Road Use is a Shared Responsibility

Like most urban centers, as San Francisco’s population grows, its streets are becoming more crowded. More people means more cars, motorcycles, busses, trains, scooters, bikes, and pedestrians. The streets are changing as rapidly the times we live in. Not only are there more people using the same space, the streets are also constantly being reconfigured. Lanes are being repurposed for bicyclists and parking spaces are turning into outdoor seating. And when things go wrong, as they do, people have a tendency to segregate themselves into factions and point fingers at each other. Each road user sees the streets and the surrounding users from her own perspective. Collisions, injuries and even death are not the fault of any one type of road user. It is misguided to label and alienate others and deny the reality of our joint responsibility. Instead of finding reasons to differentiate ourselves, let’s all take more time, be more careful and respect one another, regardless of whatever mode of transportation we may choose. The best way to make our streets safer is to remember that all of us, however we choose to travel, have an equal right to the road.