Pedestrian Safety Tips For San Francisco’s Dangerous Streets

San Francisco’s Streets Require Extra Vigilance To Prevent Pedestrian Accidents

San Francisco is simultaneously one of the best and worst cities in the United States for pedestrians. While it consistently ranks high on walkability lists, the city also reports some of the most troubling statistics for pedestrian accidents. Far too many pedestrians have been injured or killed while trying to cross the street in San Francisco.

In my 24 years as a San Francisco personal injury attorney, I have had clients who have suffered catastrophic injuries, and in some cases death as a result of pedestrian accidents on the city’s streets.

How can residents and visitors keep themselves and their fellow pedestrians safe? Knowing and implementing some of the best pedestrian safety practices is one way to improve your chances of a safe walk in our city.

San Francisco’s Pedestrian Injuries and Fatalities

In the span of just seven years, from 2014 to 2021, San Francisco had 200 fatal pedestrian accidents and 20,000 pedestrian injuries. That is more pedestrians injured per capita than in most metropolitan areas in the country, including New York City. In 2022 alone, there were 37 pedestrian fatalities in San Francisco. In May 2022, three pedestrians lost their lives in two crashes over the course of two days. There were three fatal accidents before the end of January 2023.

While this problem can be seen city-wide, pedestrian accidents occur more frequently in some intersections and on certain streets. In a study conducted by WalkFirst, a San Francisco initiative to create processes to improve pedestrian safety and experiences, it was found that just 6% of the city’s streets were responsible for 60% of pedestrian accidents.

Cities across the country partnered with Vision Zero in 2014 to track, analyze, and improve pedestrian safety. San Francisco’s Vision Zero program tracked especially dangerous streets and intersections on the High Injury Network and found that over half of all the pedestrian deaths in the city occurred on these hazardous roads. Intersections like Fifth and Market Street, which has long been synonymous with pedestrian accidents, see more collisions that lead to injury and death, but why? What makes certain streets or intersections less safe than others?

Why Some San Francisco Streets are More Dangerous for Pedestrians

Any major metropolitan or highly populated area is statistically likely to have higher rates of most things, including collisions. More people mean more opportunities for accidents. Additionally, San Francisco’s popularity extends beyond its residents and potential residents; tourism is also a major factor in the number of pedestrians traveling on the sidewalks on any given day.

Aside from the number of people who populate a given area, there are other demographic and statistical factors that affect pedestrian safety. Approximately 59% of pedestrian deaths happened in one of San Francisco’s Equity Priority Communities. These neighborhoods have been identified as historically underserved, and people living in these areas often lack access to transportation. Not only that, but city development in these neighborhoods is not as robust as in other areas. The correlation between residents of these communities and pedestrian accidents is clear.

Vision Zero’s efforts within San Francisco attempt to address this disparity. Centering equity is a core principle of the Visio Zero platform. It prioritizes investment and improvements in the neighborhoods most disproportionately affected by traffic and pedestrian accidents.

Pedestrians are vulnerable on roads throughout San Francisco. Any number of hazards or unsafe conditions can lead to an accident, but the most common factors in collisions are often speeding, running a red light, and crossing the street outside of a crosswalk. Knowing the most frequent causes of accidents can be helpful in preventing accidents, but keeping the sidewalks and streets safe for pedestrians requires more than that. It takes daily effort from pedestrians and motorists to reach zero pedestrian accidents.

Best Pedestrian Safety Practices in 2023

The systemic and budgetary issues that create many of the conditions leading to unsafe pedestrian environments can only be addressed by lawmakers and other people within that sphere of influence and power. There are many actions that cities and government officials could take to improve the safety of San Francisco’s streets, including:

• Educating the public on the seriousness of pedestrian accidents
• Enforcing or creating new traffic laws to cut back on speeding
• Engineering improvements like wider sidewalks and more streetlamps for improved visibility at night

Policymakers can implement new traffic laws and work on city infrastructure, but what can you do on a personal level to keep yourself safe? Is it possible to implement a few pedestrian safety practices into your daily life to protect yourself? The answer is a resounding YES.

The National Safety Council suggests always walking on the sidewalks instead of the street and crossing only at designated crosswalks. You can also:

• Look both ways multiple times before crossing the street
• Cross the street only at designated pedestrian crosswalks
• Obey all traffic signs and signals
• Do not use distracting cell phones, headphones, or electronic devices while walking
• Do not listen to music, talk, or text while walking
• Wear bright highly visible colors or reflective clothing, not dark clothes
• Use a flashlight at night to increase your visibility as a pedestrian
• Make eye contact with drivers to ensure they see you before crossing

Following these best pedestrian safety practices and being vigilant and staying alert is likely the most important pedestrian safety practice. This also means walking while intoxicated can often be dangerous. Drugs and alcohol can slow reaction time and interfere with decision-making, so avoid any impairing substances when walking in San Francisco.

It is also advisable to avoid using your cell phone or other electronic devices while walking. Distracted driving is one of the leading causes of accidents, and distracted walking can also lead to numerous dangers. Using your cell phone for any purpose including listening to music while you travel on foot in one of the most accident-prone cities in America is not a good idea. Keep your eyes and attention on the sidewalk, road, other pedestrians, and motorists at all times.

While many pedestrian accidents are caused by inattentive or negligent drivers, pedestrian safety is something everyone should be actively engaged in trying to prevent. Some accidents are unavoidable, but you should still ensure you follow all the laws of the road and pay close attention to your surroundings to give yourself the best chance of avoiding a pedestrian accident.

We offer California Pedestrian Accident Victims a Free Consultation, and there are No Attorney’s Fees Unless We Recover

At The Hassell Law Group, our legal team are experts in personal injury law with over 100 years of combined legal experience, and experience matters. We stand up to aggressive insurance companies and have a history of obtaining award-winning results for our clients. We fight every step of the way to achieve the best possible outcome for our injured clients. We work on a contingency fee basis, which means there is no risk in hiring our law firm. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation and case evaluation. We welcome your questions, and our legal team looks forward to helping you obtain just and proper compensation for your personal injury claim.

The general information provided on this website should not be considered legal advice and does not constitute legal advice. For legal advice, you should consult directly with an attorney. If you contact us by telephone, email, letter, or by contact form submission through this website, please note that such communication does not create or constitute an attorney-client relationship. We cannot act as your attorney until we are hired as your attorney by a formal written agreement.