Crosswalks in Hayes Valley: A Threesome We Could Do Without

We're all about exploring Hayes Valley by foot, but something has come to our attention after wiggling our way from the Van Ness Muni Station to Patricia's Green that we have to discuss. Join us for a tour of 3 intersections and 3 crosswalks on this 3rd of May.

After exiting an N-Judah that was kept at a cool 85 degrees, we walked up Van Ness and turned left on Oak. As we reached the intersection of Oak & Franklin, we tried crossing the street... but couldn't: It's cool. No big deal. We can handle one strange intersection with only three out of four crosswalks. We'll go right on Franklin instead. We approached Fell and wanted to cross to continue on Franklin, but were met with another discriminating crosswalk: Fine. We can take a hint. We'll go down Fell. We didn't want to go up Franklin anyway. We'll walk down Fell, cross the street and then head up Gough. We get close to the intersection near the Walgreens and breathe a sigh of relief. Those strange 3 crosswalks must be a Franklin thing. Gough would never do that to us. But Gough did do that to us: Blerg. Does anyone know why these intersections were created like this? We can't think of many other spots in the city where you can only cross on three out of four corners. We know Fell and Oak get weird when they alternate between one and two directions, but there must be an explanation we're not considering. Inquiring walkers want to know.