— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
In January, it was SFPD's motorcycle division was running a sting on cyclists running reds on Market St. Now they're running “decoy operations,” according to this email that just landed in our inbox by way of the Butterlap email list:
a note from a friendly SF cop:
Be Aware! In response to community complaints about motorists and bicyclists failing to yield to pedestrians in crosswalks, SFPD is conducting city-wide sting operations. In an effort to make the streets safer for all, Officers are conducting decoy operations throughout San Francisco. Drivers & cyclists who do not yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk will be cited. Please let your friends & family know that the pedestrian they don’t stop for in a crosswalk may be a police decoy.
Don't we have some crooked drug dealers to bust or something?
Comments (9)
Send them out to Mission and Highland to bust cars flying through crosswalks with walkers. .
Real talk true story: I have definitely almost nailed pedestrians while being fucking careless through crosswalks. Maybe I’m feeling a little guilty, but part of me feels like I deserve to be nailed for that shit.
And if it’s a sting, presumably you’ll only get a ticket if you actually do this shit and almost hit someone right? So… okay?
I got stopped in the wiggle on saturday afternoon and given a verbal warning. “Next time it will go on your record for 7 years”.
Barreling through cross-walks with pedestrians present is fucking ignorant.
“Don’t we have some crooked drug dealers to bust or something?” right, tell that to the women on the embarcadero who was hit and killed by a bike cutting thru the cross walk. Bike are vehicles. take a lesson from Europe and Asia..they actually follow traffic laws. grow up entitled white children.
The NERVE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I demand my right to place my RIGHTS first and any pedestrian scum had better not get in my way or delay me for even one precious second!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alright. First off, that stop light at Mason/Market is pretty much useless for cyclists, as is the Gough street light. Second, I ride through Mid-Market every single day. The real danger from 9th street to 6th street is the dozens of crackheads that enjoy playing chicken across Market street. Not even in close proximity to the crosswalk, I’ve seen so many near collisions because someone is taking a direct path from the Warfield area to the other side of the street. So yeah, it kind of bugs me that cops are being fucking pricks about one set of laws and absolutely pretending another doesn’t exist. Normally, I don’t give a flying fuck about jaywalking as a legal charge, but Market is ballistic enough as it is with the F line, cars, bikes, busses, etc etc. Oh, and the next person to call the epicenter of human disparity the “Mid-Riff” is getting u-locked to a pole on 6th & Market until they admit that there’s a substantial difference between “up & coming microhood” and “landlords desperate to fill empty storefronts”. /rant.
I think you should have to register a bike and take an exam like car drivers have to. The money could be used to help with upkeep of the roads the riders use.
18th and Dolores is the intersection where I’ve nearly been hit by cars the most often, 18 and Guerrero for bikes nearly hitting me….
I don’t understand why they are focusing on Market St, as the places where pedestrians have the most trouble are at uncontrolled crosswalks where there is no stop sign or traffic light for cars. I’m not sure if there are any intersections like that on Market at all. Also, I would love to know if the SFPD sting extended to taxi and MUNI bus drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians when making their right turns off of Market.
If they really want to educate drivers and force a little more respect for the law, they should go to an uncontrolled crosswalk and I guarantee they will find literally hundreds of ticket opportunities. I could probably stand at one of those all day waving my hands and only get a couple folks to stop for me. Even then traffic on the next lane over would probably still speed by, making it less safe than if nobody had bothered to stop for all.