Posts Tagged ‘ped’
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
These were the final two I saw after just passing three others ALL walking/jogging west to get to Trader Joe’s. This is my personal best, after all those years.
Oh yeah, I know all about the history of jaywalking and about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Red Car and so forth. So what. How does that kind of stuff help us here? Answer: It doesn’t.
Moving on….
Click to expand
Here’s what I said about Trader Joes #100, a half-decade ago, on the old blog:
“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for all the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars. (Somebody is going to get hit one of these days.)”
Now that got a bit of attention from TJ’s Corporate. (I know because I saw the logs indicating such.)
So what the reaction? Nothing, basically.
Stuff like this is what the TJ’s people spent their time on instead, it would appear.
Now this is what occurred last year. Actually, it’s the one-year anniversary of the death of 25-year-old Suzanne Monaco.*
Did the San Francisco Planning Department plan things well? No, obviously.
Is the SFMTA doing anything about this particular block? No. They have plans to put a whole lot of useless trees and a useless median south of Geary but they don’t seem to care about where TJ’s parkers park and where they walk.
Yes these jaywalkers are illegally crossing the street and yes they are 100% responsible for their deaths when they get killed but what can be done to prevent future deaths right here in this one location?
I don’t know, a parking garage, an enforcement action, a ban on parking on the east side of Masonic on that particular block of Masonic, a traffic signal and crosswalk, opening up Emerson Alley to allow shopper parking on the roof, you know, just throwing things out there.
This situation is one giant FAIL for SFGov.
You should all be ashamed, SFGov.
Srsly.
Leaving you with one reaction, from Jessica Levin:
“I saw the flower memorial outside Trader Joe’s, and if that is the spot where she crossed, then she must have had a death wish. That’s a busy high speed corridor in both directions and she crossed near a blind crest. She didn’t deserve to die, but if anyone gets the blame, unfortunately it is the pedestrian. I parked across Masonic exactly once (and I did jaywalk to get back to my car) but I was careful to cross at the crest where I could see traffic coming from quite a distance, and even then I was extremely nervous. That was two years ago, and I have never done it again.”
*Was she really carrying “an armful of groceries” while heading “west” back to the store? Probably not.
Tags: 2012, 2013, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013
‘Cause by the time you hear about this opportunity from the MSM or a blog, it’ll be too late.
Now some people wanted to charge you for the chance to walk the bridge, but they ended up deciding to just require registration with no payment required.
C’mon, this thing is only two decades-plus late.
All the deets:
“We are excited to announce that registration for the Bay Bridge Walk will be FREE! Our next email will include more details on each event and registration dates.
Registration is required for all on-bridge activities and there will be limited capacity so sign up early!
Please tell your friends and family who wish to participate to visit baybridgecelebration.com and sign up for e-mail updates. You will be the first to hear when registration is open.
More details on the Bay Bridge Bike, Run & Walk coming soon!
-The Bay Bridge Celebration Team”
There’ll be plenty of space to roam:
See you there!
Tags: 2013, alcatraz, area, azkaban, Bay, bay bridge, Bay Bridge Celebration Team, bicycle, bicycles, bike, bikes, brdige to nowhere, bridge, CalTrans, celebration, coalition, cyclist, cyclists, eastern, email, free, holiday, labor, labor day, lanes, Oakland, open, path, ped, pedestrain, pedestrian, public, riders, San Francisco, september, sfbc, shadow of the thin man, span, thin man, treasure island, walking, weekend, western, yerba buena
Posted in cars | No Comments »
Tuesday, January 8th, 2013
You know, before somebody, some ped gets clobbered?
Click to expand
It will happen like this – a roadie traveling west, the downhill direction, will be “making time” or “flying” at 20-something MPH and s/he will clobber a pedestrian, perhaps Chris Bucchere-style.
So, I think wider would be better.
I mean, you wouldn’t want to narrow the thing, would you?
Tags: 2013, accident, baby, bay area, bicycle, bike, california, Chris Bucchere, collision, cyclist, fell, golden gate park, look ma, no hands, oak, panhandle, path, ped, pedestrian, San Francisco, stroller, wide, widened, widening, wider, Wilderness Trail
Posted in bikes | 1 Comment »
Monday, December 3rd, 2012
It’s the sense of entitlement.
It’s the sense that anytime a pedestrian gets hit, it’s not the pedestrian’s fault.
Do peds have the right to cross Market Street whenever they want?
Apparently:
Click to expand
Hey SFPD, how about issuing 100 or so jaywalking tickets each day on Market?
You know, for their own good?
Tags: 2012, bay area, bikes, california, cars, citation, cops, deaths, failure, green, illegal, jaywalking, light, officer, ped, pedestrian, red, San Francisco, SFPD, ticket, yeild
Posted in crime | 4 Comments »
Wednesday, November 28th, 2012
The problem with the Prius drivers is that they feel entitled to do what they want when they want PLUS they generally do their outrageous acts slowly.
As here, on Kearny. The actions of a pushy Ferrari confused this Prius driver, who entered the intersection about a second after his/her light went red. The driver then proceeded across the street s-l-o-w-l-y only to chirp the brakes in a panic stop in the middle of the crosswalk on the far side of the intersection:
Click to expand
Later on, the driver just sat there with the brake lights off, which I don’t get either.
Prius drivers, you aren’t a part of the solution, you’re a part of the problem.
Take the HOV stickers off the corners of your ride and try to pay attention to the road.
Perhaps you could crack your windows to be more in touch with your environment?
Perhaps you could carpool, you know, with other people, if you want to drive in the carpool lane?
Perhaps you could save radio listening and phone talking for the freeway?
Just asking.
In closing, Prius drivers are terrible.
Tags: 2012, bad, bay area, california, car, crosswalk, drivers, hybrid, Kearny, ped, pede3strians, prius, San Francisco, slow, slowly, toyota, violation
Posted in cars | 2 Comments »
Friday, September 7th, 2012
You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:
Click to expand
Bad pedestrian behavior on this block has led to the death of one TJ’s shopper this year so far.
The question is why do peds act this way at this particular location.
The other question is what can be done about this.
San Francisco: The City That DOESN’T Know How.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, bro, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 3 Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
I’ll tell you, the TJ’s underneath this rooftop parking lot is a beehive of activity.
So much so, that there are attendants to direct people on how and where to park in the tiny parking lot down below. And there’s almost always a line of cars blocking Masonic Street. So much so, the City and County decided to take out the parking / rush hour lane on southbound Masonic. But even so, a ton of shoppers park on northbound Masonic to make a dangerous journey across five lanes.
So that’s down below. But up on top there’s nothing going on. There’s a gate for people with passes. I think that City Car Share or ZipCar or somebody stores cars up there. But there also junked wrecks.
Like this. Camera left shows an old blue pickup what’s not in operating condition and in front of it is a Fred Sanford truck without its engine and in the background is a Miata* that someone’s been working on
Click to expand
Oh, and then randomly, there’s an SFBG news rack up there blocking the lanes, not that it matters because nobody seems to be using this lot all that much.
I think if TJ’s shoppers knew they could park up here, they’d do so. This rooftop would experience a, in the words of our time, Dramatic Transformation and become a Vibrant Crossroads and maybe TJ’s shoppers would kill themselves less.
But no, it’s just a ghost town up there now, arrested decay and whatnot.
Does San Francisco have too much democracy? What explains this situation?
And after you think about that, think about What Can Be Done Now to fix the results of poor planning from San Francisco’s (Poor) Planning Department.
*Is it missing some lights, like the parking / driving / turn signal lights? I’ll tell you, if you drove that rig on Geary Boulevard a few times, the SFPD of the Richmond District would catch you for sure.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, nimbys, nimbys fucking nimbys, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Planning Department, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, rooftop, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in paranormal | No Comments »
Tuesday, August 7th, 2012
My latest trip to the TJ’s lasted no longer than two shakes of a lamb’s tail. And yet, I saw a ton of people park on the south side of Masonic only to run or walk across the busy six-lane freeway substitute to get to the store on the north side.
Why do people do this? Well, because the line for parking can be twenty cars long. And also because shoppers can’t head north or east after driving out of the parking lot.
This would be no biggee normally, but the combination of the hill crest and the curves makes this a dangerous practice, as was foretold a while back.
Here’s how it works, it’s just like a game of Frogger excepting that you’re the frog.
The telltale bag:
Here’s another. (The fence is for the MUNI Yard at Masonic and Geary)
It seemed like one person was making this crossing every couple minutes when I was there.
Now, do the people at TJ’s #100 know about this?
Well, how could they not?
Now, do the people at TJ’s do anything about this?
I don’t know. Doesn’t appear that way.
All right, the girls are still shopping so let’s go up to the roof to see Dude (no that’s not his Mercedes, that some other jaywalker’s)…
…but oh no, this gal’s doing the same thing at the same time…
…and now back to Dude, wise choice, man…
…and let’s go back to the gal, she see’s an opening, she could go all the way:
I mean, this is ten seconds worth of action in four shots.
This is a target-rich environment.
So, why doesn’t Trader Joe’s have a proper parking lot, you know, one that has a chance of accommodating all the shoppers?
I don’t know.
Did the City and County expect cars to whither away by now, you know, “Peak Oil is coming in 2005″ so let’s get ready for that?
Did the rich white homeowners in the area go full NIMBY back when plans were originally being drawn up?
Did TJ’s actually have a plan for shoppers to park on the roof or in some underground parking garage?
I don’t know.
Who will be the next to die?
I don’t know.
Now let’s hear from Reader RMS: “I shop, as well as drive by hear almost on a daily basis–and it never ends. Cars hang u-turns, cross the double lines, pedestrians/shoppers run and sometimes slowly walk across to go to TJ’s without a thought. I actually drove by there at the time of the unfortunate death of that women. It’s exactly as you stated, the hill, the speed limit but people choose to take their chances because it’s more convenient than having to go into the parking lot or go the actual cross walk, they can’t be bothered–sad. Has Trader Joe’s made any comments or contributed any ideas on passing the message to their customers?”
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars, food and drink | 7 Comments »
Tuesday, July 17th, 2012
And then when you die, your mangled shopping cart or grocery bag (empty or full) will be evidence that you parked on the east side of Masonic in order to shop at the TJ’s* on the west side of Masonic.
Anyway, as you can see, there’s no place to hide.
30 MPH speed limit plus the curves plus the hill = dangerous:
Click to expand
Now, does SFGov care about this situation?
Not really.
Who’ll be the next TJ’s shopper to die?
*You know, Store #100, where former Mayor Gavin Newsom used to shop, wearing a suit(!), back when he was “in” “rehab,” sort of.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in streets | 2 Comments »
Friday, July 6th, 2012
You know, because of the Chris Bucchere thing.
Here it is, or a part of it, anyway:
“With huge numbers of people biking to work on a daily basis, it may be time to look into licensing commuter bicyclists so they must take the same DMV tests motorcyclists and motorists take to ensure that they know the laws. It also seems that offenders should face some of the same punishments motorcyclists and motorists face, like points against their license. And if they’re going to be commuters, thus increasing the chances of accidents on city streets, perhaps they should also have to carry insurance. I’m not advocating these measures for the person who bikes through Golden Gate Park recreationally, one or two Sundays a month; but for everyday commuters, I think it makes sense.”
Oh, hold on, this post will need a photo.
Type Marina District into the Google, and this is what you’ll get:
Hair lightened and teeth whitened – I’ll have to try that one of these days.
Now, where was I? Oh yes, uh, I seriously kind of don’t think you can require licensing and insurance for people who go to work on a bike and not for the people who go about solely in Golden Gate Park.
And points at the DMV, well, that would seem to penalize those with driver licenses more than those without, capiche?
And Davis, CA? Is that our lodestar now, law enforcement-wise, rich white Marina Lady?
OK fine:
Via Louise Macabitas
I drink your milkshake, Susan Dyer Reynolds!
I drink it up!
P.S.: I’m Brown Larry Bird/ You’re the ’97 Celtics
P.S.S.: Gentle Reader, don’t miss these riveting stories from the Great White North:
Tags: American, asian, bicyclist, bicyclists, bikes, bomb, ca, castro, chinese, Chris Bucchere, commuter, cop, cyclist, davis, dmv, felony, golden gate park, insurance, license, Licensing, manslughter, marina, Marina District, newspaper, ped, pedestrian, pepper, points, Rich White Lady, spray, strava, street, Susan Dyer Reynolds, Susan Reynolds, Sutchi Hui, times
Posted in bikes | 1 Comment »
