After fatal crash, changes coming to San Francisco’s Twin Peaks
The wide and graceful figure-eight road that encircles San Francisco’s Twin Peaks is about to be cleaved into a pair of threes, a move to improve safety that comes two months after the city settled a lawsuit over a fatal crash at the scenic overlook.
The plan — a two-year experiment designed to make more room for tourists, hikers, runners and bike riders —was approved by the Municipal Transportation Agency board this week, but not before it ran up against a barrage of opposition.
Nobody lives along this stretch of road, but frequent visitors feel an intimate attachment to the undeveloped ridgeline with the famously spectacular view.
Starting this summer, the MTA will break out the paint, signposts and traffic barriers and transform the one-way figure-eight stretch of Twin Peaks Boulevard.
The MTA and the Recreation and Parks Department devised the plan as a way to make Twin Peaks safer and more parklike by providing more room for walkers, protected space for bicyclists and easier connections between trails for hikers and runners trekking up the peaks and down the hillsides.
Two other visitors in the group attempted to scramble over a 2-foot concrete barrier and out of the way, but they were also injured by the swerving driver.
The 23-year-old motorist, Gina Eunice, was convicted of manslaughter and drunken driving and sentenced to four years in prison.
[...] some Twin Peaks regulars, including hikers and bike riders, objected to the changes, saying the plan would expose walkers and cyclists who want to see the ocean-view side to more danger.
Others, including representatives of bicycling and hiking advocacy groups, praised the plan, saying it would not only improve safety but open a wider expanse of Twin Peaks to visitors who might be too timid to stroll along the road alongside moving cars and buses.
Representatives of the tour bus and film industry expressed concerns about the plan restricting their access to the popular vista point.
Susannah Robbins, executive director of the San Francisco Film Commission, said the figure-eight road is much sought-after by filmmakers and television and commercial producers.
Tour guides also worried that the changes could cause traffic backups and force them to exclude Twin Peaks from tightly scheduled bus tours, which are already forced to forgo some tourist hotspots.
On a sunny Wednesday this week, visitors enjoyed the place, taking a noontime walk along the sidewalk-less road — and sometimes in lanes of traffic — on their way to Eureka and Noe peaks and to the nearby Christmas Tree Point observation area.