SF Safety Groups Hang Memorials at Hundreds of Intersections Where Pedestrians Were Killed

San Francisco pedestrian safety advocates on Friday began hanging memorial signs and pairs of shoes at hundreds of intersections across the city, marking sites where pedestrians were fatally struck over the last decade.

Crash survivors and family members of victims helped paint shoes and hang signs to mark the launch of the awareness campaign organized by Walk San Francisco and San Francisco Bay Area Families for Safe Streets.

Their effort to raise the alarm on pedestrian deaths has intensified in the lead-up to World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims on Nov. 17.

The two groups plan to hang signs and pairs of shoes for each of the 317 pedestrians who have been killed in traffic accidents since 2014, the year the city launched its ambitious Vision Zero plan to eliminate all traffic fatalities within 10 years. 

But the city has fallen far short of that goal. Already this year, 24 pedestrians have been fatally struck on San Francisco streets, surpassing the 18 pedestrian deaths in all of 2023, according to the San Francisco Police Department.

Dr. Christian Rose, an emergency physician and professor at Stanford University, who attended Friday’s event in the Mission, recalled biking on Arguello Boulevard in 2017 when he was struck by a vehicle that turned left into a pedestrian-protected intersection.

“I truly believe that better cities have safe infrastructure for these things,” Rose said. “It made me feel sort of lucky that I am able to walk again afterward — it took about eight months to learn how to walk again and run.”

Rose said that most traffic incidents are spurred by actions that seem fairly insignificant and innocuous, such as — rolling through stop signs or sidewalks not being completely monitored by drivers, data shows. But he also points out what he believes to be a fatal misunderstanding of traffic safety:

“There’s very rarely the recognition of a car as a heavy piece of machinery that is not the same as a human on a crosswalk or a bicycle,” he said. “This is part of the narrative we need to get over.”

The group of three safety advocates walked to various intersections throughout the Mission District neighborhood, stopping at South Van Ness and 18th to hang a memorial for Thomas McKean, a 29-year-old San Francisco resident who was fatally struck by a car last year.

Julie Nicholson, who was struck and seriously injured while running in the Panhandle in 2020, shed tears for the deceased McKean as she hoisted up a sign reading “Remembering the life lost here” to tape onto a pole.

She said that goals like Vision Zero are her North Star.

“I know it’s a privilege that I’m here with my life and fully healed,” Nicholson said, having suffered a broken back and hip as a result of her injuries. “That’s why I’m here, and that’s why I’ll continue to be here, to be part of the solution.”

Advocates plan to set up a memorial at City Hall on Nov. 17 to honor both the 317 pedestrians killed and the more than 5,000 others injured since 2014.

Marta Lindsey, a spokesperson for Walk SF, said the campaign intends to invite Mayor-elect Daniel Lurie to the City Hall memorial.

“If Daniel Lurie wants to make our city better, traffic safety needs to be one of his top priorities,” Lindsey said. “We hope he will attend to stand with those who have been hurt and killed on our streets.”