Larry Stoehr was killed while cycling at Claremont and San Mateo last November 14th. I didn’t know about it for several weeks, as I’ve been practicing the same form of mental health news curation many of us have chosen to remain at least somewhat sane in these extremely challenging times.

Not to make this about me, merely to explain gaps in my keeping up with the news, I also only very recently discovered that a HAWK signal was installed on Gibson Blvd in front of the new Gateway Center back in 2024.

The Gibson HAWK was built in response to creating the Gateway Center, as well as neighbor complaints about misuse of an elevated pedestrian bridge nearby. Here’s a 2022 study on Gibson between San Mateo and San Pedro Blvds recommending the HAWK.

What’s this got to do with Larry Stoehr?

Well, Gibson Blvd, a six-lane stroad with posted speed limit of 40 mph, has traffic counts of just over 23,000 daily between San Mateo and San Pedro, jumping to over 31,000 west of San Mateo. The crossing at which Mr. Stoehr was killed, Claremont and San Mateo, is the very deadly exception to the generally low-stress bike route that is Claremont NE. Despite the San Mateo crossing, Claremont is a very popular cycling route, all the way from Richmond near I-25 to Juan Tabo Blvd in the far, far NE Heights. Increasingly serious discussion has been taking place to designate it as a Bicycle Boulevard, something recommended as “High Priority” in the City’s most recent Bikeways Plan.

Much like its equally dangerous brother Gibson Blvd., San Mateo is at Claremont a five-lane stroad with posted speed limit of 40 mph and, again similiarly, daily traffic counts of just under 27,000.

Unlike Gibson at the new HAWK, there’s no Gateway Center stopping cross-traffic. Having ridden Claremont through San Mateo many times myself, what you see above is a very important, and dangerous, aspect of trying to stay alive here. Not only do you have the 27,000 daily drivers on San Mateo, but there’s also all the Claremont cross traffic, and there’s no raised median/refuge. So you’ve got drivers turning left and right into San Mateo, and 27,000 daily drivers already on San Mateo.

Looking at the Streetview above and thinking about it some more, I’m wondering pretty hard why Claremont ever got as cycling popular as it is and why I’ve ever tried crossing San Mateo on Claremont. Okay, the reason for both is that Claremont is the best and most important low-stress east/west choice in the whole NE Heights. And it’s all pretty much great for miles and miles EXCEPT when you get to San Mateo.

Like a lot of folks, I am not terribly comforted by the very strong trend of the City and other governments to only put in “active transportation” infrastructure improvements AFTER somebody gets killed. Yet another example of this is the recent installation of a HAWK at Carlisle and the Hahn Arroyo multi-use path, where Kayla Vanlandingham was killed last July 22nd. Yeah, these improvements are needed, but they’re needed BEFORE somebody gets killed to help PREVENT them being killed.

I don’t need more infrastructural reminders that somebody died at this or that spot, which is what these post-death improvements are. They’re bureaucratic “ghost bikes.” So in strongly advocating for a HAWK signal to be installed, if not a full-blown signalized intersection, at Claremont and San Mateo, I am saddened that it comes after the death of Larry Stoehr. We should have done it years ago. Just like we should be installing HAWKs at ALL the Hahn Arroyo mult-use path stroad crossings (e.g., Wyoming, not to mention San Mateo), not just Carlisle.

The City has now installed so many HAWK signals around town that I’m having a hard time keeping track of how many are in place. There’s HAWKs on Gibson, plenty on Central done alongside the ART project route, Louisiana, and the City’s “original gangsta” HAWK at Lomas and Alvarado. I’m probably missing one or a few, and the City doesn’t seem to be proud enough about them to keep an ongoing numbered list.

Yet the City certainly seems to think HAWKs make dangerous crossings safer, and there’s no denying, to the point of death, that Claremont at San Mateo is dangerous. If we can have a HAWK at Gibson at the Gateway Center, we can, and must, have a HAWK at Claremont and San Mateo with a median diverter blocking left-turns ala the HAWK at Lomas/Alvarado, or install a full traffic signal, even if it is only 1200 or so feet on San Mateo from the nearest signalized intersections at Menaul or Candelaria.

Moreover, let’s be proactive and similarly, truly, address the many other danger spots around town that turn other high priority active transportation routes, in a heart beat, from low-stress to deadly. Let’s prevent deaths instead of just reacting to them.