The barriers hoping to prevent bumper-to-bumper traffic caused by street-level sex workers and their johns just went up on Shotwell Street, but some residents complain they’re causing chaos for Waymo cars and delivery trucks, and have people driving on sidewalks.
When barriers were placed on Capp Street in early 2024 to deter the street-level sex work happening there, and the chaos and traffic that so-called pimps and johns were causing, residents seemed to feel they worked and the barriers were made permanent. But over on Shotwell Street just two streets over, residents complained that those barriers just pushed the sex work scene over to their street.
So it was announced in early October that Shotwell Street would get the barriers too, KTVU reports they were installed “a week ago.”
Now here come the unintended consequences, as KGO reports that neighbors are complaining the temporary barriers create a hassle for drivers and delivery vehicles, and make robotaxis engage in strange behaviors. The new Shotwell Street barriers are the bollards, rubber curbs, and concrete slabs seen below, and they’re now placed on Shotwell between 19th and 21st streets.
"I think they suck, and they are inconvenient. This sucks," Shotwell resident Shawn Demmons very bluntly told KGO. Other residents complain that the barriers cause confused drivers to make unsafe U-turns, and that in one such circumstance, two bicyclists were nearly hit by a car.
And per KTVU, they’re causing another unanticipated and very San Francisco problem. “A Waymo vehicle backed up after being stopped by a street barrier installed on Shotwell Street between 20th and 21st Streets,” that station reports. “After it encountered a barrier, the Waymo vehicle can be heard saying, ‘Need more space. Please stand back.'"
These are not the same barriers as have been placed on Capp Street, whose barriers are seen above. The SF Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) says the Shotwell barriers seen below are specifically designed to allow easy access for emergency vehicles.
But KGO says they saw an ambulance hindered by the barriers, with EMTs forced to transport a patient on a gurney because they couldn't access the street. That station adds that some drivers are just driving on the sidewalk to avoid those barriers, and that “we caught two San Francisco traffic enforcement officers driving their vehicles on the sidewalk to avoid the barriers on the middle of the street.”
SFMTA director of streets Victoria Weiss told KGO, “In respect to the paramedic that stopped before the rubber curb, we will communicate with our emergency responders and let them know that we tested the vehicles in the field and that they can go over the barrier."
"Paramedic trucks or fire engines, they can very easily go over the rubber barrier when they are taking it at 90 degree angle like straight on,” she added. “But if you put it at the end of the street and let's say they were making a left turn or a right turn, they would have a hard time getting their wheels over the rubber barrier and that is why we put it in the middle of the road."
KGO also notes that “We also found a QR code on the barriers and when you scan it takes you directly to a neighborhood petition against these barriers.” SFist observed the same.
But this SFist correspondent actually clicked on said QR code, and it merely took us to some website called “QR.link,” (seen belowa) and asked us to sign up for some $35 a month plan. There was no petition to be signed.
We should note that a common thread is that some neighbors actually love the new barriers, and say they are enjoying the newfound nighttime peace and quiet. Some say it has absolutely decreased the sex work mayhem, and on SFist’s trip there, we saw numerous pedestrians and bicyclists making use of the street with much less vehicle traffic. (That part of Shotwell was already a designated Slow Street.)
The SFMTA insists this is just a temporary pilot program, for now. "This is not a done deal in the sense that this is a pilot program that we approved for 18 months, and we are learning from it,” Weiss told KGO. “This is a first of its kind treatment that we have done on the street that we are seeing how it's going to work,"
So, much like the center-running Valencia Street bike lanes, these barriers are a work in progress that may or may not last their 18-month pilot.
Related: Those ‘Anti-Sex Work’ Barriers Are Now Coming to Shotwell Street [SFist]
Images: Joe Kukura, SFist
