SFFD urged to end opposition to attempts to slow traffic

The San Francisco Fire Department should boost the city’s campaign to improve pedestrian safety by ending its opposition to sidewalk safety improvements that narrow streets and slow traffic, a city report to be released Tuesday concludes.

At the center of the issue are what are known to engineers, planners and pedestrian advocates as “bulbouts” — wide, rounded extensions of sidewalks that serve to narrow street crossings and slow traffic.

Those and other traffic-calming measures are popular among planners trying to make streets safer by slowing traffic and making pedestrians more visible. But some fire departments, including San Francisco’s, believe that they interfere with their ability to navigate narrow streets and quickly attack fires.

In recent years, as the city has struggled to make its increasingly crowded streets safer and more efficient for bicyclists and pedestrians as well as cars, conflicts over bulbouts and narrowed streets have emerged, usually pitting bike riders and pedestrians against motorists. But planners and the Fire Department have repeatedly, though more quietly, clashed as well.

The report from Harvey Rose, the Board of Supervisors’ budget analyst, concludes that, despite the city’s emphasis on pedestrian safety, the Fire Department lacks policies to design and buy fire engines and trucks that accommodate pedestrian safety improvements.

“Other cities and towns across the country also have small streets and sharp turns and have purchased specialized vehicles that can operate in these environments,” Rose said in his 17-page report.

Fire, pedestrian safety

Rose said those vehicles are not necessarily shorter, or lacking features of a more traditional engine, but are designed to make them more maneuverable.

The report was requested by Supervisor Scott Wiener, who has been frustrated by the Fire Department’s insistence on maintaining a 20-foot — or sometimes wider — minimum street width. According to Rose’s report, state fire code gives local fire departments the ability to determine the amount of space needed to turn an engine. It also gives them the power to reject any traffic-calming measures or to exempt construction from the requirement.

“We all want to have strong fire safety and strong street safety for pedestrians, drivers, bicycles, everyone,” Wiener said. “We need to protect both.”

Ken Lombardi, assistant deputy chief, said the department is committed to the city’s Vision Zero effort to eliminate traffic-related fatalities by 2020 but needs to ensure it is able to get to fires quickly and safely.

Fighting fires in the city often requires a different approach and vehicles that will support that strategy, he said.

“San Francisco is a very unique city with the topography, with the hills, with the water supply conditions” and the lack of space between buildings, he said.

Lombardi said the department is always looking for smaller, more nimble engines but they aren’t available. What works in other cities won’t necessarily do the job in San Francisco.

“We’re always looking for smaller vehicles, but they have to be able to do the job we need them to do once we get to the scene,” he said.

Wiener said the department cooperated with the report and has been working better with city agencies on accommodating bulbouts.

“We’re trying to find a way that we can work together to enhance both traffic safety and fire safety,” he said, emphasizing the need to slow traffic.

“The wider you make a street, the faster cars drive,” he said. “The faster cars drive, the more accidents you have and the more serious the accidents will be. This has been studied to death.”

Turning into traffic

The department’s problem with bulbouts, Lombardi said, is that their location at the corners of intersections can force engines to turn into oncoming traffic. He said the department supports bulbouts but needs to ensure they’re not an impediment or safety hazard.

After its release Tuesday, the report will be the subject of a hearing before supervisors in February, Wiener said, as well as continuing discussion.

“This will be an ongoing effort,” he said.

Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan