Danger rises on S.F. streets

San Francisco’s streets have never been more dangerous for pedestrians. Last year’s toll of walkers killed by drivers was the highest in six years, and the past two-week increase suggests the number could head higher in 2014.

But can anything be done in a city with crowded streets, a population headed toward 1 million, and high-speed driving habits? The answer should be yes. It won’t be easy, in a city where private vehicles compete with trucks, buses and cabs, not to mention bicycles now expanding their turf. Also, pedestrians who jaywalk or walk against traffic signals are taking needless risks.

But San Francisco can’t tolerate the status quo. Police ranks, down 300 officers from the force’s authorized size of 1,971, are slowly rebuilding, Chief Greg Suhr says rookies will learn their job partly by writing more tickets. Also, the motorcycle division will grow by 10 percent, ready to pull over more speeders and concentrate on accident-prone spots.

The streets themselves invite danger. Suggestions pushed by Supervisors Scott Wiener and Jane Kim call for wider sidewalk bulbs at street corners. These will shorten the distance across streets, give drivers better sightlines and slow rolling right hand turns that clip walkers. City officials need to follow through with faster approvals for these improvements.

Public behavior should be part of the equation, too.

Pedestrians need to do more than look both ways. They need to resist the urge to dart across the street when traffic looks slow or take off against a countdown light when only a few seconds remain.

But the statistics still show that drivers, not those on foot, are mostly to blame. According to the advocacy group Walk San Francisco, half of the traffic fatalities in the city are pedestrians, four times the national average.

It’s time San Francisco got serious about a deadly problem on its streets.