OT: Fwd: Near misses in Park District!

[Ken MacInnis]

Trying a new tack.

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Ken MacInnis <ken.ma...@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 11:33 AM
Subject: Near misses in Park District!
To: Sanford, John (POL) <john.s...@sfgov.org>
Cc: Suhr, Greg (POL) <greg...@sfgov.org>, Wiener, Scott <Scott....@sfgov.org>, mayore...@sfgov.org <mayore...@sfgov.org>, <Breed...@sfgov.org>

Captain Sanford,

I am writing to let you know of a multitude of near-misses that occurred today involving myself and automobiles! I have taken an interest in your opinion-driven enforcement strategy and I am contributing my observations for your incorporation:

Just this morning, while walking into Downey street to get around an automobile parked wholly across a driveway, sidewalk, and parking lane, I was nearly hit by another automobile! Can you imagine if it would have been a bicycle that was similarly wantonly driving too fast down a one-lane roadway and nearly missed me? I'd have stories to tell for years!

Once I arrived at Twin Peaks and Clayton, I was again NEARLY hit by an automobile making a right turn on red from 17th to Clayton northbound. Even though I had the right of way as a pedestrian, the driver clearly felt he had the right to floor it in front of me because why should he wait for me to legally cross? Again, imagine if it was a 20lb bicycle at 5mph uphill and not a 4000lb automobile with unlimited power.. disaster truly would have been at hand in THAT case.

Upon summiting Clarendon, yet another near miss occurred as the young lady on her cell phone eating a pastry failed to stop (or even look for pedestrians) short of the setback line coming from the UCSF campus drive. Good thing that I anticipated this and waited for her to glance my way once passing my intended crosswalk, without even a hint of recognition; but moreover, an even better thing is that she was not pedaling a bicycle!

Taking the protected path from the summit down to Parnassus afforded me a respite of interaction with the absurdly-unskilled motorists of San Francisco, but once on Parnassus, I was NEARLY squished to death when a young woman decided to back up (?!) from the one-way entrance to the parking garage, while another car waited behind her and I crossed legally between them. Although it would take skill to maneuver a bicycle into such an awkward and illegal maneuver, I shudder to think about what could have happened if a cyclist had reversed course so close to my personal space.

I should also recount the taxi driver barely stopping short of the setback line at the top of Hill Point after driving 30-40mph up the extreme grade. His gracious and enthusiastic encouragement was duly noted, though I couldn't quite make out the words - something about ducks and ewes.

I crossed Irving without incident, thankful no bicycles (or N trains nor motor vehicles) were pedaling at 40mph and disregarding the crosswalk at 5th Ave - for once. My excitement was short lived as I was yelled at for crossing Lincoln by the car turning left from 5th Ave since he seemed to feel waiting ten seconds for a pedestrian was beneath him. Journeying into the park, I timed my movement carefully between the cars rolling the stop sign at MLK and the path due north from 5th Ave. Maybe you remember Super Mario Brothers, diving in between the ropes of fires and falling bricks? Kind of like that. Again, no cyclists to be found to my port OR starboard. (Remind me again why we allow through traffic at 25mph posted/40mph+ actual in GGP?).

Coming up Page from Stanyan, my wit was shaken to the core by an approaching cyclist clad entirely in lycra. As I lied cowering on the ground at his impending approach and wave of destruction, I noted that he stopped at the stop sign, taking his natural turn in the four-way stop progression. I was under the impression, from anecdotal tales spake from passers-by, that these velocipedes were not capable of such "stopping," and verily, none of their captains would yield except to the mightiest of garbage trucks using deadly force to effect such a thing.

Now that it was my turn to cross the street, I began to do just that, looking left once again and realizing that there was a car soutbound I hadn't noticed before, and it was moving! I was dead ahead and sure to be run down. How does he survive to type this email, you are surely asking yourself? To my extreme pleasure, the motorist's failure to use her indicators served to conceal her true course of "turning left," thus removing me from harm's way. I am sure she was on her way to Autozone to replace her failed indicator bulb, and in a hurry given the hazardous nature of her car's current state.

I am nearly home, but fear not, my tale of near misses doesn't end yet! Continuing through Waller and Ashbury, a northbound automobile NEARLY hit me as he rolled the stop sign at the bottom of the hill as per the usual mode of operation there (and the four square block radius around it). I know it is difficult to depress the hydraulically-assisted brake pedal all the way to the floor when traveling downhill, or perhaps his model didn't come with brakes capable of stopping the car fully, so I paid him no mind and continued on, squeezing my way between cars arranged in no particularly DMV-approved manner.

All of this occurred in merely a four mile journey. I encountered zero problems with bicycles, yet at nearly each intersection or crosswalk, an automobile was distracted/aggressive/disregarding of the law in a way that required me, as a pedestrian, to take immediate action, and which displayed a complete disregard for any negative outcomes of their actions. In fact, the only cyclists I encountered were tourists on Blazing Saddles bikes - a slight annoyance themselves, or an awesome visitor to our fair city, depending on your take - trying to navigate the incredibly odd arrangement of parking and jaywalking in GGP.

An aside: why post "NO PARKING" zones to the right of the parking lane on JFK if violators aren't ticketed? I've never once seen a citation on cars parked all the way into this marked NO PARKING zone, as if it was there to usher their egress directly into the bicycle lane.

I look forward to your incorporating my compiled anecdotes about my frightening experiences into your traffic enforcement strategy.

Ken

 

[Lina Mårtensson]

This is fucking brilliant! 

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[John Murphy]

Dear Sir -

 

As you know, we cannot act upon complaints like this. If a cop - preferably me - didn't see it, it didn't happen.

[Kurt Wallace Martin]

Love it!!!!!!!

[Patrick Kitto]

As enjoyable as that was to read, based on my experience my with bureaucrats and politicians,I guess that not a single one of your recipients will read passed the first two sentences.

Effective email/letter writing campaign around here needs to consist of a single sentence (or two) stating your issue/intent/complaint, followed by be short examples using fact and danger/issue.And most off all, use simple language.

Then similar letters need to be sent in my multiple people.

or show up at a public meeting and rant. That is what seems to get action in this city.

-P

[Dave Blizard]

Dear SF

Thanks,

[Ken MacInnis]

Oh, I totally agree, Patrick. I already sent the short, concise email with facts and data, and it got the same
form response others got. This was as much to relieve my sense of absurdity at their approach.

I didn't even touch on 80% of the stuff I saw during my run, either..

[Darrin Ward]

i think the root of the problem is that our city and state for that matter bases its policies around whoever complains the loudest.   it is not specific to traffic enforcement.  in sf, entire building projects can be delayed for years just by one person who doesn't like it which is fucking ridiculous.  see discretionary review.

its not reasonable or rational that we base city planning on consensus.  it just doesn't work.

but you know that is the system that we have.  

so, i encourage everyone on the sf2g list that if you care about biking, speak up and let your voices be heard.  

if someone nearly hits you on the road, email the police department and let them know.  take the time out from your day and speak up.  esp if you have trouble in the park station district.  i want the captain to be so overwhelmed with email that he has nothing else better to do than email form letter to folks on his silly blackberry issued by sf.

[John Murphy]

Or you need to get real PR. At some point we should have an AM critical mass that completely shuts down everything around the Caltrain station to protest the ridiculous conditions on Townsend. And by shutting down I mean the entrance to 280. The TV will show up, and then we'd have to hope that they actually listen to the point that across the tracks from 280 there is a complete shit show affecting thousands of people daily.

[Christine Ryan]

Seems like a good moment for this video, which just landed in my inbox (well, via Next Draft):

http://kottke.org/15/07/biker-lifts-parked-car-out-of-bike-lane

[Darrin Ward]

if only everyone was forced to buy a yugo, then maybe they would realize a bike was a much better option than a poorly made car made by a no longer existent communist country.

though the curb weight of a yugo is only 1800 lbs (like 60% of a normal car), that is still quite impressive.

[Lina Mårtensson]

On Tue, Jul 28, 2015 at 1:38 PM, Darrin Ward <dmw...@gmail.com> wrote:

if only everyone was forced to buy a yugo

 this is an excellent movie.

[Marcelo Vanzin]

Not a Yugo, rather it's Fiat Uno. But what you said applies the same way, aside from the communist thing.

[Faye]

OMG, completely awesome!