Still waiting for an answer

Subject: Right Turn onto New Market Street Freeway Ramp

Date: Fri, 27 Jan 2006

From: Rob Anderson

To: Ross Mirkarimi

CC: PROSF

Ross:

You probably remember last year's kerfuffle over the ban on making a right turn onto the new freeway ramp on Market St. across from the new, unimproved Octavia Blvd. It turns out that your predecessor carried a resolution on behalf of the cycling community to put this ban in force in 2004, much to the annoyance and inconvenience of city drivers.

As the media accounts noted at the time, the no-right-turn ban is a six-month trial. The text of Resolution 508-04 confirms this: 

Further resolved, that the Department shall collect data related to traffic, bicycle, and pedestrian safety and flow during the first six months of the opening of the freeway ramp, and shall make adjustments to and shall implement any additional traffic control devices and signage as necessary to maximize the safety of pedestrians and bicyclists through the intersection, and the Department shall report its findings to the Board of Supervisors at the end of that period.

The six-month trial will soon be over. Can we assume that DPT has been diligently collecting data on this experiment and will soon announce its findings? We can only hope that the city, with your support, will end this preposterous inconvenience to the city's 464,000 drivers and jackhammer up the huge bulb-out that actually makes this intersection more dangerous to city cyclists.

Regards,

Rob Anderson