Community outraged after San Francisco woman on bike hit, killed by truck

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- The coroner's office confirmed the victim is Tess Rothstein, a design researcher in San Francisco.

According to witnesses, she was cycling down Howard Street when a driver of a parked vehicle opened a door. Rothstein apparently swerved to avoid the door, placing her in the path of the truck that ran her over.

"It is unacceptable and we are calling on the city to take action and to make the changes that are necessary to fill in the gaps," said SF Bicycle Coalition, External Affairs Director Jennifer Gennari.

RELATED: Bicyclist killed after crash with truck in San Francisco's South of Market District

Hours after her death hundreds of cyclist took to Howard Street to protest Rothstein's death by creating a human protected bike lane.

"I bike this route every day. The cyclist that died this morning could have been me. We need protected bike lanes," said SF cyclist John Firebaugh.

Peoples Protected Bike Lanes organizations spokesperson said Rothstein's death was preventable.

"The next block after where she died has a protective bike lane. She was caught on the last block of the strip before reaching the protective bike lane," said Matt Brezina.

District 6 supervisor Matt Haney said changes to Howard street are set to start in April.

SFMTA's confirmed Howard is one of the most dangerous streets for cyclist in San Francisco and are looking into making changes.

"The mayor issued a directive on Wednesday that the MTA should move quickly with projects to increase safety around the city on our high injury network. So we are certainly doing that. This will be one of the areas where we are exploring options to get those improvements in by this year," said SFMTA's spokesperson, Paul Rose.

According to Vision Zero, 5 people have been killed this year in traffic-related incidents.