Speak out on June 4 to streamline safety fixes on our most dangerous streets

Proposed ‘transportation code amendment’ would speed up needed safety improvements

There’s no time to waste in bringing safety improvements to San Francisco’s most dangerous streets and intersections – especially when many effective fixes can happen with paint, posts, signs, and signal changes.

Yet right now the SFMTA staff must bring almost every safety improvement, no matter how small, to the SFMTA Board of Directors for legal approval. That’s even if the SFMTA wants to simply put in a stop sign on a street that’s part of the high-injury network!

We have been pushing hard for the City to figure out ways to get safety improvements on the ground much faster. On June 4 at the SFMTA Board meeting, we have a chance to help this happen through a “transportation code amendment.”

A proposed amendment to SFMTA’s transportation planning code would allow safety improvements to be approved by the city traffic engineer instead of being legislated by the SFMTA Board if the changes meet the following criteria:

• The changes are adjustable and reversible.
• The changes can be made by city work crews from the SFMTA or Public Works (the changes do not require outside contracts)
• The changes are limited to lasting a maximum of 24 months. At the 24 month mark, the SFMTA must submit a review of the how the changes have worked, and the Board must approve any major construction to make the changes permanent.

This means city traffic engineers will be empowered to do their job efficiently, and anything they can do with paint, posts, signals, and signs on these designated streets (including turn restrictions) can skip the final hurdle of Board legislation – and happen that much faster. Safer bike lane designs and transit boarding islands are also included.

Walk San Francisco strongly supports this transportation code amendment. This is a promising step toward a more streamlined approach to fixing our deadliest streets. Our city’s “quick-build” treatments to our most dangerous streets ought to be quick. Really quick. Changing the transportation code will help that happen!

We urge you to speak out in support of this transportation code amendment on June 4. Join us at the SFMTA Board meeting at 1PM to give public comment at City Hall in Room 400 (here’s the agenda for the meeting; this item will likely occur around 1:30). Contact Cole at cole@walksf.org if you can be there.

Banner image: SFMTA Photo | SFMTA.com/Photo