Out and about San Francisco

Last week I did something I don't do often. I signed on to an advocacy organization's letter to an official. Walk San Francisco has called out what is all too obvious as our city's shelter-in-place condition wanes: this was a calmer, safer place with 60 percent less traffic. That's not going to last forever, but it seems worthwhile to remember how much we liked it and encourage measures to make extra-vehicular travel as viable as possible.

Vehicle traffic is starting to rise as some restrictions are lifted. And traffic could ultimately far exceed previous levels as fewer people use public transportation, according to a recent Vanderbilt University study. Meanwhile more people than ever are walking and biking to get around, as well as to get exercise.

This means that without immediate action by the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, we will soon see a tragic surge in severe and fatal traffic crashes in San Francisco, especially among our most vulnerable. And the City’s Vision Zero goal [for ending pedestrian deaths and injuries] will slip out of sight.

Walking the city's streets is about to become even more fraught than it was before the lockdown. For a while now, I've usually worn a yellow vest when wandering about, hoping to make my pedestrian body more visible to drivers.

Walk San Francisco offers an extensive menu of traffic calming policies that could help.

Meanwhile, Chronicle columnist Heather Knight has come up with a fine idea based the experience of the last two months. Why not keep one lane of the Great Highway along the ocean closed and let it become a broad walkway for runners, skaters, cyclists, and the fellow I saw today practicing with his hockey puck?

... keep the southbound side by the beach the way it is. Call it the Great Walkway.

Meanwhile, I'm still Walking San Francisco -- friend Britta Shoot writes about two women currently crazy enough to be covering the whole city on foot at Hoodline.