New Short Film Chronicles Pedestrian Fears in Rincon Hill…

Pedestrian safety is a very serious issue here in South of Market. It’s a ‘hot topic’ in Political Forums, yet it’s an issue that never seems to move towards resolve.

We have multiple traffic estuaries throughout the neighborhood, dumping cars, trucks, buses and anything else with wheels onto our streets, and many of the drivers are not only distracted by technology, but confused by the lines drawn on the road. 

If you don’t believe me, spend 15 minutes during rush hour at the traffic lights at any of the on/off ramps from Route 80 and watch how many accidents you almost see. Many of these accidents involve cars running lights, going straight in a turn only lane, or frantically avoiding an object (or person) in the road at the last minute.

The Unofficial Mayor of Rincon Hill (and friend of LiveSOMA), Jamie Whitaker, has spent months spreading the pedestrian gospel from his soapbox soap-hill; telling anyone who will listen about the problems along the ramps to/from the Bay Bridge. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of lip service about the issue of pedestrian safety. Lots of “we need to do something about it” and not enough “something has been done.”

Thank God for Youtube, where you don’t need a soapbox outside of City Hall, just a video camera and a basic editing program. Jamie has posted numerous videos of pedestrian near-miss and safety issues along Rincon Hill. Most recently, he posted this faux-trailer for a comedy of errors by the SFMTA.

I thought this was funny, yet sad in a sense because there’s a feeling of helplessness on the pedestrian safety Issue in South of Market. But hopefully it will inspire our local politicians to take action.

While it has humorous undertones, this really is a serious issue. I see accidents almost every day in this neighborhood, and perhaps we should all let our Supervisor know that we need to do something about it. (You can email Jane Kim right here.)