Risks of Living on City’s Most Crooked Street

There has been much discussion in recent years about how overloading is damaging our national parks. The traffic congestion in Yosemite during the summer can be so bad that it takes two hours to get from the park gates to the valley floor. Visitors’ enjoyment is impaired, and the air pollution endangers native plants and animals.

We have a similar problem in our neighborhood. The crooked street has become a San Francisco landmark. Most visitors want to see it and many wish to drive down it. In order to drive down, they first have to get up the hill and unfortunately I live on the street they drive up. It can take more than three hours to drive the three blocks between Van Ness and Hyde on Lombard on weekends and holidays.

My block is the steepest of the three and one of the steepest in the city. In this bumper-to-bumper traffic going up on a steep hill into gridlock with many drivers unfamiliar with driving on hills it is common for cars to: spin their wheels, burn their clutches, boil over, dump oil, slide into each other, slide onto the sidewalk, have their automatic transmissions catch on fire.

Drivers become frustrated and drive on the wrong side of the road and on the sidewalk. The result is that it is not safe for my children to walk out of their front door and the air pollution is so bad that windows and doors can’t stop it. I grew up on this street. I would like my children to be able to do the same, but I fear for their health and safety.

I am proud of my neighborhood and would like visitors to be able to enjoy it. I don’t think spending three hours in traffic and risking hundreds of dollars damage to your car is enjoyable.

Yosemite has addressed its problem by encouraging visitors to use public transportation and by having park personnel direct traffic to prevent gridlock. A similar approach seems called for here.

--Encourage visitors to take the cable car to the crooked street.

--Discourage driving by preventing visitors from driving through the crooked street.

--Provide traffic control officers during periods of extreme congestion.

If there is a problem funding these activities from city departmental budgets a small portion of the hotel tax fund that has been set aside to cover just such problems could be used.

It seems to me that the city has a duty both to its visitors and to its residents to insure that people don’t inadvertently destroy its beauty in the process of trying to enjoy it.

MARK CUMMINGS

San Francisco