Our hearts go out to the family and friends of Amelie Le Moullac, 24, who was hit and killed while biking on Folsom Street this morning. The crash occurred at the intersection of Folsom and 6th streets, and involved a large truck.
Sadly, today is yet another tragic reminder of what can happen when bikes and large trucks mix on our city’s high-speed corridors. Already this year, three bike riders have been hit and killed on San Francisco streets. In each case, the crash involved a large truck.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is calling on the City to implement crucial safety measures to help prevent further tragedies like this one from happening.
First, we are pushing for the City to move forward on the long-overdue redesign of Folsom Street. Folsom Street is one of the city’s few designated bike routes to downtown — yet it is still an intimidating street, with no separation between bike riders and fast-moving traffic.
The City studied and recommended a redesign of Folsom Street years ago. Where is that plan now? Why is there still no progress? It’s time for the City to implement their safety redesign of Folsom, which will transform the high-speed on-way artery into a safer two-way design with physically-separated bikeways.
San Francisco is woefully behind other cities in adding separated bikeways on arterial streets, like Folsom. Separated bikeways on 9th Avenue in New York City have reduced injuries to all road users by 58%, and could do the same here. It’s time for the City of San Francisco to step up the pace on making our city’s designated bike routes safer for the huge and growing number of people biking.
We’re also calling on the City to introduce more comprehensive safety measures for the drivers of large vehicles on our streets. Trucks should be retrofitted with convex mirrors so drivers can more easily see vulnerable road users. And the City should require that large vehicle operators take safety courses in how to safely share city streets with people biking and walking.
The SF Bicycle Coalition already teaches bicycle safety classes to all new San Francisco taxi drivers, and we’ve reached out to companies who operate large trucks to teach their drivers as well. It is the responsibility of the City and these companies to help ensure the safety of our most vulnerable street users.
With more building and development planned for San Francisco, and subsequently more large trucks, it is imperative that safety measures are put in place to prevent further tragedies like this from happening.
Let the City know that you want separated bikeways on Folsom:
Send a tweet to @sfmta_muni and tell that that you want separated bikeways on #Folsom.
Post to SFMTA’s Facebook page and tell them that you want separated bikeways on Folsom.
