{"id":435726,"date":"2026-08-18T00:10:11","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:10:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435726\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T00:10:11","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T00:10:11","slug":"at-vigil-advocates-demand-a-safer-market-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/435726\/","title":{"rendered":"At Vigil, Advocates Demand a Safer Market Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

Some 40 advocates, members of the press, and a handful of officials gathered Friday, August 14, to honor Yebin Kim, a 32-year-old woman who was riding her scooter on Market Street when, according to witnesses, her wheels fell into the streetcar tracks, she fell, and was subsequently run over and killed by a truck driver<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI hate that we have to gather like this again,\u201d said the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition\u2019s Christopher White, who led the vigil. \u201cIt\u2019s a reminder of how vulnerable we all are.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although it didn\u2019t appear in the report<\/a>, KTVU\u2019s Christien Kafton asked White what needs to be done to make sure this kind of tragedy doesn\u2019t happen again. \u201cWe don\u2019t need more studies,\u201d said White. That\u2019s because studies were done and the \u201cBetter Market Street\u201d plan was approved<\/a>. But in 2020, SFMTA officials cancelled the sidewalk-level protected bike lanes<\/a> that were supposed to be a central part of it. \u201cIf they existed, Yebin would still be here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Advocates, officials and journalists at Friday\u2019s vigil for 32-year-old San Francisco resident Yebin Kim. Photo: Streetsblog\/Rudick<\/p>\n

Prior to the vigil, Streetsblog asked Mayor Lurie\u2019s office twice if they would now support building protected bike lanes on Market. His office sent this:<\/p>\n

My number one priority is the safety of our residents. The tragedy on Market Street is heartbreaking, and my condolences go out to Yebin\u2019s family and friends. Under our Street Safety Initiative, we\u2019re bringing city departments together to help everyone travel around our city safely\u2014including cyclists, scooter riders, pedestrians, kids, and seniors. As the city investigates the incident on Market Street, we will continue to move the work forward to create safer streets for all San Franciscans.<\/p>\n

Given the canned answer<\/a>, Streetsblog takes that as a \u201cno\u201d on protected bike lanes. For context, this is the same mayor who let Uber and Waymo<\/a> back on so-called car-free Market Street.<\/p>\n

\"\"Several cyclists and scooterists were forced to squeeze past buses stopped in the right lane during the vigil. Photo: Streetsblog\/Rudick<\/p>\n

As SFBike pointed out in its statement about Yebin\u2019s death<\/a>, \u201cIn early July, we learned of a serious crash involving a person riding a bike whose tires were caught; after they fell, they were subsequently struck by a DPW street sweeper at Market and Second Street and was severely injured.\u201d And of course Mark Heryer was killed in 2015<\/a>, in nearly the same scenario.<\/p>\n

As if to underscore just how dangerous things are on Market Street, there were several close calls that occurred during the short vigil. A west-bound Muni bus operator tailgated a cyclist, eventually squeezing him against the curb before coming to a stop. Cyclists were forced to squeeze between the narrow \u201csafe\u201d space between the tracks and stopped buses. Several private cars drove by illegally on \u201ccar-free\u201d Market Street. And a group of five or six police cars roared down the transit lanes at what must have been close to 60 mph.<\/p>\n

\"\"A rendering of the Better Market Street plan that was canned by Jeffrey Tumlin and Mayor London Breed. This could still be revived by Mayor Lurie. Image: BettermarketstreetSF<\/p>\n

In Streetsblog\u2019s view, this is all very simple: Market Street needs physical separation for cyclists and scooterists from heavy vehicles such as cars, buses, and trucks. When the previous mayoral administration cancelled the protected bike lanes, they sentenced a future cyclist or scooterist to death<\/a>. The person\u2019s name turned out to be Yebin Kim, but her death was set in motion in 2020 by callous politics.<\/p>\n

And now Mayor Lurie is repeating this mistake, even though inexpensive and obvious solutions<\/a> exist. Other cities are addressing such conditions<\/a>,\u00a0and there\u2019s simply no excuse for San Francisco\u2019s continued disregard for safety on its signature street. It\u2019s no mystery why Vision Zero is failing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome time we\u2019ll get Market Street right,\u201d said District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey, the only lawmaker who attended the vigil. \u201cThen we\u2019ll ask why it took so long.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some 40 advocates, members of the press, and a handful of officials gathered Friday, August 14, to honor…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":435727,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[109921,101,103,102,104,106,105],"class_list":["post-435726","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-promoted","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435726","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=435726"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/435726\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/435727"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=435726"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=435726"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=435726"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}