With five days left to Election Day on Nov. 6, I’ve been consistently asked, with varying degrees of worry or excitement, “How are you?”

This has been a wild four-month adventure. I never thought I’d run for office. The idea of it was scary, and now I know that the state of constant vulnerability you’re in can be paralyzing and more often than not, lonely.

But even in spite of that, my experience has been balanced out with so much more.

When I share my vision of BART with people, it’s often opened up conversations about our region’s transportation, the increasing unaffordability of San Francisco, the lack of housing, and the homelessness crisis that we see so visibly at BART stations. These are tough conversations about what kind of city San Francisco is and what kind of city and region we want to be. But these are also the exact kind of conversations I want to have, and more than anything, my time as a candidate has reminded me how much we need a fierce advocate on the BART Board to be independent, care deeply about public transit, and put people and our communities first.

Working at the SF Bicycle Coalition for the last five years has instilled in me a deep love of cities. I once said that if life is some version of learning how to navigate the self, then my bike is how I navigate my life in San Francisco. The bicycle has been the way I’ve understood and come to love our streets, our people and our communities.

Through the SF Bicycle Coalition, I’ve also learned the language of street infrastructure, transportation budgets, transit policy, and legislation because informed advocacy backed by people power is the most effective. When it comes to BART, I was proud to have served on the BART Bond Citizens Advisory Committee to make sure station access was a funding priority for the successful 2016 measure. Last year, I walked the halls of the California State Capitol to make sure our Bay Area elected officials knew the importance of funding bicycle and pedestrian projects as well as new BART cars as part of the successful Regional Measure 3, which won voter approval in June. And day in and day out, I guide our team of community organizers so that we win member-driven campaigns that bring real physical changes that make our streets better for biking.

I want to bring that experience to the BART Board, because Bay Area residents deserve a BART Director who will be present and accessible, and has a track record of getting things done.

At the end of the day, representation also matters. As a queer Asian woman and as an immigrant, I don’t see many people like me running for office. There aren’t often spaces where I feel heard or seen, and in part, I’m running for office to make that space real. So just like what the SF Bicycle Coalition teaches in our bicycle education classes, I’m ready to take the lane.

The SF Bicycle Coalition is proud to endorse Janice Li for BART Board. Vote for Janice on or before Election Day on Nov. 6 and learn more about her here.

For decades, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has been one of the most effective advocacy organizations in the city. Powered by members, we win everything from bike lanes to more funding for transportation to policy changes in service of our mission — promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation.

Since our organization was founded in 1971, our city has changed dramatically. When it comes to biking, we’ve seen monumental growth in the number of people who bike, and many of our streets have been overhauled to be increasingly more welcoming to us, whether it’s more protected bike lanes or car-free streets.

But when I think about what our streets look like today, I know that we can’t only look at the asphalt, concrete and paint between two curbs.

The truth is that no matter how many protected bike lanes we win and no matter how many intersections are redesigned for pedestrian safety, our streets will never be truly welcome or safe if we do not tackle the homelessness crisis in San Francisco.

I made a resolution in 2017 to “embrace intersectionality” as the lens for my work as Advocacy Director at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. This came after the November 2016 election during which I had spent months developing Propositions J and K, working closely with then-Supervisors John Avalos and Scott Wiener. This would have increased our city’s sales tax to invest approximately $100 million to transportation and $50 million to supportive housing and homeless services annually. While these joint measures did not succeed, our organization built new partnerships with homeless advocates and service providers.

We built upon these relationships to take a more comprehensive and compassionate approach to our bicycle advocacy, starting first with the Hairball, a complex knot of paths where Potrero Avenue, Cesar Chavez Street and Bayshore Boulevard meet beneath Highway 101. While we fought for physical design improvements, we also advocated for the establishment of two nearby Navigation Centers because we knew that there were dozens of people living there who were at the figurative and actual intersection of homelessness and transportation infrastructure.

I’m proud that both the temporary and permanent Navigation Centers have brought transitional, supportive shelter to people who were living at the Hairball and that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition took leadership in creating space for this conversation through a Bike Talks event.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition is proud to support Yes on C so that we can bring real solutions to address the homelessness crisis here in our city.

Just as much as we will never accept that a car-centric city is the inevitable and unchangeable future for San Francisco, we should not accept the status quo of homelessness. Prop C is the most bold and most comprehensive plan to address the homeless crisis to date, and we believe that passing this measure will truly make our streets more safe and welcoming for everyone.

Join us in supporting Yes on C because our vision continues to be creating safer streets and more livable communities for all San Franciscans.

Learn more about Prop C