It's a little over a month since two cyclists were killed in one night on San Francisco's streets: Kate Slattery, who was killed South of Market, and Heather Miller, who died while riding in Golden Gate Park. Today, in a rare move, Mayor Edwin Lee, after talks with the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, issued an Executive Directive to bring safety improvements to the locations where they were killed.
The Directive includes instructions for:
- SFMTA to deliver near-term safety improvements on 7th and 8th Streets in the next nine months
- The SF Recreation & Parks Department (SF Rec & Park) and SFMTA to deliver near-term safety improvements to reduce speeds and vehicular through-traffic on JFK Drive in the next six months
- SF Rec & Park and SFMTA to initiate a study of expanded traffic calming and traffic restrictions in Golden Gate Park within the next three months
More details on the complete directive in a moment. First, some background.
The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition started pushing right away to get some action in response to the horrors of June 22. Streetsblog readers should take a moment and add to their letter-writing campaign by clicking here.
Brian Wiedenmeier, the Bicycle Coalition's new executive director, has been in near constant contact with the Mayor's office, SFPD, and SFMTA. In his own words:
Over the last month, the Mayor’s office has reached out to us, along with several city agencies, to meet regularly and develop a plan of action in light of the tragic fatalities on June 22. Informed by what we are hearing from our members through the 1,500 emails directed to the Mayor, we are approaching those meetings with the goal of seeing prompt, specific safety improvements delivered not just to the sites of two fatal collisions, but to streets across San Francisco.
We are urging the Mayor to demonstrate his commitment to Vision Zero by ensuring city departments take immediate actions to implement protected bike lanes, deliver significant safety improvements to the streets that saw the tragic fatalities of the past month, ensure SFPD focuses enforcement on the most dangerous traffic violations and speed the delivery of Vision Zero projects.
The Bicycle Coalition also put together this timeline of efforts to derive a concrete response to the tragedies:
Below is the full list of Mayor Lee’s Executive Directive orders to all city departments to improve streets and the bike network. The Mayor will:
1. Require that all infrastructure implemented on the city-designated high-injury network be the highest achievable quality, including Class IV protected bicycle lanes, with comprehensive WalkFirst treatments.
2. Direct SFMTA to accelerate its Vision Zero engineering project delivery schedule to achieve a minimum of 13 miles of Vision Zero projects per year, with of the goal of increasing to 18 miles of projects per year.
3. Direct SFMTA to accelerate key projects in the capital plan to meet the goals outlined in the 2013-2018 Bicycle Strategy by completing three protected bike lane projects within the next nine months, including safety improvements on 7th Street and 8th Street.
4. Direct SF Rec & Park and the SFMTA to deliver near-term safety improvements to reduce speeds and vehicular through traffic on JFK Drive in the next 6 months.
5. Direct SF Rec & Park and SFMTA to initiate, within the next three months, a study of expanded traffic calming and traffic restrictions in Golden Gate Park.
6. Direct the Department of Public Health to analyze collision and related data to identify areas where targeted safety investments can improve safety for youth, seniors, and people with disabilities, and in collaboration with SFMTA and community stakeholders develop recommendations for prioritized projects for those vulnerable populations.
7. Continue advocacy for Automated Speed Enforcement legislation at the state level.
8. Direct the Police Department to expand its efforts to meet its “Focus on the Five” goals and continue quarterly public reports and presentations at the Police Commission.
9. Direct the SFMTA, in coordination with other city departments, to begin implementing a comprehensive Vision Zero awareness campaign within the next 30 days to ensure widespread public knowledge and significant increased awareness of Vision Zero.
10. Direct the installation of telematic vehicle tracking systems in all motor vehicles owned or leased by the city, as appropriate, no later than January 1, 2017.
11. Direct the SFMTA to explore, over the next year, tests of other proven crash prevention solutions on SFMTA and city-owned or leased vehicles.
12. Direct the departments to track and report progress quarterly to the Mayor’s office, to be shared publicly and at regular meetings of the Vision Zero Task Force, SFMTA Board of Directors, and SF County Transportation Authority’s Vision Zero Committee meetings.
This is a welcome shift. Streetsblog readers will recall the Mayor got a dose of flak last month for sending out a release that implied that some of the Vision Zero projects already in the pipeline were "new" and in response to the deaths. We will see if the Mayor and the relevant agencies follow through on the new directives. Meanwhile, both the Bicycle Coalition and Walk San Francisco had positive things to say about it. From the announcement:
“There is nothing that can bring back the lives of two people who died biking in San Francisco on June 22. We still feel their losses and can only imagine what their family and friends have gone through,” said SF Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Brian Wiedenmeier. “The Mayor’s Executive Directive to improve the state of biking where those collisions took place, and on high-injury corridors across San Francisco, is a bold commitment demonstrating the city's resolve to eliminate traffic deaths.”
“Every 18 hours in San Francisco, someone is killed or seriously injured on our streets. And low-income communities, communities of color, seniors and people with disabilities are twice as likely as others to suffer that fate.” said Walk San Francisco Executive Director Nicole Ferrara. “Under Vision Zero, the city has yet to achieve reductions in serious and fatal injuries; this Executive Directive is exactly the leadership needed to send a strong message to city agencies that Vision Zero is the utmost priority for this administration, and as such the city must go farther and work faster to build a safe transportation system.”
Let's hope the Mayor's new directives signify a sincere commitment to reaching that goal.
