Imagine a city with dangerous intersections, bicyclists’ safety in question and city inaction. Such was the situation in a neighborhood of San Francisco, concerning an extremely dangerous intersection labeled by some as a “deathtrap.”

An analogous situation exists here at the crossing between Commonwealth Avenue and the Boston University Bridge. Boston University students should be all too familiar with the dangers of crossing that intersection, and should speak out to have the unsafe riding conditions there addressed.

It’s become a time-honored tradition in Boston: Motorists seemingly must take nearly every opportunity to frighten pedestrians, themselves and other motorists with erratic driving and unpredictable decisions. And BU’s campus is no exception. With a large student population spread out along a very longitudinal campus comes a great deal of bicyclists on Commonwealth Avenue throughout the day.

And despite recent improvements to the thoroughfare, including a very underwhelming system of bicycle lanes, cyclist and pedestrian safety seems to be as big an issue as ever, with at least three vehicle accidents involving student cyclists since the start of the semester nearly a month ago. Just like in San Francisco, if BU will not address the issue in some way, the city should step in to improve safety along the major road.

In eco-friendly San Francisco, bicycling is not only popular, but encouraged. So when a bike path was being endangered at a street crossing, the cyclists of the city made it known, and action was ultimately taken to mitigate the confusion. The answer, in the case of Fell Street and Masonic, was a specialized bicycle traffic light that clearly signaled when it was safe for bicyclists to make a left turn, and halted other traffic.

The solution for Commonwealth Avenue and the BU Bridge intersection could include a similar light, redrawn lanes, vehicle awareness signs or a combination of the three. Of course, every problem is different, and the answer on Commonwealth should be very specific to the problems. But if students, cyclists and motorists don’t speak up and demand a solution to the problem, they won’t get one.