supervisor campos: good morning and welcome to the tuesday october 19, 2010 meeting of the transportation authority plans

and programs committee. my name is david campos, the chair of the committee. to my right is carmen chu. present our david chiu, commissioner john avalos should be here shortly. bevan dufty is in route. covering the meeting for sfgtv are derek fernandez. do we have any announcements? >> no. >> please call item 2. >> approve the minutes of the september 21, 2010 meeting. this is an action item. supervisor campos: is there any member of the public debt would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. second by david chiu.

without objection. item three. >> citizens advisory committee report. this is an information item. >> good morning, members of the commission. i am the chair of the citizens advisory committee. we only have one item on our agenda which is also on your agenda, your item 5, allocation of prop k funds for traffic calming, traffic signals, and amending the five-year plan. there were a few questions from cac members, particularly about traffic calming adjacent to the visitation green way valley. there was a difference between

the overhead multiplier for muni and d p t, and questions about whether there was a national standard for traffic signals designed. as i said, it all passed unanimously. that concludes my report. supervisor campos: thank you. colleagues, any questions? any member of the public that would like to speak on this item? seeing none, public comment is closed. item four. >> item 4. presentation on the future of bicycling in san francisco. supervisor campos: i know we are waiting for what proved to be, i am sure, an excellent presentation on the future of bicycling in san francisco. >> good morning, director. this item was originally

requested by commissioner david chiu. we briefed you last month on the launch of our investment in this program over the next 25 years. following that presentation, commissioner chiu asked us to provide a plan for bicycling in the future. this is the time to talk about our vision for the bicycling network and overall transportation system. as we know, bicycling is a wonderful mode that is growing in san francisco. it is a zero emission, healthy and active way to travel around the city. in recent years, we have seen a place making and economic development benefits across the u.s. banks to this. we have seen evidence of this as

well in the city. bicycle sharing and tourism also represents significant opportunities for us. in 2004, the countywide transportation plan did prioritize bicycling through a dedicated prop k tax category. in the past five years, even despite the bicycle plan in junction that limited the projects, i am sure they will speak about this later, but there were 128,000 daily bicycle trips in 2008. mta's manual bicycle count shows a 56% increase in the

number of cyclists. we expect demand to grow in bicycling. this means we have to keep routes clear. there are 25 or so miles remaining in the card was a " plan, bringing the total mileage to 79 in san francisco. the total billed out of the network, the board approved the five ypp for bicycling, which includes a five-year prioritization program. it includes $5.4 million in prop k funding for bicycle network development, and identifies a further $19 million in leveraged funds. these include funds for bicycle to work day promotion,

education, safety classes, and importantly, $3.1 million for the actual network development for bicycle lanes and paths, facilities, installations, and innovative treatments. funding for bicycle projects is not a major challenge. the greater constraints is achieving consensus among agencies that and the public on where to put facilities and what type of treatment we should use. treatments could be different depending on the project in vision. however, we are aware of the benefit of taking up a multi modal approach, rather than focusing on a single street. this is the approach san francisco agencies are taking on market street. either way, it is important to plan now to prioritize the next goals of the next-generation of

bicyclists. supervisor campos: thank you. i think we are going to hear from david chiu. supervisor chiu: it is good to be on this side of the aisle. first of all, thank you for presenting the item. the ta and city is engaged in long-term transportation planning and i thought it was appropriate to think about the future of bicycling in san francisco. i first want to know, i think we are at a crossroads. we have a lot of political support for moving forward many different modes of transportation, particularly bicycling. with the lifting of the bicycle in junction, we have a lot of short term plans of what we want to do. at this time, it is fair to say there is a lot of planning we need to do in the long run. i want to thank mayor newsom for

building his commitment to this. i know that the 11-0 vote that we had in relation to this program shows that we are a body committed to working with the larger san francisco community to move the vision forward. in this regard, during the legislative recess, i decided to travel with a number of mta officials as well as the head of the department of public works, as well as elected leaders from around the bay area, to look and what best practices existed in europe and in particular, the netherlands. i would like to give a brief presentation on some of the things we learned and then invite the coalition to present their own thinking. when i came back, i had a number of meetings with the bike coalition, and i realize that our long-term vision was shared. it is that shared vision that we would like to present today. if i could have our slides.

>> by the way, we wanted to label this, what i did last summer. [laughter] supervisor chiu: we put these together last night. i also want to thank the bikes belong program which looks at best practices from around the world. many of us who have looked at this know that the statistics of biking modal share in europe and in several countries really contrasts with what we have in the u.s. i would describe the reason why we went on this trip to understand why these statistics are why they are, and what was on the ground. looking at the statistics, at this time, 1% of americans bike

on a regular basis. that compares with the netherlands at 27%. most european countries fall in between those two. if you look at san francisco -- in the american context, we are doing pretty well. we are fourth or fifth in terms of beit kucinich -- bike usage. if you compare that to major cities in the netherlands, you can see these numbers pale considerably. and just as an example, if you look at the mobile split between biking, transit, cars, it is quite dramatic. here in san francisco, 6% compared to 36% on the biking side which equals, at this time

, essentially what you see from public transit and car trips. if you look at the percentage of trips taken into the city center and the heart of some of our major cities in the netherlands, including amsterdam, over 50% of the trips taken into the city center are done by bike. so we went there trying to understand why this was the case. it is difficult, i think, to show the phenomenon that you see on the ground. i want to show you a couple of pictures that demonstrate what we saw. it is fair to say the one big observation many of us had is everyone in the netherlands bikes, whether you are a child, whether you are a family. we saw many scenes of three, four individuals on one

apparatus. whether you are a senior, riding bicycles -- we need to insure that however you are traveling, you can do so safely. more importantly, in the netherlands, folks bike in the rain, in the snow, and for those of you those ofhills, they have ski lift-like contraptions that pull you up the hill. in the netherlands, the history of that country, until 1973, tracked the history of our own country in terms of automobile usage. but the country made a significant decision during the

oil embargo that one of their national responses to wean themselves off of oil the dependence was to invest in biking infrastructure. if you look at this chart from 1975, when a number of policies were implemented, the number of individual riding bicycles, which had been declining in previous decades, started to rise again. similarly, bike fatalities, which had been increasing over time, started to drop precipitously in the mid-1970s. at this time, in 2010, given the issues that the world is facing with oil dependency, given what we know about global warming, about the importance with regards to the health and safety of being able to bike, it is important to consider whether we can replicate this type of

transportation. we visited various cities and we noticed five specific things that cities are implementing. it was not a cultural thing within the netherlands. there were specific policy measures that they decided to implement in the mid-1970s. i am going to quickly run through what these elements were involved in a bicycle networks, parking, safety, prevention efforts, theft, education. first and foremost, in every city in the netherlands where you have significant bicycling, there is a freeway system for bicycles. a rich network of paths and the roads that connects writers -- riders to every part of the city. secondly, in many cities there is a real investment in bike

parking. compared to car parking, and average space could be replaced by 10 to 12 bicycles. here you can see the type of density that can bring literally hundreds of thousands of individuals into the center city. -- city center. bike safety is an enormous issue that has been tackled successfully in the netherlands. there are specific engineering improvements like signals, mirrors attached to traffic lanes, specific areas of the road protected for cyclists which has led to a dramatic increase in safety. if you look at cycling fatalities in the netherlands, the united states actually has a rate 6 times higher than what

you see there. the more investment unit, the saver is for everyone on the road. given the number of bikes on the road in european countries, there are significant theft policies. everything from being able to tag them, track them, and law enforcement who takes bike theft seriously. finally, one important cultural element of the netherlands is just as we spend time in our high schools and with adults engaged in driver education, in the netherlands there is significant education started at a young age, often at the early elementary school years. the last thing i want to mention, there are questions about the business case for why we want to consider in this

area. transportation experts understand the return on investment of investing in a dollar into biking compared to other modes of transportation is significant. in portland, which is one of a number of cities leading the way in the u.s., the total cost of a 300-mile network, $60 million. in comparison, the total cost of being able to develop 1 mile of the urban freeway for cars, the same amount, $60 million. if you look at the impact of biking on the local economy, is even more extreme. there are many cities for which they have seen a significant boon to local merchants, businesses, the local climate, because of improvements in investment. if you look at portland, toronto, canada, if you look at valencia street coming here in san francisco, when you add bicycle lanes and parking, it

helps the local economy. where are we going cu ? we established as a city to have 10% of our cities heckling by 2010. we are not there yet, but we are making significant headway. i believe it is a good time for us to set some goals. it is important because there are numerous plans we have in our city that are developed by our planning department, mta, tsa, other organizations, where we ought to embed a city goal. this will help drive city planning, budgeting, and will help us to figure out what is a more sustainable transportation plan. i think it is important now for us to think about what we want

to look like when we are coming up on 2020. what does a 21st century san francisco transportation world look like? one of the things i would propose today -- i will be introducing a resolution later this afternoon -- we consider a citywide goal of 20% bike modal share by 2024. but will take a lot of work but i hope we can start that conversation today and be able to move this so that in 10 years we can celebrate a san francisco that has an abundance of cyclists, pedestrians, car owners who are happy because they can traverse the city more easily, and a city that allows us to continue to be the dense, urban, wonderful international

destination that we all know and love. with that, i would like to welcome up a couple of representatives of the san francisco bicycle coalition to present their thinking on where we ought to go from here. supervisor campos: thank you, good morning. >> good morning, commissioners. i am the acting executive director of the san francisco bicycle coalition. i have a presentation also. i just want to say thank you also to david chiu for presenting this item today and giving us the opportunity to make this presentation.

it has been very expire -- inspiring to hear what david has come back from the netherlands. i think he makes a wonderful case for bicycling, here in san francisco. i would like to take this opportunity to share what we have been thinking and planning on coming here at the bicycle coalition, in order to get to that 20% of trips by 2020. what would it take, what would it look like? supervisor campos: in terms of the 20% goal, right now we are at 6%. >> that is a 2008 number. we could easily be at 7, 8%. but we will not know until next year. so that is a significant shift in node share, but like david, we also think that this is a

stretch goal, but a doable goals. let me share some more concrete things about what this might look like. we are finally moving ahead on the bike plan project, which is so exciting. we have seen 7 miles of tilly striped in the last few months. what we know from each new project that goes in and creates travel in the corridor, travel can go up by as much as 50%. it will also increase the number of people coming here to bicycle. but will that get us to the 20% goal that david mentioned? can that get us to a situation where everybody feels comfortable getting on a bicycle, as a health and economic choice, to get around? we do not