Hundreds of dump trucks, one of which killed a pedestrian in Cole Valley last week, will continue lumbering through the neighborhood until at least 2030.
The timeline has only further exasperated residents who have complained for at least three years about potential dangers for pedestrians on the Parnassus Avenue corridor.
“What happened last Tuesday was inevitable given the volume of traffic and the way these trucks are being managed,” said Bob Goodman, who lives one block from where 70-year-old Jose Chow was killed.
The trucks are hauling soil from two construction sites at UCSF, according to the city transit agency. The last of the two projects will be completed in 2030, according to the hospital’s website, which also notes that construction runs from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays.
Goodman said he has seen trucks loiter in the neighborhood, blocking bus stops while they wait for the job site to open. They occasionally drive up small side streets, he added.
Serena Unger, who also lives nearby, said she’s seen trucks run red lights.
“They make their presence known, and you obey because they’re bigger,” Unger said.
Ferma, the company that dispatches some of the trucks, did not reply to multiple requests for comment. A UCSF spokesperson said that between 50 and 220 trucks drive to the construction sites per day, adding that soil removals were paused for three days after the crash.
“UCSF is in conversation with SFMTA and stands ready to support the city’s efforts to enhance pedestrian safety near campus,” the spokesperson wrote in an email.
An SFMTA spokesperson said the agency is conducting an initial survey required to install a pedestrian signal at the fatal intersection of Parnassus Avenue and Stanyan Street. The spokesperson added that the agency recommended additional tree trimming and extended no-parking zones near the intersection to increase visibility.
Still, residents’ concerns about pedestrian safety predate the construction. In 2021, Goodman submitted an application to the SFMTA for traffic-calming measures on Parnassus Avenue.
The transit agency said at the time that the street qualified for additional safety measures given that cars regularly speed through the 25 mph zone, according to emails viewed by The Standard.
More than a year later, though, transit officials informed Goodman that they couldn’t install speed cushions on the roadway because of the “dynamic” nature of the nearby construction zone.
Jeffery Tumlin, the transit agency’s boss, also told The Standard last week that it’s impossible to put speed humps on the route because they’d interfere with ambulances on their way to the nearby emergency room.
An SFMTA spokesperson noted that there had been no pedestrian collisions at the intersection for the past five years.
But residents — and even some city staffers — are calling bull.
“Sometimes SFMTA will say something’s not feasible, then we push them and push them for months and they finally change their minds,” said Calvin Ho, a legislative aide to Supervisor Rafael Mandelman.
Ho added that there has been a “huge outpouring” of residents calling for traffic-calming measures since the crash.
“If speed humps aren’t right for this, there are a lot of other tools in the toolbox,” Unger said.
Ho said he has heard a chorus of residents call for a four-way stop on Willard Street and Parnassus Avenue, as well as flashing walk signs on the roadway. The SFMTA said it is “looking into installing” flashing beacons.
Some residents have also called for cops to station themselves at the intersection with Stanyan Street — the site of last week’s crash. The San Francisco Police Department has previously advocated for traffic-calming measures on the street, Ho said.
“We as a city are looking at how incidents like this can be prevented,” the department wrote in a statement.
A spokesperson did not reply when asked if the department plans to station officers at the intersection.
Unger said she’d like to see intersections converted to scrambles, where all directions of traffic are paused while pedestrians cross the street. Mandelman, who represents the area, said he has questions about how UCSF will ensure construction work is “as safe as possible” moving forward.
He wonders if there are safer routes the trucks could take.
“UCSF is in the business of saving lives,” Goodman said. “But they have no regard for safety as they build this new hospital. It’s ironic.”