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.

TAKE THE SURVEY (5 ... Read More]]>
Green Connections is a project to make it easier to walk to parks and bring nature into the city. You can help design better streets: Want more trees? Less traffic? Better paths to the waterfront? Tell the City what you want to see!

TAKE THE SURVEY  (5 minutes)

There are lots of Green Connections events going on, including:

• Panel discussion with Walk SF, May 23,
  CounterPulse: “What Are Our Streets For?”
• Green Streets, Mean Streets, SOMA Alleys and Gardens, June 16
• Unlikely Habitat, A Tenderloin Swallowtail Tour, July 1

Check out the Walk SF events calendar and the Green Connections page for more info.

So many things to do. Do this first: TAKE THE SURVEY 

The City needs to hear from you.

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.

Flickr/Pensiero

That’s right, Walk to Work Day is this Friday, and you can participate to win prizes and improve your city!

If you walk to work and post about it online on April 6, GJEL will donate $25 to Walk SF! Your commute will directly ... Read More]]>

Flickr/Pensiero

That’s right, Walk to Work Day is this Friday, and you can participate to win prizes and improve your city!

If you walk to work and post about it online on April 6, GJEL will donate $25 to Walk SF! Your commute will directly support advocacy to make San Francisco better for walking. Plus, you’ll be entered to win great prizes: $50 Sports Basement gift certificates and $150 wellness gift certificates from San Francisco Acupuncture.

Here’s how to participate:

First, be sure to like Walk SF on Facebook and/or follow Walk SF on Twitter so we can direct-message you if you win!

• TWITTER: Tweet on Friday about your commute using the hashtag #walk2workSF, or
• FACEBOOK: Post on Friday about your walk to work: Stay tuned to the Walk SF Facebook page to see how to participate.
• WIN: You’ll be entered in the prize drawing, and GJEL will donate $25 for each post to Walk SF — so you’re winning better streets too!

And come out the night before to get ready:

• Pre-Walk to Work Day Happy Hour
  Thursday, April 5, 5:30 – 7:30 pm
  Ma’velous, 1408 Market Street
  Come get a drink and plan your walk with a map, or just drop by to say hi. You’ll get a gift card for a free coffee from Peet’s to power your walk in the next day, you can buy an “I Walk SF” t-shirt to wear with pride, and you can win more special prizes at the event!

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!

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.

Walk SF met with Police Chief Greg Suhr and the Mayor’s staff at ... Read More]]> If you are a Walk SF member, and especially if you spoke up in response to the terrible video of the man being hit in broad daylight in the crosswalk in the Tenderloin, thank you. Your voice is making change.

Walk SF met with Police Chief Greg Suhr and the Mayor’s staff at City Hall, and gave them the many emails we’d received. The police, in response to those emails, had cited the driver – something that would not ordinarily have occurred. Walk SF asked for that to change: for drivers who injure pedestrians to be cited immediately. Walk SF also asked for clear, accountable enforcement of the laws that protect us all when we walk. Police should be going to the most dangerous locations and ticketing the most dangerous behaviors: speeding, failing to yield to pedestrians, red light running, and running stop signs. Walk SF asked if the Police Department needs more tools to keep people safe in the crosswalk, and offered help.

Flickr/Marcin Wichary

It was a good meeting, and we drafted a statement as a result, which is going through the channels of officialdom. Stay tuned.

And again, thank you for speaking up for safer streets.

In the meantime, something very similar is going on in New York. Perhaps this is an idea whose time has (finally) come.

The victim, who walked with a cane, was making his way ... Read More]]> From Streetsblog: Despite clear video footage showing a shuttle bus driver running over a man in a crosswalk at Eddy and Leavenworth Streets yesterday, pinning him for 20 minutes, San Francisco police saw no reason to even issue a citation.

The victim, who walked with a cane, was making his way through a crosswalk with highly visible markings while he had the walk signal. He was hospitalized after the crash with several broken bones. But because the driver stayed at the scene and was “cooperative,” SFPD spokesperson Albie Esparza told ABC 7 that police determined it to be nothing more than “an unfortunate traffic collision.”

“This video is shocking. You can see how dangerous a driver’s impatience really is,” said Elizabeth Stampe, executive director of Walk SF. ”Everyone I know has stories of cars that fail to yield when they’re crossing the street. Here we see how deadly that can be. Dangerous driving has been tolerated for too long. There has got to be a penalty.” Read more on Streetsblog

Walk SF is working to make it clear that this is not acceptable; we need to hear from the police, MTA, and the District Attorney that they’re committed to defending safe walking — and penalizing dangerous driving.

Speak up to demand stronger enforcement of the laws that protect you while you walk; email your comments and we will forward them to the police, the Mayor, the DA, and MTA .

Support Walk SF’s work to win space and respect on the streets for pedestrians.