Public Transportation and Pedestrian Advocacy Platform

 

Since its founding, San Francisco has been a pedestrian centric city. Due to the poor urban planning practices of the 20th Century, many parts of San Francisco became directly impacted by the over-prioritization of automobiles due to influence of the petroleum, auto and associated manufacturer, and real estate industries as well as systemic racism and corruption at a municipal level. Whereas some neighborhoods were able to activate to stave off a citywide grid of freeways and multilane boulevards, many low and working class communities were not, many of them communities of color and many in District 9.

 

Now we are facing new challenges in the form of a deprioritization away from public transit to private and reverse redlining through potential freeway proposals that lack community or environmental forethought and could result in accelerated gentrification.

 

In the crosshairs of all of this are pedestrians who are suffering poorly implemented and disconnected street-level implementations and decreased access to the city they live in. Although there are limitations to what I as a supervisor can do, I commit to you that my advocacy and legislation will always be through lenses of equity, accessibility, and cultural competency with a pedestrian, and frankly human, focus. I also commit to listening and working collaboratively with the many hardworking and highly skilled people that work in the City and all agencies referenced.

As always, I view all my platform focus as intersectional and you will find many of these touched upon in the other sections.

 

Livable Streets and Neighborhoods 

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• Promotion and Protection of Safe Corridors

  • Work with Executive and Legislative Branches as well as City Departments and regional agencies to ensure accessible, safe and patrolled transportation hubs and bus stops.

    • Advocate for the creation of SFPD and public resource kiosks at all major Muni and BART stations to ensure an interactive and engaged presence.

  • Work with PUC to close the gap on repair and function of street lighting and to push in ensuring Muni stops are well-marked, clean, properly lit and accessible.

  • Work with PUC in targeting expansion of swales and rain gardens to all streets in the District to mitigate flooding and create green buffers from street pollution for pedestrians and residents.

  • Work with the Mayor and Public Works to identify and expedite the repaving on unsafe road conditions, in particular major corridors.

  • Expand Residential Permit Parking to encourage better utilization / management of existing curbside space in commercial districts.

  • Work with and hold accountable regional and municipal law enforcement to curtail recreational and unauthorized use of city street and pedestrian and cyclist rights of way.

    • Push for checkpoints to mitigate influx of dirt bikes and ATVs at strategic locations and times.

    • Push for registration of motorized single person vehicles to enforce safe operation on streets only.

    • Push for increased fines for both operators and any company they may be working for at the time.

  • Painted lanes are not enough: push to expand protected and high-quality facilities for non-motorized bicyclist access to city streets..

  • Push to implement bicyclist signals and crossing gates to increase pedestrian safety.

  • Ask MTA to reevaluate the efficacy of pedestrian crossing buttons that prioritize auto traffic as a fatality prevention method and how these are often being implemented with greater frequency.

  • Work with the community PUC, DPW, MTA, and CalTrans to identify areas where deprioritizing auto access makes sense. This could look like

    • Slow streets

    • Daylighting former waterways to provide ambient cooling and pedestrian/cyclist/ wildlife access while mitigating pollution and flood risks.

    • Demolition/ Repurposing Central Freeway for open space, lungs for the city, and estuary rehabilitation to mitigate pollution, flood and seismic risk.

      • Explore as possible aerial liftway (gondolas) between Mission Bay and Market Street/ Octavia

      • Explore encasing John T. Foran and Bayshore Freeways and creating a new “tunnel tops” that promotes greening, shores up active land instability on leeside of Bernal Hill, and wildlife rehabilitation in areas still suffering the impacts of 60+ years of redlining and community isolation. Possible bikeway and aeriel lift implementation connecting Bayview, Visitación Valley, Portola, Bernal Heights, Mission, Mission Bay, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch and South of Market neighborhoods.

 

Safe, Clean, and Accessible Transit

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• Advocate for public engagement by the MTA to improve collaboration and public communication with residents of D9 in general and the Mission in particular, who are amongst the highest users of public transportation in the city.

• Push for a re-prioritization away from fare evasion enforcement to safety and code enforcement on all MTA vehicles. Both Muni operators and riders deserve a safe environment and should not have to police themselves.

• Working with municipal and regional agencies to increase safety presences at all Muni, BART, and Caltrain Stations.

• Increase reliable late night, overnight, and early morning service for our largest and most under- resourced workforces.

• Collaborate with MTA to pilot District 9 recreation and nightlife jitney service. Express routes to run to recreational spaces in and out of District to provide better access to families as well a nightlife circuit to run through Mission, Cortland and San Bruno corridors with strategic stops at transportation hubs to promote local business, support workforce, and deter driving while intoxicated.

• Identifying alternative funding sources to support public transportation that is less punitive for residents who need access to autos.

  • Partnering with local and regional agencies to advocate for increased regional, state and federal subsidies.

  • Reprioritizing fees away from individual collection alone to private corporations who utilize transportation infrastructures for free.

• Mandatory registration of drivers operating for private rideshare companies within City-County Limits to ensure safety for drivers and riders.

• Explore the possibility of a charter change moving the San Francisco Municipal Transit Authority into the jurisdiction of a joint powers authority composed of the Mayor and representatives from the Board of Supervisors, the community by district, and the agency. 

• Finding a path toward sustainably free public transportation for residents.

 

Looking at Statewide and Regional Opportunities

 

• Create better cohesion between and collaboration with regional transit agencies and those in neighboring municipalities. Advocate together to fully fund these vital agencies.

• Explore statewide and expand statewide relationships in an age of greater commuting between cities.

  • Explore and advocate for the reinstatement of the Spirit of California line which was a partnership between the State of California (CalTrans) and Amtrak that provided overnight service between Los Angeles, Oakland- San Francisco, and Sacramento. Privatized and exclusive overnight train service already is making inroads on track right of ways which highlights the need for commuter service between major cities.  This implementation could not only be fully funded by robust passenger sales but  possibly provide much needed supplemental funding to California High Speed Rail while providing interim service and mitigating increased traffic and auto environmental impacts and fatalities.