Hot off the presses:

Mayor Lee, SFMTA and Walk SF Announce ... Read More]]> Great news on a central Walk San Francisco campaign! San Francisco is the state’s first big city to do this — who will be next?

Hot off the presses:

Putting up the first new 15-mph sign! Photo courtesy Bryan Goebel, Streetsblog

Mayor Lee, SFMTA and Walk SF Announce New Safer Speed Zones Completed around 181 San Francisco Schools

San Francisco becomes California’s first large city to establish 15-mph school zones citywide

San Francisco—Mayor Edwin M. Lee, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all surface transportation in the city, and Walk San Francisco today announced the completion of new 15-mile-per-hour speed zones around 181 schools. The project, which began last August at a ceremony where Mayor Lee oversaw the installation of the first sign, is part of a comprehensive approach to improving pedestrian safety citywide.

“The children of San Francisco are our most precious resource, and we need to make sure that they feel safe traveling to and from school,” said Mayor Edwin M. Lee. “To help ensure this, I have asked city departments to prioritize actions, such as the new 15 miles per hour school speed limit zones that will have a direct and immediate effect on making our streets safer and more livable for all pedestrians.”

“Walking in San Francisco should be inviting and safe for all residents,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Edward D. Reiskin. “The SFMTA is committed to working with our city partners to ensure that kids can get to their schools safely. We will continue to seek out comprehensive and innovative street improvements for everyone.”

“These school zones will help kids walk to school safely,” said Elizabeth Stampe, Executive Director of Walk San Francisco. “They’ll also calm traffic in neighborhoods throughout the city, making streets more inviting for walking. This is a big step forward for everyone who walks in San Francisco. We applaud the Mayor’s leadership on this, the SFMTA’s quick action to establish the zones, and the Police Department’s commitment to enforcing these new safer speeds.”

Photo by Adrienne Johnson

The 15-mph speed limit signs have gone up around all public and private K-12 schools that are eligible under a 2008 state law, which allows the 15-mph zones on two-lane streets for 500 feet around a school.

“The San Francisco Police Department is committed to making our city’s streets safer, and we’ll be enforcing these 15-mile-per-hour speed zones to do just that,” said Captain Denis F. O’Leary of the San Francisco Police Department.

The Mayor’s Pedestrian Safety Directive, issued in December 2010 under former Mayor Gavin Newsom, includes a specific near-term action item to implement 15 mile-per-hour speed limits at all schools in San Francisco. The change in speed limit is allowed under the California Vehicle Code and a state law, AB 321, which allows local authorities to implement 15 mph speed limit zones within 500 feet of schools when children are present. This will help meet the establish targets for the reduction of pedestrian injuries, a 25 percent reduction in serious and fatal pedestrian injuries by 2016, and a 50 percent reduction by 2021.

“Calming the streets around our schools reduces congestion by making it safer for our students and their parents to choose environmentally friendly ways to get to school,” said Nik Kaestner, SFUSD Director of Sustainability.

Walk SF executive director Elizabeth Stampe talks to kids at Walk to School Day 2011. Photo by Marianne Szeto

One of the most important steps to reducing fatal and serious injuries is designing streets so that motor vehicles travel at speeds that are safe for everyone, including pedestrians. When vehicles are traveling at 30 mph, studies show that pedestrians are six times more likely to die than in collisions with vehicles traveling at 20 mph or less. The prima facie speed limit on San Francisco streets is 25 mph, unless signs are posted to dictate otherwise.

The 15 mph school zone program includes 181 San Francisco schools from K-12 public and private schools and approximately 803 signs. The total cost of the program, $361,700, is covered by local Proposition K sales tax funds and SFMTA operating funds.

The Mayor’s Office and city agencies have undertaken many efforts to reduce driving speed to posted speed limits. These efforts include the installation of speed humps, traffic circles, median islands, curb bulbs, edge lines, road diets, and traffic signal modifications.

Walk to Work Day from @ariannerh/Twitter

What a gorgeous day for a walk to work in San Francisco! Be sure to share the “I Walked” image on Walk SF’s Facebook page and/or tweet using #walk2workSF.

For everyone who ... Read More]]>

Walk to Work Day from @ariannerh/Twitter

What a gorgeous day for a walk to work in San Francisco! Be sure to share the “I Walked” image on Walk SF’s Facebook page and/or tweet using #walk2workSF.

For everyone who posts, GJEL is donating $25 to Walk SF — and you can win a prize! We’ll do the drawing at the end of the day today.

Be sure to follow Walk SF on Twitter and like Walk SF on Facebook — that way we can direct-message you if you win a prize.

Work really far from home? Or over a body of water? Never fear. You do not have to walk over the Bay Bridge. (Though we’d like to make that possible.) Just walk fifteen minutes (or more) and tell us about it.

After all, every commute begins and ends with walking, so you walk to work in one way or another every day — but this is your opportunity to take more time and really look around and enjoy your city. Plus, it’s a great opportunity to notice: What parts of the walk are great? What feels unsafe or unfriendly? What would make you do this more? Tell Walk SF!

And check out this beautiful slideshow from one of today’s walkers.

Walk SF recently met with the Police Chief and the Mayor’s office; we are now releasing a ... Read More]]> On March 28, Walk SF got a strong commitment from the police, spurred by February’s tragedy in the Tenderloin, to protect everyone’s right to walk safely.

Walk SF recently met with the Police Chief and the Mayor’s office; we are now releasing a joint statement (below) as a result. We will be meeting with the District Attorney as well, to urge more action on penalizing dangerous driving.

This is a real milestone. This is a commitment to accountable enforcement of the laws that protect you when you walk.

Walk SF appreciates the commitment by the Police Department and the Mayor to making San Francisco’s streets better and safer for everyone.

Joint Statement
from the San Francisco Police Department and Walk San Francisco
on Pedestrian Safety and Traffic Enforcement

March 28, 2012

After meeting with Walk San Francisco, the San Francisco Police Department would like to take the opportunity to join with Walk San Francisco in a statement of concern and action in response to the pedestrian hit in the crosswalk in the Tenderloin, as well as additional recent pedestrian collisions.

1) Update on the Tenderloin collision:

The Police Department heard the community’s concern about the crash in the Tenderloin and has issued a citation to the driver for failing to yield to a pedestrian in the crosswalk.

Walk San Francisco will meet with the District Attorney this month to discuss how and whether the driver in this instance can be charged and on how to penalize dangerous driving moving forward.

2) Additional actions to increase safety:

Enforcing 15-mph school speed zones:

The Police Department is currently implementing a systematic approach to enforcing all the city’s new 15-mph safer speed zones around schools, working closely with the Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA):

Each month, SFMTA gives the police the location of all new 15-mph zones. The following month, police go out and warn drivers at each school of the new speed limit, and the month after that, police issue tickets for speeding at each school.

This is an excellent precedent for citywide targeted enforcement. The police will continue to report on enforcement activity at each Mayor’s Pedestrian Safety Task Force meeting.

Enforcing pedestrian right-of-way:

Neighborhood enforcement: As part of each neighborhood police station’s regular traffic enforcement, police will carry out weekly actions citing drivers that fail to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks. These enforcement activities will be focused in the most dangerous areas, identified on the map of police data showing high-injury corridors and intersections.

Citywide enforcement: The Police Department’s central Traffic Company, the motorcycle police who carry out most of the city’s traffic enforcement, will also undertake weekly crosswalk right-of-way enforcement at the highest-priority locations identified on the map of police data showing high-injury corridors and intersections. This enforcement will rotate locations to ensure that over the course of a year, all of the most dangerous areas are covered.

Walk San Francisco will assist the Police Department in publicizing these activities to increase awareness.

Targeting enforcement on the most dangerous locations and behaviors:

Focusing enforcement: The Traffic Company is currently focusing traffic safety enforcement in high-injury corridors, citing the most dangerous behaviors:

• Speeding
• Failure to yield to pedestrians at crosswalks
• Running red lights and stop signs

Reporting on enforcement: The Traffic Company will report these enforcement efforts—citations, hours spent, locations, etc.—on a monthly basis to the Mayor’s Pedestrian Safety Task Force, of which Walk SF is a member.

Supporting the police’s ability to enforce: Currently, reporting on enforcement is made difficult by the fact that officers still have to actually hand-write citations and have them manually entered into a computer afterward. The SFMTA has committed to funding the purchase of 70 handheld electronic citation devices within the next six months, as well as setting up a computer program that will track and report on citations. This will be part of the Traffic Company’s reporting on a work order with SFMTA to do traffic enforcement on city streets.

Data sharing:

The Police Department, the Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), and Department of Public Health hope to sign a data-sharing agreement soon and continue creating a system to share collision data promptly; a key piece of this will be transitioning this year from handwritten police collision reports to a modern electronic reporting system shared among agencies. This will inform enforcement and engineering efforts to make the streets safer for everyone.

The Police Department is putting together a request for funds, tools, and staff needed to implement this.

3) Making San Francisco’s streets safer:

These actions will help to meet the City goals set by the 2010 Mayor’s Executive Directive on Pedestrian Safety to: reduce serious and fatal pedestrian collisions by 25% by 2016 and by 50% by 2021, increase walking citywide, and reduce inequities among neighborhoods in pedestrian safety.

The Police Department is currently working with the Mayor’s Pedestrian Safety Task Force on a Pedestrian Strategic Action Plan to be finished this year. The plan will include additional enforcement actions to meet these goals, such as deploying additional technology such as more accurate “Lidar” speed guns, and additional targeted enforcement around schools, including schools without 15-mph zones and with the Safe Routes to School program.

The Police Department is strongly committed to keeping San Francisco’s residents, visitors, and workers safe and comfortable on city streets and looks forward to working with other city agencies and with Walk San Francisco to help everyone enjoy the city on foot.

Please support Walk SF to:

Save the date for Walk SF’s Member Meeting and Greeting, Thursday Dec. 8 at 6pm at SPUR. RSVP here

Not a member yet? Don’t miss out! Join Walk SF now.

In this edition:

Note the "1" pasted over the "2" to take the speed limit down 10mph!

Huge step forward today for safer streets!

This morning, Walk San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee, and city department heads announced an initiative to help kids walk to school: New 15-mile-per-hour speed zones going up ... Read More]]>

Note the "1" pasted over the "2" to take the speed limit down 10mph!

Huge step forward today for safer streets!

This morning, Walk San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee, and city department heads announced an initiative to help kids walk to school: New 15-mile-per-hour speed zones going up around all city schools this fall.

For Walk San Francisco and all its members, this is a victory in a long campaign. Throughout the year, Walk SF has kept up a drumbeat of attention on pedestrian safety and calmer streets, starting with new speed zones around schools.

Putting up the first new 15-mph sign on 7th Ave near George Peabody School! Photo courtesy Bryan Goebel, Streetsblog

Why? Because speed matters. Just a small reduction in vehicle speed makes the difference between life and death.

These school zones are an important step toward calming traffic throughout the city and helping to reclaim our streets as safe, pleasant public space that we can all enjoy.

San Francisco is the first big city in the state to adopt these 15-mph zones, and Walk SF is looking forward to safer streets and calmer traffic around over 200 schools.

Walk SF is also working with the Police Department and MTA on a clear plan to enforce every single one of these new speed limits, to really make sure they’re effective.

These new speed zones will help create a more safe and sustainable city, helping kids get to school safely and calming traffic in neighborhoods throughout the city.

This is a big step forward for everyone who walks in San Francisco.

Peak2Peak, our signature walk, is coming up September 24: Save the date and vote on this year’s route!

Read more about a troubling development on Cesar Chavez (update on Streetsblog), victories ... Read More]]> Our summer newsletter is hot off the e-presses!

Peak2Peak, our signature walk, is coming up September 24: Save the date and vote on this year’s route!

Read more about a troubling development on Cesar Chavez (update on Streetsblog), victories on our Safer Speeds Around Schools campaign, and upcoming walks and Sunday Streets events — all in the Walk SF summer newsletter.

Plus, volunteer opportunities abound: Walk SF is looking for volunteers to table at Sunday Streets on July 10 and also seeking membership and outreach interns. Email us to volunteer.

More good news from the statewide election: Prop 23, which Walk SF opposed, failed with only 39% of the vote. This leaves California’s landmark climate-change-fighting bill untouched, allowing the state ... Read More]]> Great news! San Francisco’s Prop AA passed, which will raise $1.25 million for street improvements for pedestrians, and another $1.25 million for transit reliability improvements.

More good news from the statewide election: Prop 23, which Walk SF opposed, failed with only 39% of the vote. This leaves California’s landmark climate-change-fighting bill untouched, allowing the state to continue moving forward on supporting sustainable transportation options–like walking!

And some bad news: Prop 26, which Walk SF also opposed, passed. This means that new fees will now, like taxes, require a 2/3 vote, and so raising revenue for public improvements and services will now become much more difficult.

We Walk to Work on Wednesdays (and other days too) by ... Read More]]> You may have read Meredith May’s article about Thomas Vogl in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine, January 3, 2010 as part of the Ultra-Commuters issue. The following is a write-up that Thomas prepared for Walk San Francisco about his Walk to Work advocacy.

We Walk to Work on Wednesdays (and other days too)
by Thomas Vogl

I live in the Outer Sunset neighborhood and usually cycle to work, but one day I decided to try walking to work instead. It felt great, it was simple, and it made me really want to share the experience with others. So I told my housemates about my “walk to work” day, they liked the idea, and decided to give it a try. Entire streets we hadn’t noticed before revealed themselves to us, we met and conversed with new and interesting people along the way, it energized us, and we all agreed it felt good to just walk. We were grateful for having a healthy pair of legs and that gratitude flowed into our work day.

Because of these initial experiences I decided to walk to work more often and reached out to more people to join us. Since we started two months ago a mini movement has emerged: We’ve made a tradition of walking on Wednesday mornings. Some of start the day by meeting in a café and others join us enroute. We make our way towards City Hall where we split up because some of us have reached our destination while others must continue on.

…And So… (aka The Mission Statement)
I want to share the love of walking and inspire more people to consider walking as an innate right and a viable and enjoyable alternative to transport oneself to work. Walking is enjoyable, free, and healthy, and is even more fun when we walk to work together as “walking buddies”. Walking to work should be encouraged and promoted as an effective and efficient commuting alternative.

… There is More
Apart from the obvious benefits (it is free, good for the environment, an excellent work-out, and very reliable) I would like to share some of the other up-sides that I have experienced when I walk to work:

· Social Connections. Walking to work has given me a chance to spend some quality time chatting face to face with buddies, and making new friends. It’s been a pleasant surprise to see how many people have given me warm greetings and smiles for simply walking by
· Fresh Perspectives. Walking to work has allowed me to see new streets and pathways I would never have noticed before. Commuting in this fashion has given me a new way of seeing how other people live, work, and generally get around and in general is a great way to appreciate San Francisco even more

My Dream
· I see a multitude of Walk to Work neighborhood groups, greeting each other as they cross paths.
· I see an occasional Walk to Work celebration complete with marching band to help further inspire participants and to recruit new individuals to join us.
· I see Walk to Work becoming hip and cool, in the same way bicycling has.
· I see yearly “Walk to Work” Days in San Francisco, like the Bike-to-Work, with lots of people commuting by foot, and pausing at energizer stations for some fluids, encouragement, and camaraderie.
· I see a great increase in the membership of Walk SF as more citizens learn about the organization and its importance to the city.

What Next
I will be setting up an information booth in my office building (the old Hamm’s Brewery Building in Protero Hill) to let people know about my little mini movement. I will give them the opportunity to put their email and neighborhood onto a list so I can help them connect with one another and find walking buddies.

I wish you a happy Walk to Work Day!
Thomas Vogl

If you want to learn more about Walk to Work drop me a line at thomasvogl@hotmail.com