San Francisco cyclists got an abrupt reality check this week when police officers staged a sudden, high-visibility ticket blitz at Powell and Market, zeroing in on people riding bikes, scooters and a moped. During a short morning operation, officers stopped and cited multiple riders, prompting immediate backlash from cyclists and advocates who argue the real danger comes from drivers behind the wheel of cars. The crackdown follows the city’s renewed focus on a new high-injury traffic map and the Street Safety Act.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, officers issued tickets to a group that included about a dozen cyclists, a skateboarder and an e-scooter rider at the busy Powell and Market intersection. SFPD spokesperson Evan Sernoffsky told the Chronicle, “We are using the information to do high visibility traffic stops all over the city, which involves anything that could lead to an injury or fatality.” The operation was connected to a recently released high-injury map that is supposed to guide both enforcement and safer-street investments.
High-injury map and the policy shift
The enforcement blitz is tied to the city’s renewed focus on a high-injury network, a relatively small share of street miles where a large portion of severe and fatal crashes occur, and to the Street Safety Act, which directs engineering fixes and enforcement to those corridors. Coverage by KQED and the San Francisco County Transportation Authority outlines how the city is leaning on targeted enforcement as one piece of a multiagency strategy to cut traffic deaths. Transportation officials note that most severe injuries involve motor vehicles, and say concentrating efforts on high-injury locations is where they expect the biggest safety payoff.
What a ticket can mean…