Neighbors Call For Traffic Safety Improvements On San Jose Avenue

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Fed up with speeding vehicles and collisions on the stretch of San Jose Avenue between Ocean Avenue and Baden Street, neighbors met with city officials to discuss solutions.

Over 50 neighbors attended a virtual meeting on Jan. 26 with representatives from the San Francisco Police Department, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency and the office of District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safai.

“Anybody that observes that street, and the speed that cars go through there, will pretty quickly see that there’s a problem,” Christopher Campbell said. “We have this tiny little business district for Mission Terrace [and] there’s a split before you get on to 280 where people are entering the freeway at freeway speed.”

Derrick Lew, who will become captain of Ingleside Station on Saturday, offered to increase traffic enforcement on the street but said it would not be as effective as improvements made by SFMTA.

Lew also offered to share data from the speed radar trailer with SFMTA to assist with any decision making.

San Jose Avenue, the busy north-south thoroughfare, goes from Daly City to the central Mission District. It’s used to connect to I-280 and the J Church light rail streetcar operates on a segment.

A Vision Zero report from 2017 lists this segment neighbors are concerned with on the high-injury corridor network.

SFMTA Operations Group Engineer Edward Tang said there were not enough recorded collisions to warrant traffic lights or stop signs at any of the intersections. He said stop signs, which are intended to clarify right of way for users, often cause speeding to increase in residential neighborhoods because they frustrate drivers.

Tang also said that a single stop sign would slow down the J Church by 30 seconds.

Mission Terrace neighbor David Hooper countered that all of the J Church’s speed problems occur in the subway and not surface streets.

Many neighbors asked for flashing lights at several intersections, specifically San Jose and San Juan avenues and San Jose Avenue and Baden Street. Neighbors also requested crosswalks at the retail district at San Jose and Santa Rosa avenues.

“Our office will definitely work with MTA on trying to secure funding for that type of improvement, given that we can’t do stop signs or speed humps or anything of that sort,” Lauren Chung, a legislative aide to Safai, said.

Jan. 28 Update: The New Mission Terrace Improvement Association reported on Facebook that “a crosswalk (but not a signal or a stop sign)” on San Jose Avenue and Paulding Street.