Activists gather at the scene of a hit-and-run accident that killed a man on a mission

Members of Walk San Francisco gathered at the intersection of Mission and Cortland Thursday evening to create a memorial made of sunflowers and paper hearts for the 10 pedestrians killed in San Francisco so far this year.

They chose this intersection because a 41-year-old man was killed there in a hit-and-run accident in the early hours of Monday morning.

“That’s 10 too many,” said Jodie Medeiros, director of Walk SF. “That’s not right. Our city is better than that.”

Mission Street, where Monday’s hit-and-run accident occurred, is in the city’s “injury zone,” where serious car accidents often occur. “The number of cars driving so fast” is remarkable, said Medeiros, who observed traffic on the street.

“It’s important that the city makes sure that drivers understand that this is a residential area and that these are residential streets, that there are businesses here and people live here, that people get on the bus and children go to school,” Meideiros said.

Shortly after the memorial was installed, Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the 9th District where the hit-and-run accident occurred, arrived and brought her daughter to pay her respects.

“I am just so sad about another traffic-related death in this district, and at such an important location, at a bus stop that so many people in the district use. This hits me hard,” said Ronen.

To address that number of pedestrian deaths, Ronen said she and Supervisor Connie Chan are co-sponsoring a bill that would “streamline the process for Vision Zero” and cut city red tape so projects can move forward more quickly.

Vision Zero, launched in 2014, is the San Francisco government’s goal of eliminating all traffic fatalities. Experts criticize the city’s plan as uncoordinated and reactive.