Street safety advocates install traffic signs, later removed by San Francisco crews
SAN FRANCISCO - A group of safety advocates are on a mission to make the streets of San Francisco safer for pedestrians and bicyclists.
Several blocks worth of streets are marked with green bike route signs on the pavement, where both cars and bicycles share the road, zig-zagging across the map for a mile from Mission to Haight.
The bike route is known as the Wiggle, which runs right through Mark Scheuer’s neighborhood.
"Any time you have cars and people and bikes, you know, it’s a dangerous formula," Scheuer said.
Fed up with what they feel are dangerous streets, members of a safety advocacy group called Safe Street Rebel took matters into their own hands.
The group drilled very official-looking signs into the median, for one block along Steiner Street on Tuesday, without city approval.
The signs, which include a San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) logo, warned drivers to yield to pedestrians and bikes.
"I loved them," Corbin Murarl told KTVU. "I live here and there’s this big speed bump right here, and you hear cars scraping over it all the time, and the last couple of days it was quiet."
But by Thursday, the city removed the signs.
Now worried about legal ramifications, members of the group did not want to reveal their names or faces on camera.
"We really feel like SFMTA needs to step up and just really drastically improve street safety."
Neighbors have seen their fair share of accidents along the Wiggle.
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"It’s a horrific, extremely dangerous intersection," Doug Thorogood said, referring to Steiner Street and Deboce Avenue. "One of our neighbors that happens to live across the street from the park was hit in his wheelchair."
Safe Street Rebels also claimed responsibility for creating their own fire lanes this week by painting the curbs red along Steiner Street and even including a city logo.
"This is still not a safe route. It still prioritizes cars, and with just some small improvements, it could be safer for everyone," an anonymous organizer said.
SFMTA told KTVU in an email: "While we appreciate calls for safe streets and are doubling down on our own efforts to create safe conditions for people walking and biking, our efforts are guided by engineering best practices and carry out thorough review of feasibility and effectiveness for new or proposed roadway designs."
The city started planning the Wiggle in 2013, to make it safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and to reduce traffic congestion.
Members of Safe Street Revel have a list of demands, including the return of the yield signs, which they say worked and led drivers to slow down.
The signs in the median also made it harder for drivers to pass cyclists.