Candidate Facts
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Name: Juan-Antonio Carballo Campaign Website: www.carballo2014.com |
Candidate Questionnaire
Last month, all official candidates for the Board of Supervisors were contacted and given the opportunity to answer our Candidate Questionnaire. Any candidate responses edited for length and clarity have been marked as such.
1. Do you ride a bicycle in the city?
Yes
2. If yes, for what purpose(s) and how often? How do you most commonly commute to work?
Bicycling is practically my way of life. I ride in the city almost every day (average 6 times per week). I commute to work in Silicon Valley by bike from District 2 to Caltrain, then Light Rail at Mountain View. I also ride for numerous purposes, including weekend exercise to/from Marin County (30-40 miles), shopping tasks (e.g. pick up bread in the Mission), attending personal and professional and personal events, etc.
3. The City has established a goal to at least double the number of bike trips in the next 4 years. Do you support this goal?
Yes
If yes, what would you do as Supervisor to help the city realize it?
I will drive a long-term vision with four transport networks working seamlessly together: pedestrian, bicycle, public transportation, and automobile. I will promote policies that encourage bicycling, including many miles of physically-separated bikeways, traffic-calmed streets, bike parking, and direct incentives. I will support education and enforcement to ensure pedestrian and bicyclist safety. I will have data measured constantly, and personally drive partnerships with public and private entities, including the world’s other top bicycling “sister” cities.
4. After a tragic 2013 for people biking and walking, including 25 fatal collisions, City leaders have embraced Vision Zero, which aims to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries to zero in the next 10 years through better engineering, education, and enforcement. This policy has now been adopted by the Board of Supervisors, the Mayor and many key agencies, such as the SFMTA & the Police Dept. Do you support Vision Zero?
Yes
As Supervisor will you prioritize funding and policy decisions based on Vision Zero, or safety-first?
Yes
5. It has been shown that the most effective way to boost the number of people bicycling and improve the bicycling experience is to designate dedicated space through physically separated bikeways and traffic-calmed streets. The SF Bicycle Coalition has set out its Connecting the City initiative, an ambitious but achievable vision of 100 miles of crosstown bikeways that are comfortable and inviting for people of all ages and abilities, connecting neighborhoods and helping locals and visitors to shop, work, and play more often by bike. Reconfiguring our streets to include crosstown bikeways and other “low stress” bike routes will draw concern from some residents who are skeptical of this next-generation infrastructure and who oppose re-programming any existing on-street car parking or traffic lanes for safer biking.
Do you support the creation of continuous crosstown bikeways — Connecting the City— even acknowledging that there will be some public pushback to inevitable changes?
Yes
6. The SF Bicycle Coalition has advocated for the City to increase its spending on bicycling improvements, so that it constitutes 8% of its transportation budget, given that the SFMTA’s Strategic Plan goal aims to reach 8% of trips by bike by 2018. In its most recent budget cycle, the SFMTA only increased the funding for bicycling from 1% to 2%. As Supervisor, will you support leveling the playing field by ensuring that the level of funding for bicyclists at least matches the proportion of San Franciscans that bike?
Yes
7. The affordability of transportation is a growing concern for many San Franciscans. For most SF residents, particularly low-income families, transportation is the second-highest cost of living after housing. As Supervisor, how will you promote bicycling as an affordable transportation choice, particularly for among households overburdened by expenses?
Bicycling can be the most cost effective mode of transportation. I will promote policies to educate and train families in bicycling, and support measures that break any financial barrier for families to bicycle. This may include special bike share promotions, public-private partnerships, and financial/tax incentives. I will lead a committee that tracks bicycle penetration by income scale, and leverages relationships with the world’s other top bicycling cities to leverage their best practices on this topic.
8. Market Street is San Francisco’s most well-traveled corridor, with a quarter of a million daily transit vehicle boardings on or under it each weekday and more daily bike trips than almost any other street in the United States. The City is working on a Better Market Street plan that calls for limiting private vehicle thru-traffic, creating a continuous, physically separated bikeway the full length of Market Street, while also enhancing better transit and pedestrian travel. Would you support this plan?
Yes
9. This Fall, voters will have the chance to support the Transportation and Road Safety Bond. This bond supports $500 million of work to improve the city’s transit systems and make our roadways safer for all users, with a focus on improved bikeways and pedestrian safety. Will you publicly support and actively campaign for this measure?
Yes
10. Also this Fall, voters will be presented with a ballot measure called Policy Regarding Transportation Priorities Declaration of Policy or “Transportation Balance”, which aims to weaken San Francisco’s long-time Transit-First policy, and send more of our City’s scarce resources to further subsidize parking to the detriment of other, well-established priorities, including transit and the safety of people walking and biking. Will you support Transit-First and Vision Zero by publicly and actively opposing the Policy Regarding Transportation Priorities Declaration?
Yes
11. In 2016, San Franciscans will be asked to restore the Vehicle License Fee to 2% to provide an ongoing, progressive source of funding for transportation priorities in San Francisco, including safer walking and biking conditions and improved transit. Do you endorse this revenue source?
Yes
If yes, will you also support bridge-funding for the transportation funding gap until this funding measure is active?
Yes
12. San Francisco has recently joined a growing list of major cities with sophisticated bike sharing programs. To succeed, this program will require significant expansion to neighborhoods across the city, which will require additional funding and public space for the bike-sharing station. Do you commit to seek and secure funding and space to expand this cost-effective, innovative new transportation system to more San Francisco neighborhoods?
Yes
13. Double-parking in bike lanes is a major safety problem in San Francisco, causing people biking to have to swerve dangerously. Will you prioritize a significant increase in the SF Police Department’s and the SFMTA’s Parking Control Officers’ enforcement of this problem?
Yes
14. Concerns around police enforcement of safe driving laws in San Francisco is high. 1,700 people have signed a petition to urge George Gascon to prosecute the driver in the Amelie Le Moullac bike fatality case. Do you support increased enforcement and accountability for all road users focused around the five most dangerous driving actions (speeding, failing to stop for pedestrians in the crosswalk, improperly making a right hand turn, running red lights, and failing to stop at stop signs)?
Yes
15. Have you championed or strongly supported any other initiatives that are in line with the SF Bicycle Coalition’s mission of promoting bicycling for everyday transportation?
I fully support this mission and live by it every day as I bicycle for commuting, exercise, and many purposes. I encourage virtually everybody I meet to cycle for everyday transportation, including my family. I provide exact details on suggested clothing, connection with public transport, mobile technology aids…I have bicycled major urban cities around the world and promoted my experiences via social media. I am also an investor in Faraday, a local electric bicycle start-up.
District-Specific Questions
1. Major gaps exist in the Waterfront bike network, particularly from Aquatic Park to Crissy Field. Do you support establishing safe, continuous bikeways that are inviting for people of all ages and backgrounds along the Bay Trail route in District 2?
Yes
2. A major gap connection in the San Francisco Bay Trail is a three-block length of the path along Marina Boulevard from Scott to Baker Streets. Do you support creating an open and safe path for the many visitors to this popular corridor, even though it will entail some parking re-positioning for members of the adjoining yacht club?
Yes
3. Polk Street is a critical North-South connector for people of all ages aiming to ride between the central neighborhoods and the waterfront and downtown, as well as the city’s officially recommended route. Unfortunately, it is also a high-injury corridor both for people biking and walking, with an injury occurring roughly every twice a week. Will you support physically protected bikeways and pedestrian safety improvements on Polk Street?
Yes
