SF makes changes to West Portal intersection months after family killed by driver

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- It's been almost seven months since a driver killed a family of four waiting for a bus at West Portal station. On Friday, the city announced traffic changes in the intersection around the area.

"We knew that ultimately, it was important for us to come together to listen and to make hard decisions to improve the conditions of the intersection," said San Francisco Mayor London Breed.

For months, residents rejected traffic changes, saying the accident was isolated and a driver error.

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Will Baumgardner is a member of the neighborhood committee that worked with city officials on a compromise.

"We don't really know the cause of that crash. We do know there was a car that was driving extremely fast that no matter what the city had put in place, there is really no way to prevent a crash when something like that happens," said Baumgardener, "People that aren't happy with it one way or happy with it another way - this met in the middle.

Supervisor Myrna Melgar explained the changes.

The traffic project is expected to be completed sometime this fall. SFMTA's director Jeffrey Tumlin confirmed they are keeping a close eye on it.

"We started some of the implementation and were ready to start observing whether these quick fixes are going to be successful or whether they need adjustment," said Tumlin.

The driver who crashed into the family pleaded not guilty. Her attorney Sam Geller said they are still investigating.

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"We have now spoken to several people who have owned the same year and making model of Mrs. Lau's car, the Mercedes in question here who have had identical incidents happen where they can just take off and caused an accident. This isn't to say for sure that is exactly what happened here, but we are doing our due diligence," said Geller.

The owner of the candy and ice cream shop, Shaws, said traffic won't change with the new traffic improvements.

"I've had so many people say, 'Hey if I get parking I come in and get an ice cream but if I don't, I'm not going to.' While the parking might not have changed. The paths are changing so it's a lot harder to wrap around and try again and I fear for my business that people would just give up," said Diana Zogaric, Owner of Shaws.

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SFMTA broke down the project here:

"The project was launched in April 2024 both in response to this collision and in consideration of a broader context of community requests and City and agency priorities for the area including:

• Community requests to improve the intersection of West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Street to provide a more intuitive and simpler intersection
• Community requests for beautification and place-making within the West Portal station area
• The importance of minimizing delays to Muni Metro in this location which can create cascading delays in the subway

Project goals:

• Calm traffic in the West Portal neighborhood to signal to people driving to slow down as they approach an area with significant pedestrian activity.
• Simplify the West Portal Avenue and Ulloa Street intersection to discourage through-traffic and better define the right of way in this unusually busy node of pedestrian activity.
• Redesign the station entrance "horseshoe" to visually enhance the station entrance, provide more room for people, and help direct riders to the best path of travel.
• Support a vibrant West Portal commercial corridor to ensure customers traveling by all modes of travel are able to easily access the commercial area. "