This is a public comment given by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition at the SFMTA Board of Directors Hearing in regards to SFMTA’s 18-month work plan.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition encourages SFMTA staff to return with a more ambitious work plan to meet the goals in the Mayor’s Street Safety initiative and the Board of Supervisors Street Safety Act.
The data in this report is compelling and shows us the improvements the agency has employed over the last 10 years of leading the Vision Zero strategy has improved safety significantly for people who bike, roll and walk in our City.
Most compelling to us is bikeshare ridership being the highest it’s ever been and we know a quarter of San Franciscans bike at least once a week. That is an incredible statistic considering there are only 51 miles of protected bike lanes in our City compared to the thousands of miles of driving lanes.
Our elected officials made big commitments to improving street safety through the Mayor’s Street Safety Initiative and the Board of Supervisors Street Safety Act. Rather than riding this wave and setting ambitious goals, we are concerned the action items in this proposal will not actually achieve the commitments you’re being asked to adopt.
How will we reduce VMT and protect our most vulnerable road users if we can only expect to build 3-miles of protected bike lanes and upgrade 3 slow streets in the next 18-months.
The Biking and Rolling Plan is the culmination of three years worth of community engagement, street-design research, and best practice commitments. It’s not addressed in the street safety initiative until after year one. We can do a lot of the things in the Biking and Rolling plan sooner than that. When the BRP was approved last year, directors asked staff to come back in 9 months with a strategy to roll out slow school zones and we’ve heard nothing about that.
We know interagency coordination takes time but we don’t need to shelve all of the plans the agency has spent years creating just to start at ground zero. We have the tools and political support to put things in the ground sooner than 18-months. We encourage you to direct staff to come back with a more ambitious work plan once the 2025 High Injury Map is published.”
