BCNA Safety Initiatives Produce Results

Crazy cars. Roaring motorcycles. Unsafe street crossings.

These are some of the challenges addressed this year by the Barbary Coast Neighborhood Association. And judging by the outcomes, the time and effort was well spent – more so when one considers these achievements took place during the pandemic.

“One of the missions of the BCNA is to maintain the quality of life in the neighborhood,” notes Diana Taylor, BCNA president. “That’s why we decided to take on a couple of problems that were eroding residents’ ability to enjoy living here.”

Taylor notes that “our success in all these initiatives reflects the cooperation and input from the San Francisco Police Department Central Station, led by Captain Julian Ng and the Port of San Francisco, as well as the SFMTA (thank you Mark Dreger and Casey Hildreth).”

The team working together on key issues included the SFPD Central Station, the Gateway Tenants Association Safety Committee, and the BCNA Safety Committee.

Resolving Threats to Barbary Coast Quality of Life

“The BCNA Safety Committee has done an outstanding job getting Central Station to pay more attention to quality-of-life issues along the Embarcadero and the northern waterfront,” says Alec Bash, chair of The Gateway Tenants Association’s safety committee.

As we entered 2021, two issues took on new urgency. One initiative was doing something about the increasing use of the parking lot at Pier 27 (the cruise ship pier) as the gathering point and location for disruptive automobile “sideshows.” Hordes of tricked-out cars were holding up traffic and creating unsafe conditions for other automobiles and pedestrians, especially on weekends.

An integral part of the Pier 27 problem was the noise and congestion created by hundreds of motorcyclists converging on the Embarcadero every weekend, tying up traffic and creating noise.

“A key goal for the BCNA Safety Committee was to reduce the number unmuffled, speeding vehicles along the Embarcadero,” says Rex Hesner, chair of the BCNA Safety Committee.

The other concern was the lack of pedestrian safety at some key street crossings in the Barbary Coast neighborhood, especially around Drumm, Jackson and Davis Streets.

Embarcadero Speeding and Noise

In July of this year, with the cooperation of the Port of San Francisco, SFPD Central Station officers erected more than 90 barricades along the vehicular entrance to Pier 27. Barring access to that parking lot stopped the late-night parties and community disruptions in the neighborhood. It has also curbed some of the weekend drag racing, reckless speeding and side-shows along the Embarcadero, since motorists and motorcyclists can no longer gather at the empty Pier 27 parking lot.

Deploying the Pier 27 barriers was a difficult task requiring inter-agency coordination. Captain Ng played a key role in bringing about this transformation.

In addition, Captain Ng now assigns two police officers on bicycles to patrol the Embarcadero, seven days a week, from Oracle Park to Fisherman’s Wharf. Residents report a sense of reassurance on seeing these officers in their neighborhoods. And a new remote scanning technology has been installed that may assist officers in making arrests for speeding along the Embarcadero.

Captain Ng says future plans include deploying a Stunt Driving Response Unit (SDRU) to focus on the Embarcadero, the Pier 27 parking lot and the Broadway Street to Embarcadero speedway that heats up on weekends and many weekday evenings.

Pedestrian Safety

BCNA continues to work closely with the San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (SFMTA) to implement pedestrian safety precautions at key street crossings.

Starting with a walkabout with representatives from the SFMTA in May, the BCNA pointed out areas in the neighborhood that needed attention. These include speeding traffic near Broadway and Davis; the lack of a stop sign in either direction at Drumm and Jackson (near the busy Gateway apartments and Bay Club); large potholes on Jackson near Davis, and the lack of adequate sidewalk pedestrian ramps.

Progress to date includes:

• The large pothole on the corner of Davis and Jackson Streets has been repaired.
• With increased reporting through the 311 City of San Francisco customer service number, the Davis and Jackson intersection received a makeover with a repainting of the “Stop” alert on the street pavement.
• Action on one of two proposals to the SFMTA Traffic Calming Grant Program: Improve pedestrian safety at the corner of Jackson and Drumm Streets by adding new stop signs, new crosswalk pavement signage, and the addition of “daylighting” – a pedestrian safety measure that removes visual barriers within at least 10 feet of a crosswalk or intersection. Watch for these installations by March 2022.

Stay tuned:

• As soon as the Main Sewer repair is completed in the next couple of months, Jackson Street will be repaved.
• Next, we will see other traffic calming improvements along Davis Street such as speed bumps, more pedestrian crossings, as well as pedestrian and traffic improvements along the Embarcadero near Washington Street and Drumm Street (protected bike lane, bike traffic signals, side street improvements, pedestrian crossing stripes and rubber bumps).
• And finally, we will be back working with the SFMTA on finding solutions to calming the Broadway-to-Embarcadero “racetrack” as well as working with SFPD on controlling (and ticketing) those noisy, unmuffled cars and motorbikes along the Embarcadero. SFMTA has requested speed and volume data collection at key intersections along lower Broadway.