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Market Street and Octavia Boulevard is the Joan Rivers of San Francisco intersections. No matter how much work is done on it, it’s still a wreck.

The intersection was the site of the most bike accidents over the past two years, according to The Bay Citizen Bike Accident Tracker. The primary cause: cars making illegal right turns from Market Street onto the Octavia freeway onramp and in the process flattening cyclists who are zipping down the side of Market Street in the bike lane.

Adithya Sambamurthy/The Bay Citizen

Bicyclists and motorists at the intersection of Market Street and Octavia Boulevard during rush hour on Tuesday, February 8, 2011

The high numbers come in spite of many changes that the San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency has made to the dangerous intersection since 2005.

Three No Right Turn signs were added in 2005. Straight vertical arrows were installed in the traffic signal. "No Turn" was also painted on the pavement. Then at the beginning of 2007, the bike lane was protected by white pylons and larger signs were added showing the right way to get to the freeway.

The SFMTA’s Bridget Smith said that those improvements caused illegal right hand turns to drop a whopping 93 percent. But that enormous drop had little effect on the numbers of bike accidents. In fact, Smith said that bike crashes caused by cars making illegal right turns jumped 60 percent during that time.

Since then, even more changes have been made: signs warning bikers, more striping on the pavement and actual concrete islands separating the bike lane from the road have been added.

But The Bay Citizen Bike Accident Tracker shows that there were 14 bike crashes at Market/Octavia in the last two years: six in 2009 and eight in 2010. Ten of them were caused by illegal right turns. There were 17 bike crashes at the intersection from 2006 through 2008.

That bike accidents persist and even increase is no surprise to Cheryl Brinkman, an SFMTA board member and a bike commuter who passes through the intersection every day.

“It is really tempting for drivers to make that turn,” said Brinkman. “You can see the freeway right from Market Street.” 

Brinkman said she believes that two improvements could help solve the problem: A red-light camera that snaps photos of offending motorists, and landscaping that would hide the freeway from motorists’ eyes, thwarting temptation to turn right.

The problem with installing a red-light is that it's not clear if it's legal to install them on highways, such as the onramp on Octavia, said Quentin Mecke, a spokesman for State Sen. Tom Ammiano. Ammiano tried to pass a bill to clarify the situation last year, but it was vetoed by then-Gov. Schwarzenegger.

“It’s never been an issue of money, and SFMTA has certainly said that they’re interested in doing something,” said Quintin Mecke, a spokesman for Ammiano. “It’s just been that underlying question that makes everyone pause.”

Mecke said that Ammiano is consulting with the state attorney general before proceeding with other camera legislation. 

The SFMTA tried to get rid of the bike lane at the intersection three years ago so that cars and bikes would ride in the same lane. SFMTA engineers thought it would help prevent bike crashes, but bikers rose up in defense of the lane, protesting and eventually winning the right to keep it.

In spite of the increasing collisions, Leah Shahum, director of the San Francisco Bike Coalition, said that the street improvements are making the intersection safer.

“We've heard from people that it feels safer than before the improvements have been made,” she said.

She noted that the number of bikers using the route have increased at the same time that accidents have increased. Indeed, ridership along Market Street has increased 50 to 70 percent since 2006, according to spot bike counts by the SFMTA.