San Francisco already has red-light cameras, but should we add speed cameras to the mix? Following the tragic deaths of two cyclists last week, the Chronicle's C.W. Nevius picks up the question of whether implementing “automated speed enforcement" on our streets would make them safer. Spoiler: It probably would.

“We are no longer accepting as fact that people need to die on the streets of San Francisco,” Municipal Transportation Agency Director Ed Reiskin said at a press conference last week following the deaths of Kate Slattery and Heather Miller. “We believe speeding was involved in both collisions, so speed enforcement is one of the most powerful things we can do.”

Much like the red-light cameras that photograph the plates of car running red lights, speed enforcement cameras can catch drivers who go above a determined limit — and then send out speeding tickets to the offending party. Nevius makes the case that the cameras are in use in 140 cities and towns around the country already, and their impact has been huge. Speeding dropped 30 percent in Portland, Oregon, and 31 percent in Chicago. In DC, following the installation, traffic-related fatalities reportedly dropped 70 percent.

(Residents of Chicago and DC, it should be noted, have mixed feelings about the cameras.)

In conversation with WBUR, Chris Cassidy, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition communications director, spoke to the need for city officials to step up their game in improving safety for cyclists and pedestrians alike. "People in San Francisco are demanding safer streets," said Cassidy. "The people are supporting Mayor Ed Lee in delivering safer streets, but we’re just not seeing a lot of action from the mayor’s office. Frankly it’s hurtful and very disappointing."

But just how would the cameras work? They could be set to only trigger when someone goes above 10-miles-per-hour over the speed limit, with the idea being to target drivers really making the streets unsafe. Reiskin told the Chron that fines would be kept relatively low — think around $100.

However, those freaking out about a future where automated cameras forever prevent you from ever getting your illegal-street race on should take heart — the cameras are explicitly prohibited at the state level. San Francisco's representative to Sacramento, Assemblyman David Chiu, supports the cameras, but he faces serious opposition from much of car-centric California.

In fact, we've all had this conversation before. In June of last year the Chronicle published a story that quotes safety advovates as arguing that the time had come to implement speed-enforcement cameras — Sacramento permitting. That, obviously, went nowhere.

With recent traffic fatalities on the mind, it is anyone's guess if this year's push for speed cameras will get father than last years. If the past is any hint, however, you shouldn't bet your Market Street-crossing life on it.

Related: Streetsblog Editor Confronts City Employee Parked In Bike Lane

Parking in SF is an expensive hassle — we all know this. But a new report out of UCLA picked up by Curbed suggests that the financial burden manifests in ways other than the nonstop stream of broken car windows. Specifically, the study's author claims it costs $29,000 to build a single on-street parking space in our great city.

An underground spot? Well, that will cost you $38,000. Oh, and neither of those estimates include the cost of land.

"If that surprises you, you’re a little naive," the study's author, Dr. Donald Shoup, explained to Curbed. "Try digging a hole three stories deep in San Francisco and filling it with concrete and see how much it costs you."

Well, sure, but what about on-street parking? Shoup says the numbers he used to estimate that cost come from a respected consulting firm, and are widely agreed upon to be accurate.

Now, perhaps obviously, this number is an average — building a spot downtown may be one price while building a spot in the Sunset another. The larger point, however, that every single parking space costs SF not just in opportunity costs (giving up land that could be used for bike lanes, parks, housing, etc.), but in actual dollars, is one Shoup thinks is important to keep in mind.

His study, titled "Cutting the Cost of Parking Requirements," makes this point. "Like the automobile itself, parking is a good servant but a bad master," he writes. "Parking should be friendly—easy to find, easy to use, and easy to pay for—but cities should not require or subsidize parking."

Besides, according to a report out earlier this year, there's already plenty of parking in SF — just drive on over to Noe Valley.

Related: No, Most Mission Residents Are Not OK With Median Parking On Sunday

The Lyft Embarcadero. Postmates Street. IDGA Ventures USA Boulevard. Those are just a few new names for San Francisco thoroughfares according to the latest shudder-inducing experiment from mapping software company CartoDB. In it, streets were awarded to startups and established tech companies based on their funding (as listed onCrunchBase).

"That’s kind of one of the neat things we do, is that we can do combinations of data on the fly and recast them,” Andrew Hill, Chief Science Officer of CartoDB, tells the Next Web. “It’s looking at the same question: what do you do if you look at San Francisco as its redrawn by the startup world?”

Perish the thought!

Sure, the project reveals a narrow view of our city as a one-industry town, but it's not without historical precedent. SF streets, like those in most metropoles, are all named for monied interests. Thoroughfares like Larkin, Van Ness, and Geary bear the names of rich men and political leaders, with the exception of a few cultural heroes.

Of course, many of those namesakes didn't have the audacity to name streets after themselves while they were alive. And further, they had relatively typical names like Haight and Howard — the same can't be said of Rdio or ClassDojo.

Sadly for CartoDB, they don't fare too well in their own thought experiment. With a measly $8 million in funding on CrunchBase, at best they'll get an alley in the neighborhood they're calling "Envivio Valley."

To further their point, CartoDB also went ahead and created a map of the San Francisco's skyline as redrawn by how much funding is held by the startups working in each building. I'd say that's redundant. The skyline itself is basically a bar graph of SF tech money.

Related: Shocking SF Singles Map Puts Women In Marina, Men In SoMa And Castro

Photo by Gerard Livernois.

In the wake of cyclist Amelie Le Moullac's death at the corner of Folsom and Sixth, the city announced plans for a bike lane between Fourth and Eleventh streets.

"By the end of the year, a buffered bicycle lane will go up on" the one-way street, which currently has bicycles traveling right alongside cars," reports SF Appeal/BCN. "The four-lane street will be converted to three lanes to accommodate the new space for bicycles. The project is estimated to cost about $253,000."

The community will gather to discuss the Folsom Street bike lane next month. We'll update you with more details as they trickle in to us.

A driver, if you recall, killed Le Moullac after hitting her at the intersection of Folsom and Sixth Streets in SOMA.

Feeling trapped at work on this sunny day? Can't wait to get out of town for your Labor Day weekend? At least you're not this guy, who managed to get his big-rig royally jammed up on Divisadero.

We're not sure, but it could be the same spot that saw this identical situation back in 2009. Drivers take heed: that gigantic container attached to your cab can and will run aground on these hills. Same goes for buses like this Google shuttle that got stuck on a Noe Valley hill.

As in all things, common sense should prevail when attempting to drive in this city.

Bad day? U could be this guy with a tractor-trailer jammed up on Divisadero in #sanfrancisco. #TGIFnot #fail pic.twitter.com/p5OxrI7rdi

— christopher jerard (@jerard) August 30, 2013

Do you have vertigo? Do you want some?

It's one of San Francisco's favorite photo subjects, and today we bring you a selection of our favorite leaning house photos to illustrate just how steep some of the city's sidewalks can be, courtesy of photographer Leighton Wallis.

Photo by Jason Rodman.

Poor guy. He owns the Lexus that this 40ft tree fell on. Hear from him @8:30a @ktvu 1 WB lane on Lombard/Laguna open twitter.com/janinektvu/sta…

— Janine De la Vega (@janinektvu) June 3, 2013

A mighty tree fell on Lombard at Laguna today causing all sorts of horrific traffic issues. The tree plummeted toward the earth at around 4 a.m. on the 1800 block of Lombard.

All westbound traffic is blocked. Please find an alternate route if you're heading west or toward the Golden Gate Bridge.

Also of note, the tree landed on a a tan innocent Lexus parked on the street. Janine De la Vega of KTVU snapped the above shot of the car and his owner, Matt Farrell, who isn't too bothered.

"I just walked out and realized what had happened," said Farrell, who talked to KTVU. "I parked in the neighborhood, but have never parked in this spot before. The car is old so I'm not too worried...I'm just kinda of shocked."

[KTVU]
[SFGate]

Photo by Bennett Honson.

Around 5:30 p.m. on Monday, a large sinkhole opened up beneath the intersection of Second Avenue and Lake Streets in the Inner Richmond. Several news helicopters were spotted hovering over the neighborhood on the edge of the Presidio, watching as the 22-foot wide chasm opened a portal straight to hell shut down the residential street for a few hours.

Neighbors in the area reported that the ground started sinking after a car drove over a patch of relatively new-looking pavement in the middle of the intersection. The Public Utilities Commission initially believed the sinkhole was caused when an old 21-inch sewer line beneath the street ruptured, but have not yet officially declared a cause. There were no water or sewer service disruptions in the neighborhood and as far as SFist can tell, no subterranean rivers of slime either.

District blog RichmondSF has more photos of the aftermath and NBC Bay Area has raw footage from the eyes in the sky:

In late February, a water main in the Outer Sunset ruptured, sending a muddy torrent of water down 15th Avenue.

[RichmondSF]
[NBCBayArea]
[ABC7]

SFist reader Regina Moore sent us these pics her savvy mom, Theresa, snapped while riding home from Stonestown. "My mom sent this along to me today, it's her trip home from the Trader Joe's in Stonestown. Check out who was on the road with her," Regina says, adding, "It cracks me up that my mom clearly came up upon him on Mercedes Way and took a photo from the moving car. Then she did a U turn and drove past him to park on Winston, facing him crossing Junipero Serra and then down on his way to cross 19th Ave to get to Stonestown."

That being said, we hope he survived. Of course. Way to go, dude.

Down in the land of flip flops and fish tacos, Harvey Milk's legacy will be honored via a new street name. San Diego will rename a street in honor of the slain gay rights leader and former San Francisco supervisor, making the southern California city the first to name an avenue after Milk. Why San Diego? According to the BAR, San Diego's queer community thinks of Milk as one of their own. "He was stationed in San Diego in the 1950s when he served in the U.S. Navy, leading local activists to recently launch a campaign urging Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to name a naval vessel the USS Harvey Milk."

Blaine Avenue will be re-named Harvey Milk Street. It will debut on May 22.

Oh, and speaking of naming a naval vessel the USS Harvey Milk, a resolution crafted by District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, D9 Supervisor David Campos and D5 Supervisor Christina Olague withdrew support for the rechristening. Both feel that there are "better ways to honor Harvey Milk."

President Barack Obama's impending San Francisco visit for a fundraiser at the W Hotel this afternoon will result in several street closures for at least one hour. If you drive or ride on the following streets at noon today, please find an alternate route:

- Third Street will be closed from Folsom to Mission
- Howard will be closed from Second to Fourth
- New Montgomery will be closed from Mission to Howard

Please be advised.

A multi-vehicle accident at 6th Street and Harrison has resulted a street closure. "Avoid the area until after 5pm. Possible delays after 5pm due to commute congestion," notes Alert SF.