San Francisco: Worst street pavement in the US

FROM:

Mary Miles

Attorney at Law

San Francisco, CA 94102

email: page364@earthlink.net

TO:

Clerk of the Transportation Authority

San Francisco County Transportation Authority (“SFCTA”)

and Members of the SFCTA Board

1455 Market Street, 22nd Floor

San Francisco, CA 94103

clerk@sfcta.org

DATE: June 12, 2023

PUBLIC COMMENT: OBJECTIONS TO APPROVAL OF ITEMS 7 AND 8, SFCTA AGENDA, JUNE 13, 2023 (Resolutions Adopting the 2023 Prop L Strategic Plan Baseline, and Guidance for Development of the 2023 5-Year Prioritization Programs)

This public comment OPPOSES and OBJECTS to excessive and disproportionate allocations of Proposition L sales tax revenue for bicycle and anti-car projects, including for example Slow Streets, “Safe and Complete Streets,” congestion pricing, HOV lanes, and other anti-car projects.

Both Items 7 and 8 on the agenda allocate 18.9% of sales tax revenue for 30 years to “Streets & Freeways.” Within that amount, priority is given to “Pedestrian and bicycle improvements,” “Signals and traffic calming,” and “Major street and freeway redesign and planning.”

The 18.9% of the total Prop L sales tax for “Streets & Freeways,” includes only a fraction ($105 million over 30 years) of that allocation for desperately needed “Street repairing.” Since San Francisco has the worst street pavement in the United States, street repair should be the priority of Prop. L sales tax expenditures.

The sales tax Expenditure Plan proposes squandering more public money on “Pedestrian and Bicycle Facilities Maintenance,” “Safe and Complete Streets”, “Vision Zero Ramps,” “Development Oriented Transportation,” “Managed Lanes (toll lanes on freeways and congested pricing tolls within the city); and other stated and hidden bicycle and anti-car projects, which total more than $100 million of Prop L money.

We often hear the MTA Director moan about MTA’s “fiscal cliff” (deficit) in meetings, press releases, and threatened reduction of Muni service, while squandering millions of tax dollars on anti-car and bicycle projects.

Even MTA’s own data shows that fewer than 3 percent of San Francisco travelers use bicycles, while the vast majority choose to travel by motor vehicles, data that has remained essentially unchanged for decades. (Corey, Canapary & Galanis Research: San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) Travel Decisions Survey 2021, p. 5 [bicycling mode share is less than three percent of San Francisco travelers].)

We’ve heard about “Better Market Street,” a BILLION-DOLLAR (including bonds) bicycle project that has closed Market Street to cars, and we hear about the Westfield mall on Market Street losing large anchor tenants such as Nordstrom due to a lack of foot traffic. 

Why is that a surprise after the city’s policy of closing Market Street to car traffic? The same goes for other commerce citywide, including restaurants and retail due to the city’s, MTA’s, DPW’s and SFCTA’s failed, misguided anti-car expenditures. 

The city has even endorsed closing vehicle access to cultural amenities like Golden Gate Park. The city has done battle with its residents to even close vehicle access to Great Highway.

The time is now to stop spending sales tax money for anti-car projects and instead prioritize repairing San Francisco’s crumbling, dangerous streets, and restore access to closed and obstructed public streets.

The Prop L half-cent Sales Tax Transportation Expenditure Plan needs restructuring to serve the actual needs of San Francisco travelers, instead of repeating past failed policies. The “Streets and Freeways,” and “Transportation System Development and Management” Prop L sales tax revenue should prioritize and be spent on repairing streets until that repair is complete Citywide.

This Board should reject Items 7 and 8 on the June 13, 2023 SFCTA Agenda.

Sincerely,

Mary Miles

See also The myth of cycling "collisions" on the danger poorly paved streets pose for cyclists.