properties working with smaller properties who maybe don't have a signage program for the exterior of the building, and collaborating with that and sharing ideas. we've even had, you know, some properties that will say hey, i'm full. i've got all these people wanting in, and they've actually turned over prospective new tenants to other properties because they thought it might be a good fit. and this was just all of the by-product of getting together and talking about these things. and one of the -- the other nice things that has happened through this is we've now got brokers calling our office asking hey, where would be a good spot for this? you think it's a good fit? and then, we have property managers contacting us and saying we're thinking of those two properties. what do you know? because we're being shared with at the office and a lot of information we're being asked to keep confidential, but knowing that knowledge, having that knowledge and being able to say, you know what? maybe you want to go with -- with option b there because we

know that option a is going to be similar to something that's skbrust going to be opening down the street in a couple months that maybe nobody knows about, so it's kind of sharing that back and forth. but yeah, it is a fine line. we are not forcing anybody to do anything. people need to fill their vacancies. we understand that, but a lot of people are coming around and seeing that we really need to have a good mix, and you know, with the traffic pattern being so clearly obvious around the wharf, you know, coming through pier 39, down the promenade, all the way to hyde. maybe they make it all the way to ghirardelli, maybe they go down to jefferson street. there is one property on the wharf that has an ownership outside of the country. the person has been talking to the ownership, and this report basically backed up everything that he's been saying and is

now getting support from his ownership, so there's been some good headway. >> thank you. >> commissioner maki? >> are you planning -- [inaudible] >> yeah. so we are actually in renewal, our renewal process right now. we were founded in 2005 and '06. we are two different benefit districts, the land side, which is south of jefferson street is a property assessment district. and then, the north side, the port side, is an assessment district based on a percentage of growth annual sales, so we are actually going through the renewal process right now. we're looking to renew for another 15 years. >> do you see a need -- let me turn it into a positive. do you see it working very well

with d.p.w. and other city agencies versus the fact that you have the private sector sicking in, doing some work, so the city backs off and moves their resources from other places. >> not really. we actually do district walk-throughs with actually port staff and d.p.w., pointing out items and working together. d.p.w. has been really helpful on the jefferson street phase two project. they actually wrote the grant that the city was awarded. >> great. great. that's great to hear. >> commissioner gilman? >> hi, troy. i just wanted to thank you so much for this report, and i wanted to say i was really, really pleased to see a strategy to bring north beach past bay. as someone who lives in the district, i know it's hard to get there for the locals.

make it more a place of locals where folks in the neighborhood want to go. there's a lot of things absent in the neighborhood, i know you're aware of that from a neighborhood serving perspective. on the tiller street side and just on a more strategy to make it more of a destination for individuals who live there? i really appreciate that, and i also appreciate some of the lighting and landscaping work done. jefferson street has had a marked improvement. so thank you for the support. it was really helpful. >> thank you. >> troy, thank you so much for this report. yes, you do talk fast, and it was a little hard to pick up. >> 70 pages in 27 minutes. >> i do look forward to reading the report, but this is great. it's a lot of information, and you guys have done a lot of work. i can see the benefit of everybody renewing their membership. >> thank you. >> i want to know how is -- now that jefferson is doing, how is

that working out. >> there was a little bit of growing pains for the first couple of months. we actually tracked that, and it took a while to get especially delivery truck s in line because there was no deliveries after 11. it's worked out pretty well, and there was some thought to turn it back into a one way, and the people who want it had to go back to a one way actually don't want it to go back and are now on the side for how it is now. my office is right on the corner of leavenworth and jefferson, having cars nearby, that has quieted down. >> that's great. we look forward to working with you, continuing to work with you on all of the great work being done. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> okay.

thank you. >> clerk: item 11, see informational presentation of the san francisco municipal transportation agency embarcadero enhancement project. >> good afternoon, president brandon, commissioners, and members of the public who have joined us. my name is lindy lowe, and i sit in planning and environment with diane? item 11-c is an informational briefing to be presented by casey hildreth to be presented by the san francisco municipal transportation agency? we also have several others here with us today that are here for questions if you have any? sfmta has been leading the embarcadero enhancement project, the transportation project located along the embarcadero designed to improve mobility and safety along the critical and heavily used corridor?

the embarcadero enhancement project has three published goals: increased safety, support economic vitality, improve connectivity and being assessibility. sfmt 45d describes the embarcadero has a thriving business corridor, a dedestination in the city's tourist industry, and a worldwide attraction in and of itself? in addition to these multiple functions, the embarcadero is over subscribed. it was designed at a point in time where we didn't have this many people traveling it on in this many modes, and we all recognize that. so many people use the embarcadero on a daily basis at different speeds that it can no longer safely accommodate all of these users and uses. much of the break road way appears on the city's high injury network which represents 13% of the city streets where 75% of the severe and fatal

injuries occur? the waterfront land use plan update and the support strategic plan objectives both support making safety and mobility improvements to the embarcadero? and the sfmta has been coordinating with plan, public works and support staff to support design analysis and community engagement with transportation, city, and waterfront stakeholders including port tenants and businesses. mr. hildreth will provide information about the next steps in the information and the project, including up coming public workshops, the project implementation requirements, and schedule for implementing this very important project. thank you. casey? >> thank you, lindy. thank you, commissioners. again, my name is casey hildreth withst sfmta, and together with my colleague, we've been managing the embarcadero enhancement project. the study area for the project

goes -- spans the length of the embarcadero from fisherman's wharf and jefferson street down to the left owe o'doul's bridge near the -- lefty o'doul's bridge near the ballpark. i will highlight some of the safety improvement projects that we've been able to implement and then additional near term safety fixes that are actively in design and should be in the ground starting later this year and into early 2019. lastly, i will touch on some next steps as lindy including a design showcase, a public open house, which has been just scheduled october 25 just outside of this room in frant hal ha -- grant hall. so first, what is it? what is it going to provide?

it's going to improve safety comfort and access for all users by providing a complete street from north point to townsend street, and i'll talk about those points in a moment. you know, up until very recently, the embarcadero could be considered a complete street since it does have dedicated bike lanes, the shared use promenade as well as dedicated transit lanes. as we know today, there is widespread agreement that while still a jewel, the embarcadero is still over prescribed. it's difficult to slow or scary, for many to get around, and frustrations are running l high and collisions are on the rise. how do we make the embarcadero complete? well, we believe it's focusing and delivering these project elements, which i won't go through, but they include a physically protected two way bike way on the water side of

the embarcadero, and i'm expand upon that. that will certainly be the most vezible and significant out come of the embarcadero enhancement project, but other things include more crosswalks and better ada access. this is the other way we can complete the embarcadero as it addresses the main pedestrian safety issues. it helps make the corridor more efficient since a lot of our signals are tied to the length of time it takes to to cross the road way. as lindy mentioned, this corridor, much of the corridor is on our high injury network which accounts for the bulk of severe and fatal injuries, and on the embarcadero specifically, these injuries

are on the rise if you compare the last decade to the middle of this decade, you see about a 20% increase in those incidents. as many in the room here today will be reminding us, and are all too familiar with, these stats reflect impacts to real people, too many people. individuals such as kevin m manning, the pedi cab driver who is no longer with us through no fault of his own due to the reckless actions of others. and these stats also don't include the daily near misses that we hear about so often. so the drive behind the city's vision zero policy and the driver behind this project is that such tragedies are unacceptable and ultimately preventible. and yet, change is hard and hard won. while the path to a safer designtor the embarcadero is being -- for the embarcadero is being drawn up, it's equally important to learn from the communities served by this

corridor and to raise awareness of vision zero and build a brought base of support for the tradeoffs that are necessary to achieve safety. so how are we helping to do that? to start, we kicked off the project with an open house, followed by a series of design workshops, engaging a diverse cross section of embarcadero users to get a sense of stakeholders collective values. what are ideal conditions, what are acceptable tradeoffs? what else should the project consider or not consider doing? and for anyone who's interested to learn more about that process, there is a detailed summary report available on-line at our project website, which is sfmta.com/embarcadero. after the design workshop series, the project team focused a lot on technical development and data collectiontor this complex three mail corridor, trying to understand existing conditions on a block by block basis.

no two blocks are the same along the embarcadero, and helped develop an understanding of the impacts for two different design nascenarios. one, a two way bike with on the water side or just taking the existing bike lanes and enhancing them along the corridor. by the fall of 2016, we came back to the public with more project details and had a specific question for stakeholders, which protected bike way design, instead of tradeoffs, makes the most sense for the embarcadero? we notified a broad swath of residents and businesses along adjacent to the northeast waterfront and had a strong response both in in terms of the turn out as well as participation in the on-line survey. but outreach efforts certainly went kwlond just a handful of

public meetings. we also spoke and met with a large number and wide variety of organizations and groups and stakeholders, many more than once. while we must continue and expand our engagement efforts as the project moves forward, we can say with confidence that many of the people that depend on the embarcadero have heard of the embarcadero enhancement project, and have had a fair chance to weigh in. this includes stakeholders in the fisherman's wharf and pier 39 area, troy and several others up there who had told us early on and told us repeatedly that their needs are slightly different than the rest of the corridor which is partly based on the design of the embarcadero in this area, and that a more focused traffic study and look at access to -- was needed, so this led to the northern terminus of the enhancement project stopping at north point, allowing for a

separate traffic study that's currently being scoped. this will include ongoing sfmta coordination with the port, jefferson phase two, as well as the ad hoc working group of shake holders to guide in that -- assist in that shepherding and guide next steps. these next couple slides are relatively technical and paps are useful more as a reference for any q&a, but a couple of things i'd like to point out, there's a lot of variation in the two way bike way design, depending on the adjacent uses, but it generally requires about 16 feet of space. in almost all cases, block by block, this requires moving kwus curbs or light any objectionture objectiontures -- fixtures, so it's a significant project that requires lots of design and engineering. that 16 or so feet can be achieved in a number of

different ways, which is sort of the point of this slide, and given the ability of the embarcadero, we will have to use most of these tools in the tool box some of the tightest areas the bike way could be narrower than we'd like or there could be flex zones to allow for sharing between loading and pedestrian traffic and bicycles for limited amounts of time and space. in a few specific areas, circulation changes may be required, such as converting left turn lanes into through lanes and restricting left-turn lanes at certain intersections. here's one example. at folsom street, looking southbound, there's active curb side loading for restaurants and a muni street car stop, but there's not a third travel lane or a wide promenade that we can

use to grab space, so the proposal that is reflected in this design looks to restrict left turns onto folsom we actually should help transit coming out of the tunnel and assist pedestrians while still allowing the valet parking and the active loading that are vital for the adjacent restaurants. with patrons coming across the corridor. here you can see comprehensive way finding, more industrial amenities in the promenade. our colleagues at public works who helped produce this rendering will be producing several more in the coming

months to bring more of the concept design to life and allow more people to see and understand the vision for the project. moving to some of the actions that we have been able to complete while we've been doing the planning phase for the embarcadero, first, working closely with south beach rincon neighborhood association, we tried to max out the value of the existing bike lanes, making them more visible, we're also reinforcing the message on the promenade that it is a shared pathway but that pedestrians have the right-of-way. at intersections we've added advanced stop bars for vehicles and for bikes so to help reduce the intrusion into the crosswalk and improve pedestrian comfort. in the northern section of the embarcadero, we've made several waves of improvements to the bike lane near north bay and battery, while at north way we've added new signals in a

dedicated bike box. [inaudible] >> in this area, we have what's called a floating bike lane where there's a third travel lane in the peak periods. there's parking restrictions. that does not allow us to really paint a full-time bike lane, so we are proposing and planning to remove the floating nature, allowing a full-time bike lane with all day parking. and this should not only help people on bicycles and people

parking, but we've seen a lot of confusion with drivers and people behaving badly where people confuse this with a parking protected bike way, so hopefully this change will add benefit for all users of the embarcadero. we'll also be updating crosswalks where we have not already updated crosswalks along the corridor, and then we're also working quickly to establish and improve parallel alternative routes to the embarcadero, familnamely, the battery and sansome corridor to the financial district. these changes should be in the ground later this year in the southbound embarcadero and later next year for the sansome battery connection. many other details will be shared and discussed at the showcase.

at this event we hope to dive deeper into the movie complex sections of the corridor where tradeoffs are greatest including related circulation change concepts and specific ideas for transit stop adjustments. the meeting will provide a public forum to review the proposed near team safety changes prior to their construction. and we hope and expect to have more information about the scope and the duration for the environmental phase of the project, which we anticipate including a more rigorous study of the exciting big idea that i alluded to earlier in front of the ferry building. here's an image of the physical model i think it's somewhere in pier one that was prepared when the freeway was being removed and replaced. it's one of many urban design visions that ultimately were scrapped in favor of the current six lane roadway design with harry bridges plaza in the center. with the enhancement project, we want to reconsider the urban design and circulation options that may be available now that

certain design assumptions have changed. for example can we push all the through traffic towards the city side to open up more flexible usable space directly adjacent to the ferry building while still including protection for people cycling. it's very complicated given the street car tracks and traffic signals, and so we need to undertake more sophisticated traffic modelling to see if this is actually a feasible option. but if it is we will work to clear the transportation related components and we will work with the families and city agencies to come up with a grand vision for what this civic space would be. i'll conclude my presentation with an overall project schedule and answer any questions that the commission has. thank you very much. >> thank you okay. we have a lot of public comment.

lawrence lee? >> hi. >> hello. >> so thanks for maintaining one of the cycling and running routes in the world. i have my gear in the bag, so this evening, when you leave, please say hi to me, i'm meeting my running club at the base of the stairs here. this morning, when i was packing my bag, i was reading in the new york times morning briefing that there's another incident in london when someone used an automobile as a weapon to deliberately target and run over innocent pedestrians and cyclists in the public realm. so when these type of incidents happen, it makes the world news, and you know we're reading about it here in san francisco. and officials are quick to

respond over night, you know, helicoptering barriers, security personnel to protect the public realm, and you know, there's no discussion of cost and time. it just happens. however, when, like, nonsensationalistic tragedy occurs in the public realm, the news fades into the background. people continue to get killed and injured on our streets here at our very home, and there's little mention about how it could have been prevented or prevented in the future. you know, the discussion just doesn't stick in the media. so, you know, i'm asking, please don't let this -- the safety of people like me fade into the background. please take the necessary steps to prevent further loss of life on our streets and treat this with urgency. as someone who walks and runs and bikes on the embarcadero regularly, please implement these near term hot spot

improvements right now. they're really necessary, just paint and planters. and please, you know, commit to completing the project within four years. i'll be running and biking a little slower, but i'll still need the safety. thank you. >> thank you. michael kramer, and then brad willie. >> good afternoon, commissioners. michael kramer. i'm here as an avid cyclist. i commute all over the city, and i work in the financial district and pass along the embarcadero almost weekly. and the lanes there are often frustrating, stressful, extremely dangerous, and honestly, sometimes embarrassing considering how tourists have to navigate

through, and the near misses that i've witnessed every time. and, you know, san francisco deserves a good, protective lane -- or bike network, and the embarcadero should be a high priority? we're long overdue. i'm going to make this brief, i just urge you all to work with the sfmta to make these near-term improvements as quickly as possible, to push safety forward as much possible, especially over the concerns of speed and potentially parking and to really fund and approve this project as quickly as possible so we can all be safe and that no more life is lost or blood spilled because we we wouldn't move forward in safe projects. thank you. >> thank you. brad willie, and then joe b. >> good afternoon, commission. so i work here. i work here on the embarcadero,

and i bike to work every day, so on howard and folsom and take it to the embarcadero? a couple months ago, i was hit by a car on howard, and it's a very similar bike lane where a driver basically saw an open parking spot and cut across multiple lanes of traffic and hit me. so the short-term safety improvements really solve this, you know, by swapping the bike lane and the parking to kind of reduce conflict? so i wanted to be here to say, you know, please support this short-term safety kbrost? it definitely makes a big difference? we've seen the city roll out these type of improvements on folsom, and it's made a huge improvement, so thank you. >> thank you. joe b. and then bruce halperin. >> hi. good evening.

thank you for opening this up for public comment. i'm a cyclist. i drive a pedi cab periodically on the embarcadero. i will say that the short-term improvements have made a difference to my experience of driving up and down the embarcadero? things like the brighter bike lane and the posts that are at the intersection near lombard and embarcadero, but we could use more safety implementations? things like the bike lights that's at north point and embarcadero that lets the bikes go ahead of traffic is really helpful? i'll say that we need to -- we -- that there needs to be more signs for -- to guide ride share drivers and where they drop their passengers off because that's a daily struggle in driving a bike -- bicycle or

a pedi cab on the embarcadero. you know, it's not the drivers alone, their faults, but things i would look for just some signs, you know, saying where there's drop off areas and having these parking signs enforced for people being in the bike lane. i guess i'm mostly here for some recommendations for what i see as safety features that could protect bicyclists. it's okay if i look at some on my phone? okay. >> sure. >> in most european countries there's a law that passengers getting out of their cars have to open the door with their op opposite hand. that would stop the car door from swinging wide open and

also make people look behind them before they get out of cars. i feel like that's something that san francisco needs to have? you know, just, we need to protect the life along the waterfront. i will say that these areas are over used and -- and a lot of -- you know, i was driving in a pedi cab two days ago, and there was a ride share driver, and i tapped on his window to let him know i was coming by, and after he got his passenger in the car, he, you know, swerved in front of my bike to threaten me with his vehicle, and these things shouldn't be happening. these ride share apps are a little out of control.

thank you for your time. >> thank you. ruth halperin, and then cohen sanders. >> thank you, madam president, commissioners. i am a resident of the marina district, and i work in the financial district. i -- i commute most days to work by riding my bike along the embarcadero. it is, as the previous speakers have indicated, a very harrowing experience with moving traffic, cars attempting to park. i found the earlier picture of the floating bike lane really humorous, actually, because the obvious question is why don't you just put in a parking protected bike lane, and then, you don't have to have driver confusion in terms of having the -- the bike lane against

the curb or 10 feet or 8 feet away. there have been too many depths, too many injuries along this corridor. i'd like you to consider if it was you or your significant other or your child, god forbid, and i'd like to strongly urge you to implement the short-term safety improvements as well as to cooperate -- continue to cooperate with the sfmta for long-term improvements, including the jefferson street phase two, as well as the parking protected bike lanes or in general protected bike lanes along the water side of the embarcadero. i'd also like to emphasize an additional or mention an additional short-term

improvement that i'd like to see. i think many of the -- my fellow cyclists here would agree that the most dangerous part of the embarcadero for cyclists is associate at battery street, between sansome and battery, with bikes having to contend with cars turning right onto battery street from the embarcadero. i'd strongly urge you to consider working with the sfmta on a solution that was similar to what was implemented at folsom and ethics streets where that's a bay bridge on ramp, and that's a similar setup where that is as a forced right -- -- that's a forced right turn lane. what the solution was there was to move the bike lane from in

between the rate turn lane and the through lane, move the bike lane over to the curb, and then, add a bike signal that had a separate phase where bikes could go straight and not have to contend with right turn cars. so thank you. >> thank you. colin sanders and then chris longenherber. >> hi. my name's colin sanders, and i'm a fleet manager fore pedi cab company as well as an independent pedi cab operators. we're an important part of the tourism industry, and we need safe bike ways in order to operate. i'm sure you're aware, on june 27, our colleagues kevin manning was killed in a hit and run incident on the

embarcadero. kev kevin was a friend of mine, and i know that his death at the hands of a reckless driver was preventible. if the sfmta's plan was implemented, kevin would still be with us. i urge you to begin construction with no further delays. perhaps one of the lives saved will be mine. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> chris and then maureen sitko. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is chris longnecker. don't feel bad. my community college students mispronounce is all the time, too. pedi cab put me through graduate school. it allows me to afford to live in the bay area while working with often under privileged students at community colleges and has introduced me to some of the most creative, unique

and loving people i've ever known. on july 27, one of those people was stolen from us. kevin manning was murdered in a cowardly hit and run in an intersection along the embarcadero long known by cyclists to be hazardous due to the lack of a safety bike structure and a demarkated bike lane. while this accident's had a profound effect on his immediate network, it goes farther deeper. this is one of the heaviest cycling routes populated by tourists. they ride down an unprotected unbuffered bike lane directly next to stressed out drivers from the suburbs. unlike unlicensed taxi drivers,

who were, who have no business being on the road. if there's anything good that can come out of their horrible tragedy, it would be that this commission and other civic leaders ensure that every safety is taken to make sure something like this never happens again. we need a protected bike lane that offers safety passage along one of the busiest bike lanes in the country. if the needs of those of us who cycle for a living along those route aren't taken into account, it could push our businesses into the road it efl is, perhaps creating a more dangerous situation for us than we live under today. my understanding is this project is generally about 18

months behind schedule. we need this bike lane project put back on track immediately, given high priority, and we need to implement immediate hot spot improvements yesterday. i hope something beautiful can come out of this preventible murder of my friend, kevin. nobody should have to bury their grandfather because of inaction here today. [applause] [inaudible] >> -- and then carla patrick. >> good afternoon. i am a san francisco resident of almost 30 years, and four the last six years, i have used public transportation and my bicycle to get around. i consider myself an experienced urban cyclist, yet i hate biking along this

beautiful stretch of embarcadero. i'm here because i'm angry and i'm extremely disappointed in this board's flogging pace to make embarcadero safe for bicyclists. there's still nothing to keep cars from double parking in the bike lane, forcing bicyclists to merge with fast moving traffic. mr. halperin, do you think that green paint has magical properties? i'm one of the activists who stood inches from speeding cars on cracked pavement. we stood on the bike lane line protecting vulnerable bicyclists because you still have not installed even minimal safety improvements. did you notice the dates mentioned by mr. hildreth. an open house in 2016, and still despite the death and terror of biking on embarcadero, there's nothing being done. do we have to have another death before you implement

immediate safety improvements? i'm talking about soft posts and moving that floating bike lane. i'm prepared to join another people protected bike lane action on the embarcadero. i hope i won't have to. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> carl patrick and then kathy deluca. >> hello, everybody. my name's carl patrick. i'm a pedi cab operator for about 4.5 years. i've worked down on the embarcadero for almost 11 years. i didn't really have anything planned to say to you today, so i thought i would just share that in -- about the 3.5 hours that i worked today before i came here. i had, i'd say nearly six or seven near collisions with the

cars entering the lane while i had people in my cab, very nice families and senior citizens visiting from out of town. and luckily, i think because of the training that we get in our industry and the self-policing we get and the support we give each other, we have a degree of awareness and professionalism that allows us to avoid more accidents that i think would happen if we maybe got the training that an uber driver gets, which is nothing. and i know that there's not much you can do about that. there's not much you can do to regulate ubers and lyfts which is one of our biggest issues out there. there's not a lot you can do about most of these things. there's nothing this commission can do to make drivers less stupid. but there is one thing you can do. i think, which is to act quick and to treat this as an emergency, as a public emergency or as a potential public emergency. you know, that all the tourists we have just today, the five or

six near collisions we have that happens every single day that i worked here, the hundreds and hundreds of days that i worked here and the thousands of rides that i've given. it's probably happened every day. when you milt ply that and scale it up -- multiply that up and scale it up, as lit chris mentioned, we have hundreds and hundreds of people riding their bikes on those road ways. i don't think there's any need to wait until something worse happens. i understand that planning takes a while, but come on. it can't be that hard. so that's all i i want to say. i really encourage you to do the right thing and to act if there were serious, 'cause it is. i'm -- you know, losing a friend is really not the best thing in the world, and i'm sure you can all understand that and empathize with that. and also getting calls from your family and your friends

every day terrified that that could have been you or that's going to be you someday. so i think you can empathize with that and understand that, and understand what everyone in this community is going through, and so just try and put yourself in our hsus and do the right thing. thank you. >> thank you. -- shoes and do the right thing. thank you. >> thank you. kathy deluca and david becker. >> good afternoon, president brandon, commissioners. my name is kathy deluca, and i'm the program and policy director at walk san francisco, and so i'm here today to urnl you to support the embarcadero enhancement project along with the rest of the community that's here today. as a pedestrian at voe indicate, i am here -- advocate, i am here representing and i make sure every day that everybody who walk are safe. we have this amazing waterfront that we've all been talking about today. but how do most people get here? how do most of our tourists get here? they actually have to across

one of our high injury corridors, to get to this beautiful destination, a treem that we know is -- street that we know is extremely dangerous for pedestrians and even drivers. so we worked -- walk sf worked with south beach, rin -- rincon, and others. we need to protect the folks that are crossing that street every day. with almost 250 people hit on the embarcadero in the last five years, that's 50 people a year. i know that everyone who's spoken to far, including myself, we're not willing to let that happen. we're not willing to lose anymore lives or have anyone else suffer serious injuries for something that we know is fixable. we wi we really need your help to

get this going. we need you and lives are depending on it. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] >> david becker and then matthew lambert. >> good afternoon. my name is david becker. i live in north beach. i walk and bike the embarcadero at least once a day. right now, embarcadero's kind of the worst of both worlds. it's very, very crowded. when i walk, i'm always scared that bikers are, like, flying around me. as a biker, if i take the bike lane, i'm just terrified that a car will just pull right in front of me. and from those pictures, they show cars, like, jumping in front of you. but even -- even when they're standing still, you don't know if somebody's going to open a door right into you, and i've had many, man ae close calls

where i'm just riding my bike straight along the bike way, and i have to react, and if i would have just reacted a little bit slower, i would have just been on the floor. this is -- i understand it starts oh, like oh, let's do a shared lane here. it's incremental, but based on the traffic we have on the embarcadero, it's time. it's time to give bikes a dedicated lane, give pedestrians their own space. it just makes so much sense. and the near term improvements, we need those posts, we need protection. like, we know their hot spots where people get injured over and over and over against and have close calls. let's have that resolved. enhancement project should have been done ten years ago for sure. let's get that as a priority. and we saw how beautiful it can

be. we saw how there's, like, so much optimism that we can have when we have a project rolling out and embarcadero looking for beautiful than ever. i urge you to move forward faster. it's important for the community, it's important for san francisco citizens. i love living in the city, i love commuting in the city, i love bringing my family -- having my family visit, and i want to live in a city where i feel safe, and my family feels safe, as well. thank you. >> thank you. matthew lambert, and then christian lefke. i can't read it. it matthew here? is christian here? >> good afternoon,

commissioners. my name is kristin lecke, and i'm with the san francisco bicycle coalition. i'm here today on behalf of our 10,000 plus members because someone was hit and killed on the embarcadero and every day we wait to install safety improvements, we put more people in danger. since the death of kevin manning, we, pedi cabs and others have come together to demand change. kevin's death is a devastating consequence of unnecessary delays and a lack of interagency cooperation. time and time again, this left up to friends and family who are grieving to push for solutions that prevent further tragedy. we're here today to demand that the city do more with greater urgency. everyone who bikes the embarcadero deserves better. i have worked hand and hand with many dear friends of kevin over the past month and witnessed their tenacity working for change on this

corridor. i want to thank them for their efforts of making this city safer for everyone, even in the after math of a tragedy. because of their hard work, the sfmta has pledged to implement protections in hot spots as soon as possible. however we are concerned that the city is not acting fast enough to prevent further loss of life on the embarcadero. it's been over four years since the planning process started and we're still waiting to see the finalized zrienz. there have been delays time and time again. the city must commit to delivering safety improvements to the embarcadero as soon as possible. you must act urgently and tactfully to prevent further deaths of san franciscans who are simply trying to earn a living, commuting and see friends and family. commissioners, thank you again

for your time today. >> thank you. >> peter armour, and then brent bertocci. >> hello. my name's peter armour, and i've been commuting to work since 1982. it's increasingly a frightening experience. i avoid the embarcadero as much as i possibly can because i've had some really bad experiences down there. i am appalled and just absolutely stunned that you voided this number of 209 people injured between 2011 and 2016, that there's been a 20% increase over the prior five years. that's a staggering number, and the way the city's growing, we know that there are going to be more people on the streets with

their bicycles, and we've got construction down at the -- with the warriors stadium. that's going to bring in more traffic. there's just exponentially the traffic is going to grow, the foot terrific and the cycling traffic, and then, you've got the alternative vehicles, the sipping wi single wheel things that some people like to ride. but i am upset about the numbers of people injured, and i think those numbers -- i'm wondering why i've not heard about that before, if it's my ignorance, not knowing where to look. a number like that ought to be available so everybody can see that because that's just not acceptable. any way, i would strongly encourage you and -- to implement the short-term changes as soon as possible. we shouldn't be waiting on that. we should be going ahead with

that now. we're already overdue. i'd like to see the long-term changes that would really help things and that would be the curbing -- for the curbings and the separation of cyclists and pedestrians. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> bert bertocci and then katie ledan. >> hi. i'm bert bertocci. i'm an avid cyclist and i frequently bike along the embarcadero. i take the train in, and i then i bike up to market street. and i stopped use the bike lane. i am, by all means, a capable cyclist. i do this all the time. i'm not afraid in the sense that i'm not going to let that stop me from riding, but i am in the sense that it's just not enjoyable. i've stopped taking the bike lane on the embarcadero.

i take the shared path. it's not the best option. i have pedestrians walking five pi people apeoplbreast. i don't feel like the pedi driver that was involved in the six car collision. putting everybody in that shared path isn't good enough. we need to make a dedicated bike lane, and one of the things about the long-term plans, it's not clear. they were talking about loading zones. for the long-term plan, it's very important that there are no drivers in the bike lan, no temporary drop offs of passengers. as far as the short-term improvements go, there was mention of the southbound lanes before mission. as someone who takes it offer mission all -- after mission all the way to the train, i

simply -- the northbound side is bad, the southbound side is unrideable. you have cars, you have a -- parked cars, a narrow bike lane, and people driving pretty quickly. we should take out the parking completely. north of there where -- around battery where we're talking about, all the way down to townsend. anything else is saying that we value those parking spaces more than we value sighing willists' lives, and i urge you to make all the short-term improvements and long-term improvements. it's absolutely necessary. thank you [applause] >> thank you. math brizena. >> gamood afternoon, commissioners. i'm a long-term member of the coalition. so i'm katie ledel.

i'm the cochair of the rincon mission bay neighborhood association. we have worked for many hours with casey and patrick, and they are terrific. i'm also a 23 year resident of south beach rincon. i live two blocks from the bay, and i've been walking the embarcadero and that area for 23 years. and i've seen some very worrysome changes. it used to be dead down there. the mid90's, the late 90's before the ballpark, it was dead. the ballpark came in, the embarcadero and the whole neighborhood exploded, which was great. i think we loved it. we loved getting, you know, some life down there. but things are getting out of hand. i no longer walk on the break unless i have to. the proliveration of wheeled

vehicles out there just make it too dangerous and too distracting, and so we do need to make the bicyclists comfortable with their protect protected bike lanes. i fully support them, but hence, the embarcadero enhancement project. we love it. love patrick, love casey. they have spent hours with us. they love us, they get it. we're the one that asked them to put the sententencils out. we asked them to put a camera out to monitor what's happening at pier 38, and they did. they're great partners, but it hasn't been enough. we want the cyclists to be comfortable enough to be out in the bike lanes. we want to get all the wheels things off the embarcadero pathway. we want pedestrians to feel safe again, so i'm here today to ask the port to please help expedite this project. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you. matt brisena, and then jerry frisch. matt left? jeremy? and then, henry. >> hi. my name is jeremy frisch. i live in the mission district and work in soma. when i meet friends after work at the embarcadero, most of the time, i end up having to swerve in the vehicle lane and uber is using the bike lane as their drop off zone. there have been over 80 people injured in bike accidents on the embarcadero in the last five years. it's been over a month since kevin manningdide in a bike lane on the embarcadero. it has been almost two years since there was an open house for the embarcadero enhancement

project. as mr. hildreth said, kevin's death was due to the inaction of others, or rather the lack of the port commission and the sfmta to work together on this. the embarcadero has the potential to be the biking mecca of the city with plenty of space for transit, vehicles, bikes and people. safer biking means more tourists and residents will use the lanes and patronize the businesses. the unprotected lanes we have now do not work. protected and separate bike lanes are the only option and the port commission and the sfmta need to quit dragging their feet and fund the project by 2022. i urge this commission to work with sfmta to implement near term improvements now.

the sfmta proposed hot spot improvements in several zones. while that's a good start, we need to do more. the embarcadero stretches up to 20 feet in plagss, which is plenty of -- places, which is plenty of room to accommodate pedestrians and pedi cabs. if you feel that creates an unsafe environment for f pedestrians, and it may, let's paint a two way cycle track on the promenade. all it takes is some green paint. whatever the solution is, protecting the people who ride on the embarcadero should be your number one priority. these are people's lives. what is more important? 2022 and beyond is not an acceptable timeline to prevent death, so please figure out how to protect bikers now. and i made -- i took a few photos