SFMTA Begins Re-Striping Masonic Traffic Lanes; Second Person Injured in Monday's Red-Light Running

Before: lanes on Masonic hardly discernible

After: Northbound travel lanes on Masonic

Re-striping from Fell to Turk

SFMTA crews started re-striping the badly faded traffic lanes of Masonic Avenue last Friday, beginning with the northbound side of the corridor. As of Tuesday morning, fresh thermoplasty stripes had been applied from Fell to Turk streets. Hopefully, this morning's showers will cause only a temporary delay on completing the work in both directions. Other traffic calming measures due to appear are stenciled 25 MPH advisories on the pavement and merge indicators.

Although the work was planned for several weeks, the Masonic striping occurs in the midst of renewed concern about the safety of the corridor. A 35-year-old woman was struck by a motorist running a red light on Masonic at Grove yesterday morning. She broke both legs and suffered internal and head injuries. The woman was jogging through the crosswalk with the right-of-way at the time of the collision. The motorist hit her and then continued through the intersection and collided with another vehicle. A second person was also injured and taken to the hospital. SFPD Park Station has announced that officers will focus their traffic enforcement operations along the Masonic corridor for the rest of April.

Jogger Hit by Red-Light Running Motorist on Masonic, SFPD To Resume Enforcement Tomorrow

Pedestrian injured this morning on Masonic. Photo: Matt Smith

A 35-year-old woman was struck and seriously injured this morning by a red-light running motorist traveling on Masonic at Grove. The motorist struck the woman and continued through the intersection colliding with other vehicles, according to Capt. Denis O'Leary of SFPD Park Station. Tomorrow morning SFPD will place officers along Masonic to enforce the 25 MPH speed limit and to cite motorists who fail to stop for red lights.

The woman was jogging and in the crosswalk at about 8:30 a.m. when she was struck by the motorist. Capt. O'Leary said her injuries were extensive. "She was taken to the hospital. She has two broken legs, head injuries, and internal injuries," he said. "She needs our thoughts and prayers."

The motorist stopped -- or was stopped as a result of the collision with other vehicles. No arrest and no citation resulted. O'Leary explained that California law does not permit officers to give citations unless they witness the incident. A "notice of violation" can be given but that action often follows a conference with the station sergeant. O'Leary said he would check into the status of such a citation. He stated that a Traffic Division officer, rather than one from Park Station, filed the police report.

First reported by Matt Smith of SFWeekly, the collision and injury is one of several that have occurred on Masonic. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has installed a number of traffic calming measures in the last nine months, but additional steps promised for early this spring have yet to be taken.* These include re-striping badly faded travel lanes and including directions for motorists to merge where the number of lanes on Masonic change, and painting 25 MPH on the street surfaces. Yet many observers and city planners agree that significant risk reduction will only result when Masonic is re-designed to better cue motorists to drive within the speed limit and when changes are made to increase safe travel for pedestrians and bicyclists as well.

As previously reported, a Masonic traffic calming plan -- dubbed the Boulevard -- is expected to go to a public hearing in May or soon thereafter. Today Javad Mirabdal, project director of the Masonic re-design study, confirmed that a hearing in May remains possible. "We don't have a date yet," he said, "but we're trying to bring it in May." Mirabdal presented the Boulevard plan to a Citizens Advisory Committee last week. He said they are taking the necessary steps moving toward the hearing and, hopefully, approval.

After hearing of this morning's collision and injury, Cheryl Brinkman, a member of SFMTA's Board of Directors, said she intended to do everything she can to support traffic calming on Masonic.

"It's heartbreaking to continue to have drivers disregard the safety of all other road users. Thank goodness the woman was not killed by that car driver and no one else was killed. I feel frustrated that some car drivers just don't seem to care."

For other articles in the A Better Masonic series, check here.

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* The SFMTA stated this afternoon that the striping work began last Friday and will require about a week to complete. The several wet days of March created a backlog in bike lane striping projects and pushed back the Masonic work.

Personal view: Striping bike lanes is a top priority and we celebrate each occasion, but the daily hazards along Masonic deserve priority.

Masonic Proposal Refined to Include New Parking; Interim Measures Await Clear Skies

Masonic residents and neighborhood associations support Masonic re-design

Extra-wide Turk looking west from Lyon intersection

Ample space for angled parking on Turk and a measure to discourage speeding

City planners have refined the Masonic Traffic Calming Project to include new angled, on-street parking along the north side of Turk Street east of Masonic. The changes come as part of an internal review at the Municipal Transportation Agency prior to submitting the proposal to a MTA hearing officer at a public hearing expected in May. Interim traffic calming measures – primarily re-striping cross walks and faded lanes and adding new 25 MPH

advisories on the roadway surface – are ready for implementation but have been delayed during this month’s wet weather.

Last year community members encouraged adding new parking to the Masonic proposal and suggested the north side of Turk east of Masonic between Central and Baker. These two blocks are especially wide and, along the north side, do not have curb cuts or driveways. In addition to mitigating the impact of parking removal on Masonic, back-in angled parking on Turk could calm traffic on a street that neighbors often complain is too dangerous for crossing. Angled parking would present drivers with less of the open freeway appearance that Turk now provides without actually reducing traffic lane width. Motorists backing up their vehicles would be another visual cue to other drivers to proceed with more caution.

Javad Mirabdal, the MTA Project Director for the Masonic re-design, said last week the proposal has been reviewed by two internal “task groups.” Part of that process is to determine whether the plan raises red flags among police, fire, and ambulance services over adequate access and travel during emergencies. Then another, larger group of 40-50 planners will review the plan before a public hearing is scheduled.

We’re moving forward to a public hearing. We’re shooting for it to be in May. We’ve done some fine-tuning and we’re working on the environmental clearance.

Mirabdal said he hopes there won’t be problems with the environmental clearance, and so far there haven't been. Other observers of the process explained that bicycle and pedestrian improvements as well as parking have been removed from environmental reviews required by the state. Basically, no definition or threshold for what it or isn’t acceptable in these areas exist, and thus the changes cannot be determined detrimental on an environmental basis.

If the many supporters of the Masonic proposal – especially those who live on or within a block of the corridor – testify at the public hearing, the hearing officer will likely feel confident about approving the plan, according to Mirabdal. He said he remained optimistic and hopeful for the project.

If we get this through, Masonic will be a good case for the city. It will show that we can redesign a street and get so much more from it.

For other articles in the A Better Masonic series, check here.

Majority Who Voted for Masonic Re-Design Live On or Within One Block, Data Indicate Immediate Residents Are Informed and Engaged in Planning

Image: SF Planning Department

The 109 respondents reside on both sides of Masonic with a majority within a block

Image: SF Planning Department

Only a handful of survey respondents live outside the Masonic area or beyond the Western Addition

A majority of respondents in a recent survey of preferences for a Masonic Avenue make-over will be directly affected by the traffic calming features in the proposal. During the September 30 Masonic community meeting, 109 individuals completed the survey that rated primary features of the Boulevard proposal and the less-ambitious Gateway option. The survey asked where respondents reside. Of the total, 62 -- or 57% -- of the neighbors indicated they either lived on Masonic or within one block of the busy corridor. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) released the findings yesterday.

The data are important because they dispel concerns from a few individuals that the people who live on Masonic were either uninformed of the meetings and the proposed changes --especially the removal of parking -- or that they don't support traffic calming changes to the street. (The city notified by mail -- with more than 1400 postcards -- every household on Masonic and those within one block of the street about the September 30 meeting when the survey was conducted). In addition, the residency data suggest what many who actually attended the three community meetings noted: there were far more nearby neighbors present than the handfuls of members from transit, pedestrian, or bicycle advocacy groups.

Those who took the survey live on both sides of Masonic. On the westside, the Ewing Terrace and the University Terrace neighborhoods are well-represented among survey respondents. Those to the east of Masonic in the North Panhandle and Anza Vista neighborhoods indicated more scattered residences, but all are close enough to experience the proposed changes for the Masonic corridor. University Terrace neighbors participated as well in a separate survey, using the same instrument, following the SFMTA September 30 meeting. They supported the Boulevard proposal with a hefty majority, 60 to 40%.

In the Masonic survey, over three-quarters (76%) either "strongly liked" or "somewhat liked" the Boulevard package with its landscaped median the length of Masonic, 200 street trees, a mini-park at Geary, new street lighting, bus bulb-outs, a separated bike lane, and full repaving of the roadway. City staff expect to complete a final report with recommendations by December 31st.

For previous articles in the A Better Masonic series, check here.