you please make certain study on this traffic congestion that will be created when they come here to build the hospital. on my way to work every day, i would like to take this opportunity that the streets, with this one way right now be put into two-way traffic. that is all. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. >> i live on seventh and toma. i live at a senior center, and i'm also a member of the senior action network. as of this moment, i'm happy to

say that i am a survivor of the intersection at eighth and mission. hopefully by the end of this year, a crosswalk for the pedestrians can be seen. do you want to know why? every day, almost daily, i have to cross the street from the natoma to eighth street. it is too dangerous for pedestrians, especially seniors. our eyes can see the vehicles approaching from the stop light. and we walked slowly. more than one time, i was almost hit by a car when i tried to

cross the narrow street going to the market. the driver made a sudden left turn. i did not see the car because it was coming behind me. i was saved by two feet of distance. otherwise, i would be dead by now. seniors should have crosswalks, just like the school zones. you can see the crosswalk signs way farceur the drivers will walk slowly. at least the drivers are aware and have to slow down. why don't the senior centers have that, too? are seniors' lives disposable just like an old basket? even in the proceedings -- [bell rings]

[laughter] [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: point well taken. very good. next speaker please. >> executive director of seniors organizing seniors. thanks for having this meeting this morning. the problem about pedestrian safety in san francisco is no secret. san francisco is a very unsafe place to walk. we already know that. we have had so many of these sessions, so many of these meetings, you know, and still, we have not come to any conclusions. and there are a lot of components that go along with this thing, especially in the sixth district, because that is where most of the alcoholics are. they just walk across the street like they want to walk across the street. we have a jaywalking problem in san francisco. people just start walking. they do not watch where they are going. a lot of them get themselves hit and run over. we should be able to do something for the elders.

before dad and left, we tried to get him to do something on eighth street -- before gavin left. he said there was not enough money. if there was not enough money then, as i know there is not enough money now. but we should be able to do something. if we cannot do anything for anyone else getting run over in san francisco, we should be able to do something for the old folks. they are slower than everybody. some of them do not see that good. some of them do not hear that good. maybe we should sit down and put our heads together and see what we can come up with for old folks because the pedestrian safety problem is not going to end here with this meeting, not here in san francisco. we have too many people driving high, too many people walking the streets high, too many people trying to get to their jobs. too many people working in san francisco that live somewhere else. that is part of the problem,

too, and they are getting these paychecks and taking them with them to another town, so i do not know what we are going to do, but maybe if we could get together, we could talk about what to do about the old folks and people with disabilities. maybe we could get this thing taken care of some kind of way. [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. senior action network. i was the victim of a hit and run. i live at howard and 8. a couple of years ago, i was on the crosswalk, had the countdown in my favor. the motorist was in a hurry to go to the freeway. he tried to go around me. the rear end of his car knocked me down, and he kept on going. i also crossed atnatoma and eighth regularly. to a motorist, it is not legal, but according to the state, they cannot take the cross will out of commission, due to the new

state regulations, so the crosswalks have to be marked. it will be good to let motorists know that pedestrians are crossing their. some market have on and off ramps to all three freeways. i live four blocks away from all three freeways. during the commuting time, it is dangerous to go across. admission and eighth, there are a lot of illegal left-hand turns. admission and six, illegal left- hand turns going in both directions -- at mission and sixth. something needs to be done. the motorists that are talking on their cell phones, there are state laws that say you have to have a handsfree device. the law is not being enforced. therefore, we are going to hold down the statistics.

state law must be in force. right now, there is just law on the books. there is no enforcement body behind it. market is one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the city. i applaud the leader for taking it up, but we need to look at how we are going to keep people safe in our city. there is not enough time on that count down hand. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is nancy cross. on my way here, i needed to cross eight straight over to the senior center, and when i was at the senior center, needed to go right across the street -- i guess it is 65 or 85 -- which is the administrative offices for the senior center. am i supposed to walk commission, at -- what to mission down to fulsom or

howard streets? it does not take very much to put some big white stripes. you see them around schools. everybody can see them. i notice that the white stripes even at mission are often obliterated when they need repainting. i mentioned a couple of other things that people have mentioned, and one is the key intersections where there is a cross like, the bulbs to help the blind are an obstacle for people using walkers, so i have to struggle to get my walker from the sidewalk to the street at the proper place because that is where the bombs are. when i get, especially to market street, often, i am stock because of the tracks. there are ways to make the tracks more accessible at intersections to people with

walker's and distinguished for the blind. they need to be reconciled, just like some of the houses, whether it is sold or wood. one can stand earthquakes better, and one can stand burning better. but anyway, we need to look at those quarters that obstruct the people that are trying to cross the street at the right time to get within the limits, to get across the street, there is a stop light, but you cannot get to the street timely and get across and get off the street without addressing those yellow bulbs that you have too often struggle with walkers, and there are a great many people with walkers. so i would appreciate if we had more discussion time about the strategies for addressing the different kinds of needs here. in short of any other kind of enforcement -- it does not take much -- to put a big lot of strikes across that natoma and

eighth street. whether or not you have offices there or not, it does not take much to do some painting. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. [applause] next speaker please. >> good morning, supervisors. i am with senior action network, pedestrian safety coordinator. i am also the original member of the pedestrian safety advisory committee. today, in the senior escort to bring them back and forth safely. my concern has been around crosswalks. we know soma has the highest number of collisions between pedestrian vehicles and bicyclist, than any other part of the city. we also know that most of those collisions happen in the crosswalk. for years, we have been a community.

we have been asking for pedestrian safety around crosswalks. over the years, essentially, we have been getting a little here, a little there, but if we had enough, we would not be having so many collisions. market street is now going to experiment with advanced stock lines, so it gives a bigger buffer around crosswalks. but one type of crosswalks that mta refuses to address time and time over are the unmarked legal crosswalks. it is legal according to city and state code to cross-natoma and a -- cross at a's, but cars do not know the. there has to be some kind of indication because that is where we cross.

we do not have the energy to go all the way down to the next crosswalk that is mark and ben cross. limited entry. we have destinations like the senior centers, and it is not just ken and kip asking for it. we need to have these address. it is much safer for everybody to know that this is a crosswalk so they can cross at these crosswalks safely. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. good to see you. [applause] >> good morning. certainly, it probably will be dumped on the shoulders of sfpd again. it seems to me there is a great deal more in society than just all this. but everything seems to get dumped on these guys. i do not see how the police

department can constantly prosecute all these things you see in any paper in meetings all year long. i know a lot of them. years ago, i have thanksgiving dinner with one, and he said that his original job title was peace officer, and he was there to keep the peace and nothing more. it has gotten out of hand with that, as everything else in society is out of hand. clearly, somebody is not holding up their end of the bargain. i know these people have a good argument. i see bus drivers that are angry, people running around speeding, and the whole city is angry. what did you expect people to be when you shove so many people together in society and the high cost of living and nobody knows what to do with themselves? i think that is a great deal to do with these problems. but i think these guys have enough to deal with every day as it is, just the way things are naturally, let alone all the things that society is heaving upon them. i think everybody should look at that. we do have a constitution and a bill of rights, and i think all of you took an oath, and i think

you ought to look at that again. these guys are footing the bill for a lot of stuff, and they do not deserve that, and it has taken a toll on them. i know a lot of them personally. good day. [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. have a good day. next speaker please. >> i live at fifth and very straight. i have two problems regarding king street. normally when you come off of a freeway in a car, you take an exit. it is clear you are leaving the freeway and entering city streets. you get no such sense. the whole freeway drops onto king street. you still get all those lanes. while there is a little sign that there is a light at the bottom, most drivers come speeding off there with no intention of slowing down from freeway speeds. they continue on king street at freeway speeds. the speed on king has recently been reduced from 35 to 30, and

there is a sign, but even when i look for it, i have a hard time finding it. most drivers not looking for it do not see it. we need something more to let people know they have left the freeway and are on city streets. something like those rumbles strips that you get on the bay bridge as you are approaching the s curve to remind you that you must slowdown at that point would be extremely helpful. the other side of the coin is crossing king street for pedestrians. i understand it is in the works. the crossing time is going to be lengthened, but i will believe it when i see it. i am a brisk walker. if i wait for the light to come on and tell me i can cross, as fast as i cross, i do not make it to the other side of king street before the light has turned. as i said, and i can walk briskly. for those who cannot, i cannot imagine how they feel.

thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. >> i'm here to make a picture of the institute on aging, that brand new building on geary. they have a wonderful crosswalk right in the middle of their blocke. if you believe the lines, it says that is where you can cross. the problem as it is in the middle of the block, and there are no stop signs. there are no lights, and the traffic goes fast there. i know institute on aging is asking for some kind of like in the middle of that block to slow people down because of all the seniors -- some kind of like -- some kind of light in the middle of the block. it is a treacherous place for

both the seniors and children. district 1, i believe, also needs some attention. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: good point. thank you. next speaker please. >> good morning. i have been fighting this. back in april 2004, i contacted judy cohen, and she came out with a supervisor and told me that area right there, that crossing, there is a break in the road, that it is a legal crossing, regardless of whether the sign is there or not for the marks. they went ahead and submitted it to their supervisors, came back out, and put up a sign that sits up in the air with an object standing on top with an arrow

pointing down, marking it as a crosswalk. people go by driving their car, they look at it and do not know what it is. people come down from golden gate and that market their to build on the freeway. they are speeding down to that area, like, 55 miles per hour sometimes, and they do not stop. i have seen people hit out there. the police officers go by, and they will make the people get off that area there and go either down to mission and cross or go down to market and cross. they do not realize that that is a legal crosswalk. i have a letter here. it states that it is a legal cross will, regardless of it the market is down there. i know it only takes about half an hour for them to come down there and put a line on each side that goes across that area right there, but they cannot do

it. but the city can turn around and spend thousands of dollars and put the little green lines all the way down through there and pain that all the way down for bicycles. so why can we not get two lines put in there? like i said, i have been fighting this since 2004, and still cannot get anything done yet. just to see if we cannot get two lines put down there, stating that when they see the sign, they can see the marker, and that is crossing. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you, sir. next speaker please. if there are any other people who would like to speak that our seniors or special needs, do so now. if not, we will suspend public comment after this person here and then go into the formal part of the hearing and resume public comment after that. >> thank you. i sustain my disability 10 years ago in the periphery of district 6 from a red light

runner. i come to you with a suggestion of how to reduce the expenses from what has been spent on city, county, state, and federal expenses for me and my disability and what it would cost to prevent it. a red light camera costs $250,000. the cumulative expenses that have been spent by all the government agencies, including juror costs, public defenders, six months fully serves sentence of the convict who hit me, federal and state disability insurance has been $500,000. so prevention of accidents, which comes from red light cameras, would say many government agencies money. so please, on the intersections on south of market where the numbers put forward by one of the members of psac were so

detrimental that they reflect the need in south of market district six neighborhoods to have at the intersections where the statistics kept by the police show the accidents are occurring in crosswalks, to install a red light cameras. all of the studies have shown accidents go down with the installation of red light cameras. thank you. [applause] >> hello. my name is antonio. one of the things that i want to tell you about is my two kids have asthma, and they barely can walk whenever they get an asthma attack. whenever you cross the street and somebody is not even watching while they are driving, they could run some of these kids over. i am afraid that that will happen one of those days.

i really want you to put some attention on howard street. they are increasing the speed, and it is not good for all the pedestrians, older people that are going around. i ride my bicycle with the kids. from time to time, the people park on the bicycle lines. that is another problem. you have to go around them on the traffic, risking your life and your kids' lives, that somebody is not watching the road, and it will crash into you. so i really want to -- wanted some support on that. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: all right. thank you. >> i am a parent at nancy carmichael. every day, we walk to school. i would say every day with almost get hit by cars because

it is like a freeway. people pass through there without having consideration, and when you cross the pedestrian lane, they would not stop. they would go ahead of us. like walking to the park, sometimes after school, we go to the park. cars passed by the park like it is a freeway, too, so it is really hard for us. and for crossing guards -- in the morning, he always gets harassed by the people that tried to cross, make the turn. he always gets harassed. the driver is yelling at him. telling him to get out of the way. that is really hard. and the children see it, and it is frightening to them to see those kinds of interactions with adults.

so i would like to suggest that there be more police there to enforce the laws and speed limits, more ticketing, so that it would be safe for us as parents, and the children there, to cross. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. i'm going to close after the next two, and then we will get into the formal part of the hearing. >> good morning. my concern is about the pedestrians. on seventh and mission, last year, one of my friends was hit and dragged by a car, and it cost her, tearing her years of hard, burned her face, and brokers final court.

the car from seven straight turning to mission is very fast. -- from seventh street turning to mission is very fast. i'm suggesting you have to do something regarding those streets, seventh and mission. thank you. supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. next speaker please. >> ♪ and somewhere down the crosswalk road our careful rose argon -- roads are gone across again and somewhere down the road i know that careful heart of yours will come to see we need traffic safety pleased because letting go something might happen to you and i will always miss you so

so practice safety at the crosswalks because maybe you have only just begun may be in this city, the best is yet to come because somewhere down the crosswalk roads and our roads are going to cross again and somewhere down the safety road i know that careful heart of yours will come to see that practice always safety please ♪ [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you. final speaker for this phase of public comment. >> good morning, supervisors. i have lived here in san francisco i think more than enough to know the problem. i have come up with some

recommendations to solve the problem for the pedestrians. we should have a longer duration for pedestrian traffic in every street of our area. muni buses should not be allowed to make a right turn at any given time in our streets. no parking for any time in our main streets. create spaces of vehicular flow following certain speeds. the outer lanes should have a limit of 5 kilometers per hour. the middle lane, which is used by the big buses should have a maximum of 10 kilometers an hour, and the fast lane, which is the inner part of the road should have a 25 kilometers maximum limit, what you call the fast lane, and i also want to ask that we should widen at

least 1 meter from side to side to make the visibility for everyone so that we can run traffic smoothly. that is all. [applause] supervisor mirkarimi: thank you very much. ok, supervisor kim, now we can go to the formal part of the hearing. supervisor kim: thank you, and thank you to the many seniors who came out to the hearing. seniors are the disproportionate victims of pedestrian vehicle collisions and deaths in the city, and this is a very important issue. as i mentioned before, it is an equity issue. if you are poor, senior, young, do not own a car, you are more likely to be hit by a car. costs over $50 million a year to address these accidents, and it is a public safety issue. in many ways, we should treat these deaths and injuries in the

same ways that we address gun control on the streets. it has the same impact. without the intent, but the same outcome. we also have many senior housing in the most dangerous neighborhoods for pedestrian safety in the city. we have a lot of senior housing in chinatown, in the tenderloin, in the south of market, the van ness franklin corridor. this is also where we have the most collisions. i forgot to mention earlier, but san francisco has the worst rate of finestra vehicle collisions in the state of california. according to the new york city board of transportation, it is worse than new york city, hong kong, and tokyo, which has by far more people and density than we do. the worst part of all of this is that we actually have solutions, that there are many things we can,