with you and provide annual reports as much as we possibly can. the other thing i will present on is the methodology for the report. we divided the psac into five committees to make sure we were giving a holistic view of the report. we worked with the police department to get information about enforcement. we worked with the department of public health and other agencies working on pedestrian issues. we also worked with the mta to get information from them and other urban planning and engineering agencies working on similar issues. we look at policies and what is available on public safety. we also looked at data available

on pedestrian safety. my counterpart will talk more about the recommendations. we have a lot of data from a lot of agencies. it is not merged together currently. to get a sense of where we are and what we need to do, we need to focus on surveillance and data to inform us about pedestrian safety. i will turn it over to paul. thank you very much for your time. supervisor avalos: thank you for your presentation. >> i served as the current share for the pedestrian safety advisory committee. i want to talk about the origin of our methodology. i am here to tell you about the key findings and recommendations were developed. an important component to talk

about is that this is the first report we have produced. it was important to make sure that we tried to understand the best possible landscape of pedestrian issues in the city and how pedestrian issues are tackled by the various city departments. we wanted to make sure that the existing conditions were a sound as possible. one part of that was digging into policy. we have various different city codes. pedestrian issues falling to a labyrinth of different areas. we found the better street plan painted the best picture in terms of coherent policy with regards to pedestrian safety. it best reflected how we felt it should be conveyed in terms of policy goals in the future.

funding is very constrained and inconsistent. a lot of great work going on in terms of pedestrian programs is inconsistent because of grant funding. we're happy to receive the funds, but it makes it difficult to make long-term progress on goals. the third thing is data. it was eliminating in terms of our research to find out what data was available and what was not. my background is an urban planning. you want to have tools and information to tackle the problem. for a lot of different modes of transportation, we know how many vehicles are crossing a

threshold at any given time. this level of detail is not available for pedestrians. we have a general idea based on models about where people are going and how they're getting there. we could not provide the same level of detail and specificity at a certain location at a given time of day. to get the information is resource intensive. this is starting to change. the better markets street plan was able to get volunteers to go out and count. some members of psac were part of the effort to count how many people were walking down market street at any given time. there is some information we do know. we do collect a lot of information. the question is whether we are using the information and stretching resources as far as

we can. we have come to find that we have different data sources that may not be integrated or shared as well as they could be. that is one thing we want to look for in our recommendations. we have a lot of agencies involved with pedestrian safety. this was best captured in a recent transportation authority meeting. we have no clear agency responsible for pedestrian safety. this is for a lot of reasons. pedestrian issues are very universal. we're all pedestrians of some point in the day. we have a lot of agencies that offer important functions that are all different. having so many people involved allows certain things to fall through the cracks. something interesting for us in the past year is that we found out about the enforcement component. we had individuals giving

citations. that has recently come under the sfmta. we have representatives here today. we are encouraged by our contact with them. they have been able to provide us information. enforcement is an important component. we do have limited resources in terms of funding and manpower in terms of citing motorists breaking particular rules that impact pedestrian safety. in the audience today, we have representatives from some of the public health agencies. those agencies play an important role in pedestrian safety. i come from the urban planning and engineering side. getting to know the research they do has been fantastic. they do great work in terms of

research and helping us to be better informed on where to place the improvements and stretch our dollar's further. they do also oversee numerous programs that help in tfifth educate individuals to be more cognizant of their surroundings. it is almost fully 100% funded by grants. the work they're doing is difficult to maintain in the long term because of the funding sources. our work this past year to produce the report was in concert with numerous advocacy groups. they continue to play a vital role. they need to be the table in these discussions. they can bring up a lot of localized concerns that a difficult to know about unless you are on the ground.

they are people looking out for pedestrian issues. we hope to continue to work with them and see their efforts realized in reality. the recommendations i will present are a subset of the full recommendations in the report. we did that for the brevity of the presentation. we invite members of the audience to download the full report on the website. these recommendations are based on the findings in the report and from the perspective of the citizens and members of psac. our first recommendation goes to the date and funding. this is to identify sustained funding for collection and integration of pedestrian data. we do know we have a lot of information.

we have quite a bit of information. we need to stretch as far as possible. that involves coordinating the information we have in making sure it is available to agencies in a timely fashion to allow them to do appropriate planning and intervention. there are great examples of initiatives going on right now. i do not know the full story of how these things are funded, but we would like to see programs like these continue into the future and be made a consistent part of policy. one is pedestrian geobase. it is a data warehouse for a lot of information regarding pedestrians in san francisco. it would be accessible for different agencies. another example is the project database. this is led by the planning department. it is a resource where various agencies can submit things they

are currently doing. other agencies can no and provide input in making projects better for pedestrians. the second thing goes back to funding. to advocate for funding for strategic planning and impatient -- implementation. we do have funds available for different types of intervention on the street in different programs. but providing sustained funding for strategic planning -- something that always comes to mind is pedestrian master plans similar to the bicycle master plan. it would create a document that states policy plans for improvements. the great example of things we have now is the better street plan. that was recently adopted.

it is my understanding that the better streets plan is the best practice. we have cutting edge information in the document. it provides technical information on how to better designed streets to improve safety for pedestrians. another initiative currently being grant-funded is the walk streets plan. it helps us to identify where we need the improvements. these are very important things to make sure we provide resources for these tools that are top notch in the nation. our final recommendation is to provide the resources needed to implement the goals of the mayor's directive. the outgoing mayor in december of 2010 presented the mayor's director. it set clear goals in terms of

the reduction of pedestrian injuries and fatalities. this ball is currently rolling. there are some great initiatives going on. we would love to see this directive carried out to full fruition. we are encouraged by the fact that there is a motion on it now. we want to make sure that resources are continue to be provided. we want resources that will give us to the point where we can reach the goal. supervisor avalos: is there a reference to the mayor's directive in the appendix? >> it is not in the appendix. the report was being developed at the same time that the directive came out. when we got to the point where we adopted it, it was right before the directive had come out. now that we've been working with

them, we wanted to make sure that was part of our recommendations. it is very parallel to what we're doing. supervisor avalos: that would be great to follow up with our offices on. if you could send me an e-mail copy of that, that would be great. >> think you very much to those members who helped us. the presentation to you today. i want to thank the members of the psac who helped with the lengthy report. this was a big effort. we had a lot of help from the various agencies. we're very excited. we look forward to working with your offices in the future. i know there are several agencies on hand with presentations. supervisor mar: which agency or department of city government is

responsible for the city's pedestrian action plan? >> there is a pedestrian safety task force. supervisor mar: for a pedestrian safety master plan? >> i would have to defer to my colleagues in other departments on the status of that. there is some previous history on that getting started. i am not sure where it left off. the task force is currently being led by sfmta. many other agencies involved are part of that committee. >> we have a couple of presentations. the first is from the department of public health. that will be followed by a representative from the police

department. supervisor mar: thinking for the great work within the department of public health on safety, especially pedestrian safety. supervisor avalos: i will need 30 more seconds. supervisor mar: the san francisco injury center is also here to make the presentation.

supervisor avalos: do we need to alert -- it will take a little while. ready? >> i am really happy to be here today. i am megan weir with the department of public health. we want to provide an overview of and response to the psac presentation. supervisor avalos: please pull the microphone closer to you. >> the current rules with respect to pedestrian safety efforts includes promoting knowledge, collecting and

integrating safety data, analyzing the causes and consequences of injuries and fatalities, environmental assessment, agency planning, securing grants, and the care of injured and disabled pedestrians. when we look at the patterns of pedestrian injuries in san francisco, we see the injuries are highly concentrated in specific neighborhoods. this map depicts that 50% of the injuries occur in only 8% of the land area where approximately 20% of the residents live. these injuries are also concentrated in the lower income neighborhoods. there are real disparities in terms of where people are experiencing injuries. i will not go over the statistics again in terms of the numbers. we see that there is an annual

rate in san francisco that is five times our national public health goal for pedestrian injuries. this likely represents an undercount of pedestrian injuries. that is comparing the police reported injuries with data from san francisco general hospital. it is approximately a 20% undercount. this is probably an under estimate of the magnitude of the problem. supervisor mar: there is probably 20% more than the 800. >> that is a conservative estimate because we're only looking at san francisco general. we also looked at injury rates across different age groups. these injury rates are higher than the national health objectives across age groups. one thing that is stark is the age of deaths among the elderly. we're talking about severe and fatal injuries. this is disproportionately

experienced by our seniors. we're trying to better understand the causes. they are well established. they include the environment, traffic, were pedestrians, higher speeds. the vehicle type is also associated with injuries. the design of the rose and where people across as well as lighting. another factor that impacts on whether people are injured his their physical abilities. the very young have limited ability to perceive their environment and how fast the car is coming towards them. this is just the normal cognitive ability as well as agility. people who are elderly or disabled. supervisor mar: could you slowdown a bit? you pointed out the elderly. i know that supervisor avalos, supervisor elsbernd, and i all

have young children. the elderly and young face even higher percentages of accidents. could you talk about the data you have? >> within san francisco, when we look at severe and fatal injuries, the elderly are disproportionately affected. this is experienced commonly across the country. in addition to a fast moving cars, you also have the vulnerability of the person being injured. as we get older, we are more susceptible to having more severe injuries when we are injured by a car. it is a cascade of inexperience -- experience with someone older is hit by a car. it takes them longer to cross

the street. there are other factors that make you more vulnerable. in terms of the young, but recent research shows that when your little, you perceive the world differently. you are not able to perceive how fast the car is coming toward you or not having that kind of judgment you have when you get older and are more developed. that is just the fact of life. the consequences in terms of pedestrian safety are severe when we are exposed to fast moving cars. supervisor mar: one of your lines in the presentation struck me hard. the rate of pedestrian deaths in the elderly are four time that of adults and 12 times that of children. it sounds like the elderly is the main group. >> absolutely. when we look at the targets to reduce severe and fatal

injuries, we need to think hard about how we can better understand the environmental factors. that includes where seniors are crossing. that is really important to reducing injuries. are there any more questions? at the department of public health, we have conducted modeling to better understand some environmental factors to explain where the injuries are happening. factors like traffic volume explain 21% of the variation. that includes where people are working, the type of zoning that may attract more people. st. design, where we have more arterial streets, we have more fatalities. that includes where people are living and a number of other factors. we think of the model as a way to better understand where we can target resources. we can anticipate injuries and

target resources to better address them. supervisor avalos: is there any correlation to senior homes or schools? >> we have did not look at specifically senior centers or schools in this model. as a result of the directive, we have begun to look at injuries and fatalities with respect to land uses. i think there are some evident correlations that could be helpful in planning. that is a really important next step. when we're talking about injuries versus fatalities, fatalities are different from just injuries in that they occur near a high volume roadways. that is because speed is what determines whether people are killed in an injury. that is the mass of the vehicle

and how fast it is going. really small increases in impact speed result in a really large increases in fatality risk. the risk of dying at 30 miles per hour is six times the risk of dying at 20 miles per hour. because of this, we have begun to look at the data we have about speeding in san francisco. we are looking at where it is happening in the change in injuries if we address speed. a 1 mile per hour change in speed increases collisions by 5%. enforcing the speed limit or doing other things with street design could result in overall reductions of over 15% with fatality reductions of 15% -- of 50%. supervisor mar: if we reduce the speed limits around schools

from 25 miles per hour to 20 miles per hour, what would be the impact of improved safety around the school area? >> i do not have a precise estimate. i think you raise an important issue we need to consider on where the changes are targeted. that is around the schools and other areas where we are seeing the injuries. supervisor mar: it looks like reducing speed limits from 30 to 20 miles per hour reduces the risk of fatalities by six times? >> exactly. i am going to turn it over now. supervisor avalos: are there state limits on how we can set speeds in san francisco? what kind of flexibility to we have -- do we have for that? >> there is a new state law that allows us to set 15 mile per

hour speed limits around schools. that is one of the first opportunities we're happy to take advantage of. reducing speed limits below 25 miles an hour, addressing some of the state and federal barriers is an important concern. supervisor mar: i do not know if supervisor avalos does traffic duty at his charles school, but i did that this morning. people still speak by. -- people still speed by. there are a number of traffic calming efforts. it seems like reducing the speed limit around senior centers and schools might help change the culture of the way people drive or reactor around safety issues

>> as a follow up, we know there is a state law allowing schools and speed limits. there is nothing with senior centers. that would require fall off on a state law will. these are some career areas of focus for the health department. we are coordinating and improving our injury data collection. we are trying to do a full accounting of the injuries, including the under reported. we want to take in the role of the environmental factors in pedestrian safety and we want to use the data and share this with say parkers to target enforcement and investment going into the city. we want to look at best practices that are done either in the nation or internationally and look at what safety countermeasures are used in development planting, and any transportation improvements in the city. you have heard a lot about what

first -- walk first. we are working with various organizations on pedestrian safety, what ability in the city. we are cochairing the new task force with the mta, that was derived out of the directive. what first is a project that we have, a grant from the office of traffic -- safety. in the city right now there is no systematic city-wide way to prepares pedestrian capital improvements. it is all done by funding silos. this is a way to look at all the streets in the city and try to prioritize where the limited funding would go. some of the things we are going to produce is a city-wide map

of key streets and sounds, create a methodology for prioritizing these improvements, we will develop five case studies that we will share as part of the project. a very preliminary capital project list. some policies that will go into the general plan and saother plans colon to the transportation agency. this is a multi agency effort. we're working with the san francisco transportation authority. we go to psac monthly as part of our outreach. we are also doing outreach for targeted groups or groups such as parents, people with disabilities, to get their input in the project. another initiative we have is safe routes tosc