Speak in support of Supervisor Melgar’s bold resolution for safe streets on Tuesday

Earlier this week, San Francisco hit a heartbreaking milestone: 10 pedestrians have died so far this year on our streets. The majority of victims were seniors.

Meanwhile, the City’s Vision Zero policy expired six months ago – and there hasn’t been a new interagency traffic safety plan since 2021.

But on Tuesday, July 29 at the Board of Supervisors, District 7 Supervisor Myrna Melgar will introduce a resolution to bring action and accountability to achieving safe streets for all: the San Francisco Street Safety Act. 

Supervisor Melgar’s resolution reaffirms San Francisco’s prior Vision Zero commitment to end severe and fatal traffic crashes – and this is crucial. 

Without this core commitment as a city, traffic safety will not be prioritized when already it hasn’t been enough of a priority. We need City leaders to do everything in their power to prevent tragedies and without a clear commitment at the top, it will be that much harder to advocate for this.

But Supervisor Melgar’s resolution includes more than a commitment. It has a suite of actions for key agencies to design and enforce streets for safety at the scale and pace needed. 

This includes:

• Planning for and completing a suite of ‘Quick Build’ safety treatments on forthcoming newly identified high-injury and high-risk streets 
• Adding ‘Complete Streets’ infrastructure improvements (like pedestrian bulb-outs, turn calming, hardened daylighting, and pedestrian safety islands) anytime a high-injury or arterial street is repaved or updated in other ways 
• Replacing the Residential Traffic Calming Program with a proactive approach for adding speed humps and cushions across neighborhoods with data-driven, pre-approved design standards so these can be installed quickly
• Planning for bringing ‘hardened daylighting’ to the high-injury network (once all intersections citywide are painted), plus establishing a process for community groups or residents to enhance daylit corners 
• Establishing a public dashboard updated quarterly with outcomes-based metrics to assess progress toward ending severe and fatal crashes, plus more regular updates of the high-injury network and crash data analysis
• Increasing and focusing SFPD traffic enforcement on the driving behavior most likely to result in a traffic crash, plus conducting monthly strategic enforcement operations on speeding to complement the locations and effectiveness of the speed camera program
• Prioritizing the use of automated enforcement including speed cameras and red light cameras, including pursuing more legal authority to expand the use of speed cameras
• Establishing faster review by the SFFD of street safety projects, plus streamlining approvals for specific street design and traffic calming tools on different street types to speed installation 

There’s more, but what I’ve listed are the actions that get at some of the most meaningful ways our City can accelerate progress – and start to move the needle on crash rates.

So please: join Walk SF on Tuesday at City Hall at 5:00PM in Room 250 to show the Board of Supervisors that their constituents need them to lead on safe streets.

This is a big opportunity to build momentum for safe streets – so let’s show our support in a big way!

I’m so grateful to Supervisor Melgar for her leadership. Now we need to demand all our elected officials lead on traffic safety. 

If you’ve never given public comment before, make this your first time! We’ll support you every step of the way. After you sign up, we’ll share talking points and keep you posted.

Safe streets in San Francisco are possible. It’s about the political will to deliver solutions at the scale and pace needed. Your voice will help build that political will!