be good here. Flashing lights would be effective. Seventh Avenue has nothing.
There is a light on Sixth and a light on Eighth, but Seventh Avenue has nothing. No stop signs or
anything,” said Pon.
“Our biggest challenge is that most of our roads have been designed to move vehicles and move them
quickly. That simply doesn’t work in a city like San Francisco where millions of people walk,” said
Lindsey.
According to the 2017 High Injury Network maps, provided by Vision Zero SF, California Street starting
from Second Avenue and running all the way through 18th Avenue is a “high injury” area.
George Peabody Elementary sits in the middle of this high injury area, and according its principal Willem
Vroegh, student safety while walking is a concern of the school. According to Vroegh, 8 a.m. to 9 a.m.
and dusk and nighttime seem to be more dangerous than any other times for pedestrians.
George Peabody Elementary School is one of six San Francisco Unified School District public elementary
schools that serve the Richmond District and it is located at the center of Sixth and Seventh Avenue with
California Street being a major thoroughfare that runs to the north of the school.
Nicole Wolfe, the Parent Teacher Association president at George Peabody Elementary School said that
while there is recognition about the problem “it doesn’t seem like any specific action is being taken.”
“There is no crossing guard at Sixth Avenue,” said Wolfe.
“We’re in our fifth year and it only seems to be getting worse. At least tell us that something concrete is
going to happen,” said Pon.
According to Angelina Yu, a legislative aide at the office of District 1 supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer, the
city “wants people to be comfortable with the different types of infrastructure” that the city will be
employing to help with pedestrian safety and that they will be implementing changes with the SFPD
during the summer.
“A lot of stuff is coming incrementally this year. The Central Richmond plan is going to be legislated at
the end of this month and there will be visible changes at the end of this year,” said Yu.
According to its website, Central Richmond Traffic Project is a project aimed at “improving conditions”
for those who walk and bike in the Central Richmond neighborhood.
“I think people being absent-minded and in too much of a hurry is the problem. Pedestrians who are
plugged into devices or on their phones in anyway– they dash out into the intersections without
looking,” said Ariana Estoque, Director of Adolescent and Adult Education at Congregation Emanu-El
San Francisco, which is located at the corner of Lake Street and Arguello Boulevard.
Arguello Boluevard is another area that has been identified by Vision Zero SF as being “high injury.”
“Yes, we have a very tricky intersection at the corner of our building and I have personally witnessed
three people be hit by cars over the years. I’ve also witnessed, too many times to count, people running
stop signs and red lights,” said Estoque.
“We have to change street designs, especially on streets you see in the Tenderloin, SOMA and
downtown that have multiple, wide lanes on one-way streets,” said Lindsey.
Lindsey also said that the city needs to fix these streets so that people who are walking and biking are
visible and protected and design the streets so that drivers slow down and drive more cautiously by
designing them to ensure that pedestrians are as visible and as protected as possible; and by enforcing
safe speeds and driving behavior and by reducing the number of vehicles on the streets.
Parsons said that some changes have been made in the Richmond District to help with pedestrian
safety. These changes include daylighting and prohibiting left turns in areas. According to Parsons,
daylighting is when corners of streets are painted red to stop cars from parking and blocking the view of
drivers and pedestrians.
“It takes a couple of seconds to change your life,” said Pon

Article originally written in 2019