Double Fine Zone on 19th Avenue
19th Avenue (specifically Highway 1 between the intersection of 19th Avenue and Junipero Serra Boulevard and the intersection of Highway 1 at Lake Street) has been declared a Safety Enhancement-Double Fine Zone until 2013. Fines for unlawful passing and overtaking, excessive speed, reckless driving, drunk driving, and similar moving violations are currently doubled. Base fines range from $25.00 (for speeding up to 15 mph over the limit) to $500 (for reckless driving causing great bodily injury). Adding the double fine, tickets will range from $137.50 (for speeding) to $2,750.00 (for reckless driving causing great bodily injury). This law was advocated for by Senator Leland Yee (D-San Francisco/San Mateo) and signed into law in 2008.
Over the years the speed limit on 19th Avenue has been reduced to 30 miles per hour, pedestrian countdown signals have been installed, and bulb-outs to shorten the distance for pedestrians at several crosswalks have been added.
Senator Yee has stated that despite the changes 19th Avenue continued to have an unacceptably high fatality rate. Between 2003 and 2007 there were 600 pedestrian collisions, which resulted in ten deaths and hundreds of injuries. Senator Yee recently stated in the January 24, 2010 edition of the San Francisco Examiner that the combination of the improvements and increased fines has resulted in a substantial drop in traffic accidents along 19th Avenue with no reported pedestrian deaths in 2009.
Currently pedestrian crossings at 19th Avenue at Judah, Taraval and Sloat are set to be upgraded. Vern Waight with Sunsel Heights Association of Responsible People (SHARP) a former traffic engineer with Caltrans was recently quoted in the West Portal Monthly. He related that 19th Avenue is a “surrogate highway – but it was never meant to handle so much traffic like a freeway.”