Mission Street is one of the most heavily trafficked transit corridors in the city. Buses, trucks, bikes, rideshares, and pedestrians all compete for the same overtaxed stretch of asphalt. And when something goes wrong — as it inevitably does — people get hurt.

Let's be clear: if the truck was making an illegal turn, that driver bears responsibility. But individual bad actors don't explain a pattern. Muni has a collision problem, and it's not new. The SFMTA has spent years — and considerable taxpayer dollars — on transit-first infrastructure, protected lanes, and Vision Zero initiatives that were supposed to make streets like Mission safer. Several people being loaded into ambulances on a weekday suggests we're not getting our money's worth.

The city's transit agency operates a fleet of over 1,000 vehicles across some of the most congested urban streets in America, yet investment in real-time collision avoidance technology, driver training overhauls, and meaningful traffic enforcement remains sluggish. SFMTA's budget has ballooned past $1.4 billion annually. Where is that money going if not toward preventing exactly this kind of incident?

And then there's enforcement — or the lack of it. Illegal turns, double-parking, and blocked transit lanes are practically a spectator sport on Mission Street. SFPD's traffic enforcement has been effectively nonexistent for years. You can't design your way out of chaos if nobody enforces the rules.

We hope everyone injured in this crash recovers quickly. But hope isn't a transit policy. San Francisco needs to decide whether Vision Zero is an actual commitment or just a bumper sticker — because right now, it's looking a lot like the latter.