Safety in West Portal Demands Urgency
Just over a month ago, an entire family was killed by a speeding driver in West Portal. With better designed streets in the neighborhood, this tragedy could have been avoided, and Diego Cardoso de Oliveira, Matilde Ramos Pinto, and their children, Joaquim and Cauê, would still be with us today.
It doesn’t take a committee to determine that we need to bring order and simplicity to a chaotic intersection and key transit hub. KidSafe SF urges Mayor Breed to immediately direct SFMTA to implement the West Portal Station Safety and Community Space Improvements Plan.
The intersection at West Portal Station has been problematic for decades. Every day, thousands of people walk through the station area to catch trains, go to the nearby elementary school, visit the adjacent park and library, and shop at beloved small businesses on West Portal Avenue. These individuals are regularly put in harm’s way by the many vehicles forced to navigate a chaotic intersection.
The West Portal Station Safety and Community Space Improvements Plan will make transit service faster and more reliable for 50,000 daily riders. With fewer cars making turns, pedestrians crossing the street will be safer. The simplified traffic flow from Lenox Way and increased pedestrian space will provide safer crossings from the Muni station to the library and local businesses. These measures are urgently needed, and we are disappointed at the prospect they could be delayed or watered down by a committee.
5 Ways to Strengthen the West Portal Plan
The plan as proposed will achieve the goals of making the station area safer and smoothing travel times for Muni trains. We also propose several ways that the West Portal Station Safety and Community Space Improvements Plan can be strengthened in future phases.
KidSafe SF recommends that SFMTA:
Protect the immediate West Portal station area ASAP. Implement the West Portal Station Safety and Community Space Improvements Plan without delay—install the bollards, create the pedestrian plaza, make Lenox one-way, and prohibit private vehicle turns in front of West Portal Station. Installation should begin in June with careful construction phasing to minimize driver and pedestrian confusion during implementation.
Propose and install a set of traffic calming improvements for the entire neighborhood. West Portal residents have been requesting traffic calming for years. Collect traffic counts and speed measurements at key locations, including Ulloa and Wawona and the intersection of Wawona and Vicente, and use the data to recommend traffic safety treatments to address the community’s safety concerns. Daylight all eligible intersections in West Portal by removing parking spaces within 20ft of the intersection to improve crosswalk visibility.
Use concrete to prevent lethal speeding and dangerous driving behaviors. These measures are a great first step, but we need more infrastructure to ensure that drivers are physically prevented from reaching lethal speeds on our streets. Precast concrete should be used to stop illegal driving behavior and turns, and physical separation should be added to the trackway on West Portal Ave to ensure compliance with the transit-only lanes and turn restrictions. The agency should also develop a plan to address double parking on West Portal Ave with additional loading zones for commercial and private vehicles.
Build a better West Portal. Pedestrian safety and business vitality aren’t at odds with each other. Across the city and Bay Area, streets with more space for people and community are successfully enticing customers with experiences and atmosphere that online shopping and food delivery apps can never match. Once these immediate safety improvements are in place, city agencies should work with the community to design a West Portal plaza that not only prevents more lives from being lost, but brings more public space, greenery, and joy to the neighborhood.
Evaluate the effectiveness of the plan. In 6-12 months, come back to the SFMTA Board and the neighborhood to let us know if these interventions are working. SFMTA should be prepared to adjust the design to address new issues that arise.
Traffic Calming for All of West Portal
We are disappointed in Supervisor Melgar’s call for a delay in the project and for a committee to propose alternative safety improvements. In our experience, delays and committees rarely result in the bold action required by Vision Zero.
That said, we acknowledge that many neighbors have raised concerns about traffic safety in the neighborhood, including:
Speeding on neighborhood streets approaching the corridor (i.e. eastbound traffic on Ulloa)
Additional traffic diverted to already confusing intersections with dangerous vehicle behavior (i.e. Wawona, Vicente and Madrone)
These concerns should be addressed without delay to the initial project. Concerns about the impact of the plan on additional intersections and streets in the neighborhood should be addressed with traffic calming and design improvements at those locations–not by shelving or delaying a good plan to improve safety at the West Portal Station area.
Stopping Gratuitous Speeding
Finally, we recognize that while the city can redesign our streets, there is an opportunity for the state to act. We urge SFMTA and the Mayor’s office to continue advocating for state legislation to curb gratuitous speeding. Technology like intelligent speed assistance, which the state legislature can approve as part of SB961, can prevent people from driving at dangerous speeds and complement local efforts to design safe streets. We call on state legislators and Governor Newsom to support Sen. Wiener’s SB 961 to implement intelligent speed assistance in California.
Redesigning our roads to discourage and prevent reckless driving behaviors is the most important step the city can take to prevent future tragedies. The city has a responsibility to build a better, safer station area in front of West Portal. It also must address the concerns about speeding and traffic safety throughout the West Portal neighborhood. And, the state legislature must do its part to prevent drivers from traveling 30+ mph over the speed limit in the first place.
KidSafe SF applauds Mayor Breed and Supervisor Melgar for calling on the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency to protect pedestrians at an important transit hub and small business corridor, and urges the agency to move forward with its plans without delay.
Support the West Portal Station Safety and Community Space Improvements Plan by writing a letter to city leaders calling on them to move faster to make West Portal safe for everyone.
