True Believers talk 2

Paul Avenue bike lane

More on the Streetsblog/Jodie Medeiros interview:

Jodie Medeiros: And we need to be bold about what we’re doing and invest in the infrastructure and engineering and projects that are going to lead to significant safety improvements and meeting our Vision Zero goals by 2024. What’s crazy about Vision Zero is that we only have six years left in this goal, and I don’t think that we have a lot to show for it yet.

Streetsblog: It seems as if cities never make big breakthroughs until they get a “Bicycle Mayor,” such as Bloomberg or Gregor Robertson in Vancouver, Canada.

JM: I’m very pleased that Ed Lee has adopted Vision Zero and he has made it one of his priorities. But we are having trouble with inter-agency conflict, and that’s stalling projects. Our letter to him asks him to be bold, and to be a leader, and to fix those conflicts. Projects should not be stalled; there’s no reason for that...

Rob's comment:

What's "crazy about Vision Zero" is that it's a policy goal adopted as if it was at all realistic. No, traffic injury accidents and fatalities won't be eliminated by 2024---or by 2124, for that matter. 

Basing public policy on wishful thinking just makes City Hall look dumb, like the previous 20% by 2020 fantasy.

Like to hear more about the "inter-agency conflict that's stalling projects," but we're not going to get a realistic account from Streetsblog or Walk SF, both of which are anti-car special interest organizations.

More from the interview: 

SB: How will you address the connection between poverty and safety?

JM: Equity should absolutely be front and center of our work. When you look at how many high-injury corridors are located in the Tenderloin, for example, that signals to me that Walk SF’s emphasis should be on improving the streets in that neighborhood, hands down. 

That is why we are doing community outreach for a safer Taylor Street. It’s one tiny project, but we are also working with Supervisor Kim’s office to see if there’s anything we can do to focus on these high-injury corridors, with wider sidewalks, slower traffic, bulbouts, painted crosswalks–--these are all simple design fixes that can be done cost effectively. Walk San Francisco brings diverse communities together, so we work with Tenderloin Safe Passage, we work with senior groups...I had a great conversation with Donald Falk, Chief Executive Officer of the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.

SB: What did you talk about?

JM: About how he wants to work with Walk San Francisco more and learn about Vision Zero. That’s key to our work: bring groups together so we are all pushing in the same direction. We don’t just need to join with transportation advocacy groups–there’s so much work that can be done with other community organizations...

Rob's comment:

But wider sidewalks, bulb-outs, and painted crosswalks can't by themselves make streets safer if the main issue is, as Commander Ali said two years ago, a lot of "really bad behavior" by everyone on city streets: distracted pedestrians, negligent cyclists and motorists. Human nature/behavior is hard to design or engineer, which is why it's not even mentioned in the interview. 

This is also why talking with community groups and "bringing diverse communities together" on the issue is also not likely to have much effect. Everyone supports traffic safety, but not everyone behaves responsibly when they are on city streets.

And not every neighborhood supports taking away street parking to make bike lanes or to ban cars on busy streets.

More from the interview:

SB: How do you thread the needle when local communities hamstring and fight safety improvements? Think about Chinatown’s opposition to a car-free Stockton, or the Bayview pushing to remove bike lanes from Paul Avenue. I mean, Paul Avenue is having a recently installed bike lane removed because of local opposition.

JM: It’s all about advocacy. The Supervisors need to hear from other communities--–disability advocates, parents, maybe more than just bike advocates on one side and a church on the other...One of the good projects coming out of Walk San Francisco’s participation in the Stockton Street project is car-free Powell. Granted it’s just a couple of blocks, but it’s  a start. Parklets on Powell street was a start, and look what it’s led to. Demonstration projects often work. It’s about pilot, pilot, pilot.

Rob's comment:

But when a pilot program was proposed to determine the traffic consequences of the Masonic Avenue project before it was implemented, the city rejected the idea with the lamest rationale.

More from the interview:

SB: Let’s talk about Automated Speed Enforcement.

JM: It’s at the state level. David Chiu’s legislation would give us a five-year pilot in just San Francisco and San Jose, so we need to do our state lobbying to help pass this through committee in early January. We are doing our homework and pulling our forces together to try and get this moving. Speeding is the leading collision factor, causing ten times more fatal and serious collision injuries than drunk driving. We have to have a public education campaign about speed like we’ve had on drunk driving. And we need enforcement, like the cameras, to help change behavior.

Rob's comment:
Like Congestion Pricing, speed cameras are the ultimate anti-car fantasy as an enforcement mechanism and, for already predatory cities like San Francisco, a potential source of money to support a bloated payroll.