This is the most dangerous intersection in San Francisco for pedestrians

Last month, data firm 1Point21 Interactive compiled a map of SF car accidents involving pedestrians since 2010, a period that covers 5,846 pedestrian incidents (130 of them fatal) according to past SFMTA collision reports.

The numbers reveal grim news about the streets of San Francisco:

• Market and Fifth Street has more pedestrian collisions than any other SF intersection. Between 2010 and 2016 that corner had 38 pedestrian accidents. Not only did this one intersection have the highest number of incidents, it also topped the list of those that resulted in “visible injury” at 23. Compare that to second place Seventh and Market, which had 10. Market and Fifth did at least manage to avoid any fatal accidents during the period, however. Van Ness and Grove was the top spot citywide for fatalities, with two.
• Other blocks on Market are a mess too. Five of the top six spots on the list are downtown Market Street intersections. The blocks between Third and Seventh on Market saw 118 pedestrian collisions since 2010, three of them fatal.
• The worst non-Market spot is 16th and Mission. Of the top six intersections for pedestrian accidents, 16th and Mission is the only non-Market block on the list, recording 27 crashes in the period, with six “visible injuries” but no fatalities.

Photo by Alfonso Jimenez/Wikicommons

• The top neighborhood for accidents is SoMa. Of the 5,846 incidents recorded, 614 happened South of Market. The Mission ranked second with 407, and the Tenderloin third with 376. But since these figures aren’t adjusted for the population or area of the neighborhood they might not necessarily indicate the breadth of the problem.
• The Marina was the city’s safest neighborhood during the surveyed years. Only 68 collisions happened there, although again, it’s a small neighborhood, so this is perhaps not surprising.

In 2015, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) reported that while the number of traffic accidents involving SF pedestrians hasn’t increased with the population, the city still doesn’t quite regard this as good news.

“The overall collision rate for the city may be improving [in the context of] the growing population and economic activity in San Francisco,” says an SFMTA collisions report from November 2016. “However, the ultimate goal is for severe crash totals to decrease regardless of whether transportation activity in the city is increasing.”

• SFMTA Collisions Report, 2012-2015 [SFTMA]
• SF’s Dangerous Intersections [Walkup et al]
• SF Accident Map [1Point21]