As a MUNI fast pass holder, a cab user, a pedestrian, and a car owner, I am personally aware of the transportation challenges our District and our City face. Under San Francisco’s City Charter, Section 8A.115, every action taken regarding transportation in San Francisco should have the effect of encouraging more environmentally and pedestrian-friendly transit across the city. In order to ensure that, certain steps should be taken to encourage greater use of public transportation, taxis, van-pooling, and bicycles, while reducing the physical number of cars on city streets, including:

Public Transportation
The San Francisco Metropolitan Transportation Agency (MUNI) is at a critical crossroad between financial stability and collapse. Immediate attention must be paid to MUNI’s financial problems – as well as its lagging performance and safety – to maintain the transportation system’s high-level of ridership and encourage greater reliance on public transit. However, unlike other transit agencies around the US who have seen ridership decreases add to fiscal woes, MUNI has actually seen an increase of nearly 20% during the current recession.

• Fix MUNI’s finances. Financial stability must be the primary concern of MUNI in the next five years. Of utmost importance is reducing overhead and labor costs that are overwhelming the system. Concessions must be struck with MUNI’s unionized workers to help pare down the proposed deficit over the next three years, while new means of funding that do not include service cuts must be explored.
• No one should get a free ride. Fare evasion should be a large focus to bridge funding gaps. Studies have shown that around 10% of riders on MUNI lines are regular fare evaders, costing the agency tens of millions of dollars that could be used to bridge the budget gaps.
• Bring back the Castro shuttle. The Castro station sees more riders on a daily basis than any other MUNI station, which is why the Castro shuttle eased the daily commute of so many San Franciscans. Underutilized transit lines must be reduced to cut costs, while the lines with the greatest ridership must be increased to alleviate the reductions in other lines.
• J Church turnaround. A more effective use of the J Church line may be to turn it around at 30th Street.
• Transit safety. Safety must be a chief concern for MUNI and SFPD. Passengers should not have to worry about safety on public transit. After a spate of Muni injuries due to major crashes and several high-profile assaults on various lines, many San Franciscans have expressed reluctance to use public transit for fear of unsafe conditions. Safety issues continue to plague Glen Park and we should coordinate safety efforts with BART Police, SFPD, the Patrol Specials, and community safety patrols to make sure passengers arrive home safely. A cab stand at Glen Park Station may be another angle to consider.
• Watch service cuts. My office will fight to ensure a minimal amount of cuts to District 8 lines.

Pedestrians
San Francisco is consistently ranked at the top of all major US cities for pedestrian traffic fatalities. The City should pursue policies that encourage greater pedestrian traffic, while simultaneously ensuring their safety.

• Fix the sidewalks. The City should explore options to encourage more foot traffic, including upgrading sidewalks that have become dilapidated and treacherous due to earthquakes and poor upkeep.
• Improve our intersections. I support safety upgrades to intersections, including more electronic crosswalk signals, increased signage, improved street markings and greater education programs, which all work to reduce pedestrian/automobile incidents.
• Promote Pedestrian Plazas. Find suitable places to continue the highly-popular Pavements-to-Parks program that transformed the corner of 17th Street and Castro into a pedestrian-friendly area.

Automobiles
Automobile traffic is the biggest cause of pollution in San Francisco. Families and persons with disabilities often have to rely on cars because our public transit system is not as pervasive and efficient as it should be. Several steps should be taken to discourage drivers from using their cars daily, while at the same time not hinder small businesses that could see revenue drops from lost customer bases.

• Study Congestion Pricing Models. An in-depth study of Congestion Charge proposals, such as those that are being utilized in large cities like London, needs to happen to see if we can raise revenue for alternative modes of transportation while cutting congestion in the busiest parts of our City during peak periods.
• Maintain current parking meters’ hours. After a predictable backlash over increased parking meter enforcement hours in Oakland, the City should refrain from making up lost revenues for Public Transit by placing too heavy of a burden on automobiles unless studies show true revenue generation and no adverse impact on small businesses. One way to do this may be a trial period in North Beach.
• Fix potholes. The City should pursue voter approval for a new bond to repair dilapidated and unkempt streets. These streets are not only valuable to automobile drivers, but also for the safety of cyclists and the comfort of MUNI riders.
• Design a public car share option. Based on the popularity of private programs like City CarShare and ZipCar, San Francisco should explore a public option for hybrid/electric car sharing that would mirror the bike share program under development. Not only would this take hundreds of privately-owned cars off the road, but would be a possibly revenue source for the SFMTA.

Bicycles
We anxiously await the Superior Court’s decision that may bring a full end to the injunction against the City’s Bicycle Plan. Once lifted, the City can begin implementing the plan’s bike improvement projects – adding miles of new bike lanes to the 45 miles of existing bike lanes, installing more usable bike racks, and encouraging the use of bicycle transportation for leisure and business by making the Bike Network safer and more welcoming.

• Avoid future litigation. To encourage an atmosphere of understanding and compromise between avid cyclists and automobile users, a task force should be created to draft future policy. This will help ensure any future legislation coming before the Board is agreeable to all parties to reduce citizen frustration and the possibility of time-consuming and costly litigation.
• Educate cyclists. The City should ramp up education and enforcement of traffic codes to ensure that cyclists are abiding by all traffic laws. This will greatly increase cyclist, pedestrian and automobile drivers’ safety on city streets as well as reducing driver and pedestrian frustration with the small majority of cyclists who do not obey existing laws.
• Support a Bike Share program. Full support should be given to Mayor Newsom’s proposal for a large-scale “Bike Share” program modeled after those used in several large European cities. With a projected usage of between 2-5 million rides a year, the program would remove thousands of car-trips from city streets each year, in turn reducing pollution and congestion in the busiest parts of San Francisco.
• MUNI and cyclists can co-exist. Expanded usage of MUNI by bicyclists should be explored in order to increase bike riding around San Francisco, including the possibility of retrofitting Light Rail Vehicles (LRVs) to allow for bike transportation during non-peak hours.

Successful transit policy comes from listening to all people who use the various transit modes. We need to discourage the belief that our transportation policies must pit one group of users against another. Let’s work together to keep San Francisco moving.