with that, i will turn it over to the deputy director for planning at sfmta. commissioner campos: good morning, welcome back. >> good morning, i am a deputy director at sfmta. most of my presentation has been covered, so i will go to the actual accomplishments. we will be talking a little bit about the engineering project that our agency has been pioneering in the country the last 10 years. some of the tool kits that are available to us and limitations of those tool kits, the need to expand those tool kits, talking about planning activities, and then a quick overview of the report on the pedestrian safety. this is something we have been working on. this diagram we have been working on as an agency ever

since we were created, to create this mobility vision for the city. with bicycle sharing coming on board next year, we feel like we have all the most together. i would be remiss by not saying that walking is fundamental to the city's vision. a city trip begins or ends on your feet or in a wheelchair device. that has struck a chord in all of our planning decisions. san francisco has led the nation on shifting its philosophy from moving cars to moving people, connecting people with neighborhoods. the reason i put this up here is because this is fundamental to our design work. if we designed street that can physically allow cars to move at 40 miles per hour, we should not be surprised that they are, even if the linage recommends 25.

as was mentioned, the five elements of good street design lead to good safety outcomes. the three on the left determine the outcome of the two on the right. i will move forward with these trends. while they are promising, they are of concern to us and we believe all these injuries are avoidable, even when it comes down to behavioral problems with pedestrians and drivers themselves. the reason why, the primary factor -- what is happening -- is very important to know. the majority of factors for these collisions are drivers violating the right of way. they are not paying attention, not adhering to the rules of the road, so to speak, and causing injuries. another segment is pedestrian

violation. pedestrians in the right of way when they should not be, not following the requirements for crossing. in the other segment, a multitude of other factors as well, but speeding is 5% of the total pie as well. what have we been doing the past 10 years? we have been working closely with our partners. commissioner chiu, i want to the knowledge your comment about how many agencies are on the street. it is something that we need to look at. why are there so many agencies with jurisdiction over the street? commissioner chiu: what is best practice among other cities? >> right now, we do not. what we have seen in other countries, there is a transportation agency that runs everything from storefront to store front. in some countries, it is the

police that run the authority. in other transit-types of agencies, it is common to have a street design responsibility, department of public works, and a street enforcement that are completely separate. that is a common rule of thumb across the country. we, in san francisco, have all of the different modes under one build. now acquiring the traffic detail, that is an anomaly around the country. the city is already leading to have that integration. also, we are unique in that this city is kind of like an island. except for the southern boundaries, we do not have many cities and joining us. other metropolitan areas, the main cities are connected to others. there is more of a presence of

regional transportation enforcement. commissioner chiu: is there talk about more consolidation within the san francisco bureaucracy? >> i have not heard of that, but i am sure that is something the policy members would want to consider, if they want to see that happen. we have been working on various street design projects to promote walking. just to clarify some of the points made earlier, pedestrian safety is important in the context of promoting walking. one of our key tenants, from the transit first policy, is to promote walking when you do that, you have to look as tree designs. they need to take into account many factors which include safety. safety is the outcome. some quick examples, department projects we have been working

on, other pilot projects. all of these projects have been helping to create safer walking conditions, riding bikes, walking on the sidewalk, or reducing travel time. coincidentally, are bicycle design has been increasing safety for walking. on the top left picture, that has an advanced turnaround. you can see motorists stopping behind the intersection. putting these corrals on the street have removed some of the perceived barriers of bicyclists and pedestrians on the sidewalks to an extent, and the demarcation of redesigning our right of way has provided more refuge for pedestrians as they crossed these streets. what we are really talking about is the vehicle exposure.

there are many environmental and behavioral factors causing these collisions, but the more we can do in the city to reduce pedestrian to vehicle exposure is our best shot in terms of engineering. here is the typical summer street, where right now the actual road right of way, a 62.5 feet, sidewalks are less than 10 feet. if you integrate the better streets design plan guidelines and focus the street on multi modal transit, you reduce the exposure of the pedestrian in the road right of way. this comes with many trade-offs. the trade us are contentious district by district. the removal of travel and parking lanes are contentious and is something that we, as the agency who works on this project, are nearly reminded of the concern by residents and businesses about room for parking and travel lanes,

removing their perceived capacity for traffic. it is something that we all need to continue to work on, in terms of doing better about tuition and analysis on the benefits of the complete streets project. there has been several large scale projects which have been fairly costly in their development and design, lengthy in their design. going through the environmental process guidelines. for example, in the embarcadero, did the sendero, those are our gold standard examples. they cost a lot of money and the funding is always the issue. they take time. they take a lot of time and there are many community issues that need to be resolved when giving these streetscape projects.

in our traffic calming tool kit, we have an existing tool kit with a set of menus that we can apply to specific streets, including things like speed humps to median island refuges, to larger and brighter crosswalk designs, anything we can do to reduce the crossing distance and exposure. the toolkit is, frankly, limited by state and federal design standards. anything that deviates away from these does need to have more analysis. we have to apply for an exemption. it is time consuming, but that is not a reason for us not to look at an expanded tool kit. we are looking at various innovative measures. one measure that we have taken as an international best practices from europe is the concept of home zones.

that takes traffic calming to a sub-neighborhood level. an area that is bounded by arterial roads, we traffic calm and the internal streets to make a more conducive to walking and bicycling, held almost all honorable users of the streets, primarily seniors and children. one example we are looking at piloting is in the mission district, on the corner of 15th and natoma street. if we are successful in having this approved, we should see this later this year. in london, they have implemented dozens of these home loans and have found a dramatic of reduction of children and elderly collisions in side of these areas. this is an example of some of the tool kits applied in this

area. i too want to mention, -- do want to mention, the somewhat conflicts with original goals, getting people to move to the city, making sure that every street is a street that people can traverse. this is something we need to take into account as we do more of these projects. in terms of the engineering program, the agency started the program 10 years ago, one of the first in the nation to start looking at all of the different, innovative tool kits we can use to tackle pedestrian safety, from advanced limit lines, divided crosswalks, to me in improvements, bawled ouulb outs. currently, the public utility commission is responsible for street lighting. they understand it is for the roadway itself.

the department of public works has some responsibility for the street lighting but we need to look at sidewalk lighting to see what we can do about that. we have really been focusing on pedestrian countdown signals. as soon as we install these signals, our studies show a 22% reduction in collisions after installation. there is a strong correlation between installation and reduction of collisions. not only does it give a pedestrian how much time they have to cross the intersection, but it also gives an indication to the motorists, you are not going to make it through the intersection. in addition to these measures, we are looking at some of the additional programs to improve the ability of pedestrian while they are crossing. we are implementing red zones throughout the city. these red zones, and the top

left, but in a certain distance between the first parked car and a crosswalk, so that pedestrians at the corner, there's signed a line of visibility is widened. in addition, we are putting in continental crosswalks with yellow letters, making pedestrian the more visible in those areas where we have high traffic and a history of collisions. we are opening up closed crosswalks. crosswalk where there are only two sides of the crosswalks open. in the 1980's, many of these were closed to read never the traffic. right now, we are looking at which ones we can reopen again to make them a four-way crosswalks. audible pedestrian signals have been very good for our disability community. giving them not only individual but the audio signal to cross the street.

we have had some success. funding is extremely limited for safety campaigns and we have worked closely with the department of public health on some of the public out rich, safety campaigns. the one on the right was put up throughout the city in terms of providing a safety campaign message of allowing pedestrians to go first. we are hoping to provide a training safety video for our tax and transit operators so they can focus on pedestrian safety as they operate the system. our planning activity, the better streets plan, was a city- wide effort. looking and prioritizing and cremate about tuition criteria framework. it will bay and opportunity to develop an implementation plan for early actions, meeting actions, and set the stage for

the longer-term citywide plan. we are also working with the department of public got on our risk reduction plan to determine factors to reduce the risk for pedestrians exposed to motor vehicles the missions and -- emissions, throughput of vehicles. we have been working citywide and working more workable neighborhoods through the priority development area, a smart growth projects we have been working on. in addition to that, the actual streets themselves, have a dozen streets that we are working on now to make them complete. they are going through their various processes. from market street, van ness, geary, and other projects outlined, they will focus on what ability. -- walkability. the goal here is to reduce pedestrian fatalities and collisions. we are currently working on the

first three, creating a 50 mile per hour zones around schools. -- 15 m.p.h. zone around schools. we are looking at which neighborhoods makes sense, based on their eligibility. and then to read start growing our safety engineer toolkit. we have the best, frankly, in the u.s., in terms of the tools. we need to look at getting the international best tools. near-term measures, we are working with the police department now on helping to develop a work plan for 2011 that looks at pedestrian safety. really, all safety, but focusing on pedestrian safety, where they need to focus pedestrian safety stings, those sort of things, other measures to target the most egregious parts of the city

that are continually experiencing collisions. in the best practice area, we will be working with a task force to identify international and u.s. best practices applicable to san francisco. we will also be looking at the policy makers to look at legislation that may need to be pioneered in san francisco, or southern california, frankly, for exemptions or new laws to allow us to make these tools happen. some of the tools are technically illegal in the state, so we need to look at that and see what we can do. or they are not encouraged because of other competing priorities. our key efforts right now, from our opinion, we need to focus on roadway design and operational changes. as i mentioned before, we have

physically design the streets that can move at 45 miles per hour, so we should not be surprised that people are traveling those speeds and distances. physical changes need to happen on the streets to slow people down. when you're talking about really is motor vehicle and pedestrian interaction. a pedestrian cannot compete, so you have to slow down. that will have a contradictory issues as well as wanting to move the city, making sure that our corridors work at a certain level. at the end of the day, slowing down vehicles is one of the best measures to reduce these future conditions. one of the key concerns is the data integration. right now, the data that the police department collects is all manual, all hand written. there is an assessment by the police officer on what they assess the situation as. we are working with the police department to indicate what we're looking for when we look

at these collisions. looking at ways to make the data electronic and instant. unfortunately, right now, the information is sent to the state, and there is a lag time in getting it back. we will look at how we can intercept that data before we send it off. it takes close to one year to get that data. if we can get it in a month or two, that will make a huge difference in how quickly we can react funding capacity, we are growing, but this is beyond the mta. this is citywide. we need to integrate safety pedestrian principles and all decisions that are made throughout the city, and education for staff and police as well, and the public, in terms of the string issues there. we need to take advantage of new tools. there is a plethora of new tool to take advantage of. we have started to look at the

one that we can do right now, the low hanging fruit. a lot of it is data integration and reporting. some of the other tools that will be more complex, we can definitely reach those. we have the task force that is working on developing the key elements of the directive, figuring out ways to institutionalize and bring forth the key issues through subcommittees. we want to develop a framework on delivering the actuaries soon, identify the resources to meet our goals. right now, there are dots of funding here. the best way to handle our integrated resources. is there going to be discussion on how we received additional resources? last but not least, through the task force, develop a

distraction of planned remarked that helps us deliver these projects and to identify quickly. i want to close by saying i agree with what was mentioned, in terms of the need to develop a comprehensive strategy, and but that looks like, whether it looks like the tep or other plan, we are looking at that right now. that will be a longer-term project that will need multiple funding sources to make that happen. in the meantime, there are immediate short-term and long- term things that we can do right now. we are working as a collaborative task force to work on that. from my personal experience, seeing the other agencies come to the table with such enthusiasm, i am hopeful that we can get to this quickly. that concludes my presentation. commissioner campos: commissioner david chiu? commissioner chiu: i definitely

appreciate the point about potentially the need for legislation. if one of the challenges is thinking about city-wide legislation, if we could think about things that are more targeted within certain neighborhoods, certain areas, there would be a number of us willing to experiment with pilots, targeted legislation, so we do not need to have a city- wide conversation about what makes sense. i would be interested in understanding the results of your research, best national and international practices. i have got to think there are some cities that have tackled this with techniques that we have not considered. who is the point person on pedestrian safety issues in the mta? >> the key person would be myself right now, as the deputy of planning. two project managers working on these issues.

we have a whole team working on the different modes. commissioner chiu: to the point that was made earlier in the presentation, the fact that there are so many different agents to work on this makes it confusing for those of us that are not part of your administration. it would be great to have a clear sense of who is in charge on this. as far as the master plan goes, if there are things that we can help from the board, i would be interested in that. i do have a question regarding your relationship with sfpd. this is a board that has looked into the relationship between sfmta and sfpd. when you mention have written reports of how sfpd deals with this, could you talk about how the mta measures accountability with the sfpd, when it comes to pedestrian safety?

it is it literally and written pieces of information that go back to your department, what are you thinking about to prove that? >> i cannot speak directly to the accountability peace. i have not been involved in that work. commissioner chiu: it strikes me there is little compatibility between the mta. >> we have met with the police department, we have -- they have requested that we work with them on developing a work plan to help us improve their pedestrian safety and outreach efforts. one thing we have been looking at, muddlinmodeling the bicycle program, going out to certain areas and giving people information about correct behavior, rather than issuing a ticket. we are also looking at

potentially supplying them with hand-held spir highs so that wen get the information in real time. we want to see the bears to this information and the feedback. that is something we will be exploring. we have started that locally already. commissioner chiu: i would love to see that. from my point, understanding, from an accountability standards, where the money goes is important. and understanding how important is measured. real metrics as opposed to just how money is flowing. commissioner campos: commissioner carmen chu. commissioner chu: think the two organizations for your presentations. pedestrian safety is something that many of us have been looking at in any one of our districts, probably one of the top cause that we get from our

constituents. certainly, for mine. as we think about the coordination between mta with the pd < i, i think that is an import collaboration that needs to happen. above that, i would hope the mta is looking at your pco's, how they can help with enforcement as well. we see a ton of people who drive erratically, the exhibit aggressive driving patterns because they are blocked by traffic. a lot of things could be helped with regard to your pco's doing more than just checking on whether it is street cleaning day or not. helping to move traffic along, to the extent they are able to do that, would be helpful. the other thing is, with regards to your staff capacity, could

you speak about that? this is always something that has eluded me, as to what the mt a's investment and planning is for pedestrian safety-type work? we have seen across the city a lot of different traffic area plans that are currently planned, under way, being proposed potentially, but it takes years and years to get to them. i understand in all districts we have needs and everyone wants to see a traffic calming study downe. a lot of times we find out we are three, four ways from finding out a study. can you tell us about the investment, lack of investment coming into this area? >> you raise a good point about staff capacity, to share the expectation of the community to have these projects implemented. there is an extensive outreach

process that has to go through. design work. i think we can make it clearer, in terms of what the actual steps we are taking from idea to implementation. we would be happy to come back at a future date to walk the committee through that. there is a lot more information that i could speak to right now that may help make it clearer. commissioner chu: it would be helpful to know how about your commitment. if we have only a few folks out there, perhaps it worthwhile conversation would be to speak to the mta leadership to see whether or not the spotted dollars in your budget can currently be used to accomplish this. it was certainly done with a tep before, so that could be the next project to embark upon that. that would be something that we would like to hear back on. on the area plants currently in place for traffic studies, we

have different plans that are proposed, under way, in the future. i would like to see the status of that, whether we are targeting some of these specific areas. we saw the map earlier that showed how the numbers of incidences that have occurred, but also as a proportion of people walking. i know a lot of time we tend to concentrate our efforts in the city center court because a lot of the incidences occurred there, lots of foot traffic, but at the same time, i hope there is some geographic equity to where we are doing these studies. we tend not to get any new development work on the west side of the city because of that, and because of that, not a lot of opportunities to provide those improvement that other areas are benefiting from because there is repaving work being done, other things that you can piggyback off of it. i think a further conversation about where those