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 do, and even in this budgetary crisis, there are actually low-cost solutions that would save money and lives. one ofone of the directives thae out a year ago was to a 1915- mile per hour is known in all of our schools. one year later, all of our school zones had the speed limit. how much to bring the department to together to talk about the plenitude of research that has already been done, action plans that have already been written up. in some ways, it makes the issue easier for us because we are not asking more studies, but we are just gonna see what we can do. it is not a gotcha session, but you want to see what work has been done, but the bears have

been to implementing the action plan already proposed and what we can do to further the process and work together to make that happen. the first presentation we have today will be with the department of public health. supervisor mirkarimi: welcome. you are not on the microphone. madam clerk, should he go to the other microphone? >> hearing go. we appreciate you holding this hearing. what i will try to do in this presentation, which i shared with you, first of all, quickly

state what our roles are in this process. it is definitely an issue that requires many agencies working together with you, the legislature. second, i am going to provide some of the key data on causes of what we already know in san francisco. i think this will highlight some of the reasons we see high rates of collisions and fatalities in the central city areas. and also explain why we see higher rates in other areas, for example, district 1. then i will talk a little bit about the programmatic work we are doing, closing with a few comments on some of the obstacles, cultural and policy obstacle that we need to attend to to implement these largely known effective solutions in this country. meghan weir and anna will be

joining me to talk about the programmatic peace. it is important to say that this is not just a san francisco issue. we have a fairly horrendous performance of our transportation system in the country with regard to safety. 33,000 deaths last year, 2.2 million injuries, 200,000 hospitalizations, including 400 pedestrian deaths. $230 million a year in cost. our role in san francisco as the health department's is several. one is the promotion of knowledge, attitudes, behavior is for drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists. the collection and integration of pedestrian safety data. the analysis and cost and consequences of a fatality.

environmental assessment of causes. leadership and participation in interagency planning. sharing data to make the data drive the solutions and where investments are made. finally, care of the injured and disabled pedestrians. as we heard, we have about 800 police-reported injury collisions a year, about 100 people killed or seriously injured, 25 deaths per year. this is five times the rate of injury -- this is five times the established public health goals. it is important to note, these are police-reported estimates, and these are under estimates of the true number. we did a study a few years ago and found 22% of the serious injuries that came to san francisco general hospital were not included. probably the rate of under reporting of non serious injuries is higher than that.

so this 800 per year is probably under the total number of injuries. that is important to keep in mind. i would say san francisco streets are more dangerous, yet, walking is more dangerous than driving in san francisco. the way the streets have been designed in every other city is quite the same, with the same standards. what we have in san francisco is a lot of cars and a lot of people sharing the same space. that is one of the fundamental causes. what is notable is drivers are quite a bit safer in san francisco than the rest of the country, while walkers, it is equally dangerous or more dangerous than the rest of the country. the urban areas, speeds are slower, so everyone is safer. also important, the risk of dying from walking is four times that of driving in san francisco. that should be intolerable for a

city that wants to promote walking. the causes of vehicle pedestrian collisions are very well established through international research. they are environmental, they relate to the ability of people, and reaction to behavior's. where you have more traffic flow, more people flow and higher vehicle speeds, there are going to be more collisions. the vehicle type plays a role, safe design and crosswalk treatments, also play an important role. physical ability also plays a physique -- a role. the reason we see higher rates in the young and elderly is there are differences in physical ability and perception. young people cannot tell if cars are speeding, for example, while elderly walker's can walk only as fast as they are -- walkers can walk only as fast as they physically can. cell phone use carries a four

times risk of accidents while driving. regardless of whether handsfree or with. what is also important is, given that we know all of these factors, we are not investigating these factors when we do routine accident investigations. women do routine accident investigations, we are only looking at behavioral factors, whether the pedestrian or motorists violated a rule. the factors such as the number of cars, number of people, speed of cars, ability of the victim is simply not recorded, and therefore not taken into account or an ally in our process. if we are not analyzing one of the causes of the problem, we are not likely to identify it as part of the problem and not likely to focus resources on the solution. as many of the, enters notice,

the injuries are highly concentrated in certain neighborhoods, and this is one way to look at it. 50% of the injuries occur in 20% of the census tracts. that is a high degree of overconcentration, these dark blue census tracks, showing where the highest number are. soma, downtown civic center, along the geary corridor, mission corridor, 19th. supervisor mirkarimi: some of the point you are making are stimulating some questions and queries. supervisor campos: just a quick question. in terms of why the environmental factors are not reported -- are not recorded, actually, in the report? >> there is a point about the cultural responsibility about pedestrian safety.