It was September, 2009 when the SFMTA began a pilot program requiring drivers to turn right off Market Street, a pilot that was later made permanent. But though the rule’s been in place for nearly two years, one local business group worries that tourists might get mad about getting ticketed for breaking local traffic laws.
According to the Ex, in July SFPD began writing $176 tickets for those who violate the requirement to turn right on Market at 6th or 10th streets. So far, 74 drivers have been nailed for breaking the laws, most of them “tourists who have been led astray by their GPS devices,” an SFPD officer told the paper.
This concerns Carolyn Diamond, who’s been executive director of the Market Street Association since 1985.
“A lot of these people are paying hotel taxes and renting cars when they come here,” Diamond told the Ex. “Now they’re getting hit with traffic tickets? I don’t think they’ll appreciate that too much.”
Then again, who does appreciate getting traffic tickets? But not every person pulled over for flouting the rules has been ticketed — according to SFPD, 124 drivers were released with a warning “because it was clear they did not see signage prohibiting their presence on Market Street.”
Tourists (and GPS manufacturers) should prepare for more confusion, however: according the Chron, the SFMTA board is mulling further changes on Market, including plans to “prohibit right turns from eastbound Market Street onto southbound New Montgomery Street to help reduce traffic backups on eastbound Market. The experiment may be limited to evening commute hours, when congestion is worst.”
It’s not just the downtown stretch of Market where visitors to our city appear to get confused and break traffic laws — just last week, reports Streetsblog a tourist behind the wheel of a rental car made an illegal turn onto Octavia from Market, hitting cyclist and city planner John Billovits, who landed, he says “directly under the no right turn sign” at the intersection.
According to SFPD, however, the “adult female, resident of Germany” driver responsible for the collision won’t be cited. No word yet on if she “appreciated” that.
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