Traffic Safety

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood has approved $700,000 of capital expenditures for traffic safety improvements in District 5, including Lower Haight. These funds come from District 5’s Neighborhood Transportation Program (NTP) allocation through the SF County Transportation Authority. Most districts haven’t tapped NTP funds for traffic calming at this scale.

The first initiative put $117,500 toward daylighting last October, which refers to keeping intersections clear of parked cars so pedestrians and drivers can see each other. “A state law had passed requiring it, but San

Francisco still hadn’t painted all its curbs.

So we immediately authorized it, making our district the first to be fully daylighted. Data from cities like Hoboken, New Jersey, shows that daylighting dropped traffic fatalities to near zero, so we felt it was the most impactful first step.” said district supervisor Bilal Mahmood.

This past February, Mahmood approved a plan to spend the remaining funds on traffic calming measures like painted safety zones, raised crosswalks, speed humps, and speed cushions.

“We met with residents to understand how we could make progress on Vision Zero goals even with a budget deficit,” said Mahmood. Vision Zero is the city’s policy commitment to eliminate all traffic deaths and severe injuries on city streets.

His team gathered 300 survey responses from residents on where investments should be placed, overlaid that with traffic injury data to identify the highest-risk corridors, and coordinated with SFMTA and the fire department on feasibility. They are now finalizing specific locations and solidifying a contract with SFMTA by the end of May.

In addition to these traffic calming efforts, Lower Haight now has a new tool to monitor its street safety trends. TranspoMap is a nonprofit started in 2022 by long-time Lower Haight resident Stephen Braitsch.

“I built TranspoMaps as a new approach to advocacy for safer streets,” said Braitsch. “Just waving signs at City Hall and signing petitions often doesn’t get a whole lot accomplished. We try to mobilize people around the data to have constructive conversations with city officials.”

He recently launched a data dashboard for Lower Haight that tracks traffic safety metrics, along with police reports, 911 emergency calls, and 311 complaints. Using data from the San

Francisco Department of Public Health, which processes raw crash data from the San Francisco Police Department, the site analyzes vehicle-related injuries in Lower Haight over time and block by block. For example, based on the last 12 months of available data, the most dangerous block is Haight St. from Octavia St to Laguna St with 12 injuries.

“If you want to make the neighborhood a little safer or fix the issue on your block, reach out to us,” said Braitsch. “We’ll organize calls with you and the district supervisor’s office to have a constructive conversation about the issue and what needs to be done.”