Alarmed by the recent string of pedestrian deaths in San Francisco — five in five weeks — local dad Harrison Anderson embarked on a 50-mile trek around the city Saturday to bring attention to the need for safer streets, while raising funds for advocacy group Walk SF.

Feeling powerless and fed up by the number of pedestrians killed in San Francisco in recent weeks, local father Harrison Anderson pledged to walk 50 miles around the city Saturday while raising funds for Walk SF, as KPIX reports. Anderson quickly surpassed his goal of $5,000 while also completing the custom route he created, dubbed “The Hourglass.”

According to a press release from Walk SF, Anderson and his four-year-old son primarily navigate the city on foot, and the tragic killing of a two-year-old girl in a Mission Bay intersection two weeks ago struck a nerve.

"I just couldn't stop thinking about how easily that could have been my son and I," said Anderson, per KPIX. "We're always paying attention. We're always being careful when we're out walking. But I don't have enough fingers to count the number of times cars come flying around the corner, or run through a red light."

Per Walk SF, Anderson began his hike Saturday atop the steps at Ina Coolbrith Park in Russian Hill, he then headed north to Fisherman’s Wharf, south along the Embarcadero, then curved all around the city, with scheduled stops at City College and Candlestick Point State Recreation Area. Anderson documented the day on Instagram along the way — while wearing his trademark hot pink leggings.

“I walked the new 38-mile Roundabout trail in 12 hours one day in January and I was surprised how many people were interested in hearing about my experience,” said Anderson, per WalkSF. “I thought that if I pushed myself to attempt an even more extreme length, it could help bring attention to the good work Walk SF is doing.”

When creating his route, Anderson was sure to include all of the city, especially the most under-served neighborhoods, which are impacted the most by flawed infrastructure, per Walk SF.

“The poorest neighborhoods are usually the ones with the worst infrastructure for pedestrians, even though they’re also the places I see the most people outside walking,” said Anderson.

As KGO reports, Anderson had walked about 20 miles by noon Saturday. He said he aimed to finish before midnight — when his step counter was due to reset.

Jodie Medeiros, executive director of WalkSF, told KPIX pedestrians shouldn’t have to pay the price with their lives for mistakes made on the road.

“This is a solution that's definitely solvable," she said. "You make sure that the tools are there so that people cannot drive dangerously. People are bound to make a mistake. Whether it be the person that's walking, biking, or the driver.”

“But how do you make sure that the system works so that if one piece of the system fails, the other one catches it?"  Medeiros said.

Anderson said he hopes things will be different once his son has his own kids.

“I love San Francisco and a big part of why my family lives here is because of its walkability,” Anderson told Walk SF. “My hope is that someday, when my son walks these streets with kids of his own, he won’t feel the same worries that I do.”

Image: Harrison Anderson

Related: Bystanders Describe Horrific Scene Where Toddler Was Killed In Mission Bay Intersection

Bicyclists and pedestrians are zipping across the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge for the first time since the structure opened in 1956, completing a decades-long, $20 million quest.

When it comes to Bay Area bridges, SFist usually has terrifying news for you; whether it’s fires burning on the Carquinez Bridge, or cracks on bolts that hold our most trafficked bridges together, or the how-on-earth-does-this-happen issue of concrete falling on cars on the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge. Some good bridge news was delayed roughly six months by those very falling concrete chunks, but now the ‘beware of falling concrete’ warnings have been lifted. The Marin Independent Journal reports that the Richmond-San Rafael Bridge Bike/Pedestrian Path opened Saturday, and for the first time in that bridge’s 63-year history, people are now biking and walking from Marin County to Contra Costa County, and vice versa.  

The map above shows the access points of the new “Bi-Directional Bike Ped Path,” though this animated gif from the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy shows the new bike lane in its full pedal-powered glory. The new path is on the bridge’s previously unused “third lane” of the upper deck, and according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC), can be accessed from “Vista Point at the end of East Francisco Boulevard/San Quentin off-ramp from westbound Interstate 580 in San Rafael, and a second at Castro Street and Tewksbury Avenue in Point Richmond.”

The bike and pedestrian path will be accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Former Marin County Supervisor and MTC board member Steve Kinsey told the Journal that Saturday was “a very proud day for the folks that have been there from the beginning,” counting himself as an advocate since the 1990s. “I think the turning point was when Caltrans realized that it’s not just a highway agency,” he said. “It’s a multi-modal agency, and took that to heart after some very critical management reviews back in 2014.”

But since this involves Marin County, there is of course controversy. Some current Marin supervisors and MTC higher-ups would prefer to see the bike-pedestrian lane open to cars on weekday morning commute hours. They note that daily westbound traffic on the bridge has risen 20% over the last six years — 68,000 cars each morning in 2013, compared to 82,000 cars per morning today, based on figures from the Transportation Authority of Marin. That authority estimates that the current weekday morning delays, which currently average  22 minutes, will increase to 27 minutes by next year with the current “bikes and pedestrians only” model for the lane in question.

The Rails to Trails Conservancy write-up points out that there are more bike and pedestrian paths to come, probably none bigger than the long-sought western span of the Bay Bridge bike path. But the latest MTC news on that front is still just fantasy renderings and a sad-sack excuse that “No source of funding has yet been identified.” Until then, the only non-car traffic on that part of the bridge will be damned-fool tourists obliviously riding e-scooters, which we reiterate is a massively stupid and highly illegal thing to do.

Related: Unhatched Hummingbird Egg Delays $70M Richmond Bridge Project [SFist]

Top image: HNTB Corp. via Metropolitan Transportation Commission

An annual ranking by this site called WalkScore, which provides detailed, neighborhood-by-neighborhood scores of various cities based on their walkability and access to public transit, has put San Francisco as the second most walkable city in the nation (behind New York). Surprisingly, Oakland makes the top 10 as well, ranking at number 10.

We will disclose that we lived in Oakland once, and it's really not that walkable! Sure, there's a downtown (where hardly anyone goes if they don't work there), and there are a few neighborhoods like Rockridge and Grand Lake that are somewhat walkable. But we didn't know anyone who lived there who didn't have a car -- compared to S.F. where a great many of our friends are carless. We suppose that there aren't a lot of car-free folks in any of the other top-ranked cities either (Boston, Philly, Minneapolis, Seattle), but still, we must say Oakland's a bit of a stretch... especially considering how far apart the BART stops are, and how desolate many of the densest neighborhoods are after 6 p.m. Just sayin.

First off, we apologize for not giving you all a heads-up about the first Sunday Streets that happened yesterday at Embarcadero. It totally went under our radar. But according to Streetsblog, it was a huge success. There were reportedly thousands of people biking, walking, rollerblading, and hula-hooping along the three-mile stretch of the northbound Embarcadero lanes.

The next Sunday Streets will be on April 11 in conjunction with 1000 Cities, 1000 Lives. The route will be through Golden Gate Park and along Great Highway. Check out the whole line-up of Sunday Streets this spring, summer, and fall!

Although almost every single one of you have fantasized about doing it at some point -- especially on 24th Street, where for some inexplicable reason people ooze down the street like lava -- you rarely act upon it. A group of vile teens, however, did. It seems that the reason for last Sunday's brazen shooting death inside the Metreon was over an argument about walking too slow down an escalator. Really.

The 15-year-old mental case that murdered Michael Price Jr., according to the Chronicle, "opened fire after he got into an argument over the victim's having not traveled fast enough down an escalator, investigators said Monday." Price was shot three times as he was trying to flee the group of teens.

This is the second shooting-related death to happen within the Metreon's, um, energy field.

Chris Dangerous (Christian Grahn), the drummer, took the stage first. With his face, but mostly his eyes (Tyra Banks would be proud), Dangerous would look at different spots in the audience and give a slightly fierce, Top Model pose which he continued throughout the night. Never have we seen a drummer actually perform; we've seen plenty play the drums, but not actually perform. Dangerous was there to perform, whether that was to hit a non-existent cymbal every few beats about two feet above him or strip halfway through the show, it was all about the performance.

Now, we can't forget the effervescent lead singer, Howlin' Pelle Almqvist (Per Almqvist), who made sure the audience knew we they were from Sweden and here to party. (Which he did quite well!) Throughout the performance, Almqvist was creating instantaneous fans by jumping into the audience and touching as many fans as he could or bringing hot girls to the stage to ask him questions. One girl asked for Dangerous' drum sticks which they happily obliged and the other asked him to marry her. Instantly, Almqvist created an entire marriage ceremony between The Hives and the concert goers - utterly hysterical but brilliant at the same time. For the last three or four songs, Almqvist requested the fans to come closer. Instantly the quasi-security-people-in-the-nasty-blue-suit-jackets had a heart attack trying to get people to sit in their assigned seats. We were suddenly pressed up against the wall between the "real" security guards and stage. We know this for sure, these Swedes know how to start a party.

Take the jump to finish reading and for more pictures of the concert...

-- The Pipettes: This all-female, British, Phil-Spector-sounding band gains more and more popularity by the day. See them tonight so that by next year when they're too big for SF venues, you can say you saw them when. They perform with Social Studies and Monster Bobby (read our interview with him here!) -- the Ladybug Transistor, who were scheduled to go on, will not be appearing -- tonight at 8 p.m. at Bimbo's; $15-17.

-- Ask Dr. Hal (final one of the season): Before he takes a much-needed sojourn elsewhere, catch Dr. Hal answering the questions on San Francisco's mind. What began at the Odeon way back when remains one of the city's most popular nightclub acts. (Fear not as he'll return in the spring! Or so we hear.) He starts at 9 p.m. at 12 Galaxies; $8.

-- Will Self: British scribe, "satirist, onetime junkie, and dedicated long-distance walker" over at The Independent will read from his latest effort, Psychogeography, a collection based off popular column he writes with Ralph Steadman. He goes on tonight at 7 p.m. at City Lights; free.

-- Haunted Haight Walking Tour: Let's face it: the Haight is one scary place in and of itself. Compound the historic neighborhood with the other side, and you have one hell of a scary Monday night. Perfect for those of you wanting to catch some Halloween-y spirit! Begins at 7 p.m. at Coffee To The People; $20.