will you please call the roll, ms. boomer? [roll call] >> you have a quorum. >> chairman: thank you very much. >> please silence you cell phones and all electronic equipment. please be advised that the ringing of cell phones and other electronic devices are prohibited at the meeting. any person responsible for one going off may be asked to leave the room. cell phones set on vibrate cause microphone interference so the board respectfully require requests ty

be turn off. >> chairman: is there any public comment on the march 4 speaking comments. >> i do not have a speaking card. >> chairwoman: that is closed. all those in favor say yea. >> yea. >> item five, communications, mr. chair, i have none. item six, introduction of new or unfinished business by board members. >> chairman: i will give other board members a chance to weigh in if they have new or unfinished business of their own. but as some of you are aware and was put on the agenda, i would like to make a motion to follow up on some policy discussions we've had before. i think maybe the most efficient way is for me to simply read it. is that fair enough? >> yes. >> chairman: i would like to introduce a motion to have a parking pro protected bike lane not

later than april 18th, 2019, and on howard street between third street and fourth street not later than april 18th, 2019, or following the completion of the construction activity, whichever is later. >> i'll second that motion. >> chairman: very good. so if there are questions for me or for staff, board members now, we can have mr. riskin to answer them. if not, i would like to open it up to public comment before we have a discussion on that. directors, is that okay? very good. >> before it is open for public comment, the fire codes do not allow people standing in the room. so all of those of you standing either need to find a seat. we have arranged for an overflow room in room 416. >> chairman: okay. >> so if people could take

a seat. >> chairman: and i understand we're joined by supervisor haney here, and on tuesday afternoons, given that the board of supervisors have their ongoing meetings, i would ask the supervisor to come forward. i understand this is an issue you would like to address? i'll take that nod as a yes. >> here? >> chairman: yes. thank you. thank you for being here. >> thank you chair heinike and directors. i appreciate you allowing me to speak. i'm very grateful for the motion that i just heard which real late real lates relay comments. we have a biking lane in our city that is dangerously and recklessly incomplete. we witnessed the tragic death of a cyclist who was killed on howard street,

which brought deep pain to our community and escalated the problem. there are neighborhoods, that as you know, are heavily over represented on this city's high-injury network. in the past week and a half, i've had hundreds of constituents, many of whom are here today, who reached out and urged -- and not just urged, but pleaded for immediate action to protect cyclists and pedestrians. there are few things that we know as a city, if we do them, they will absolutely save lives. we know that without protected bike lanes, without traffic-slowing measures, people will be hurt and lives will be lost. every day on our streets, thousands of cyclists go down streets on high-injury corridors, many of them in district 6. you don't have to be a cyclist to understand how dangerous this is. if you watch what is happening on our streets, you see people going in

and out, cars going in and out of bike lanes, doors opening and slamming into cyclists, collisions happening, and this is a dangerous situation we're putting our residents in. there are some things that are complicated in our city. i know this is one of the things you all worked on. this one doesn't feel that complicated to me. fully protected bike lane infrastructure needs to be af proved anapproved and implemd immediately. where people are cycling, we know where they are, we know how heavily they're cycling, and we know what the need is. on howard, the full length of howard, we urgently need a protected bike lane. from third until sixth, there is a motion to do that. we want to see the full length of howard done absolutely as soon as it possibly can be. i've heard that for howard and fulsom, the plan was to get it done in a couple of years. we need to see it done in a couple of months. the urgency that we saw on

fifth and howard, we need to see that same level of urged seurgency for the rest of howard. that's what i'm pleading for you here today before any other lives are lost. and i'm asking if you can make efforts to make immediate fixes, enforcing the law, removing the corner, painting and posting, and these are things that can affect people right now and save lives. i was downstairs with hundreds of people, many of whom are going to come here and talk to you, and the message was clear. they don't want to see anymore lives lost. they know where these projects need to happen. in my district, on 7th, and townsend and embarcadero, and, of course, howard and fulsom. i hope we can move with much greater urgency. this is a life-or-death situation. i'm the representative of the area that is really experiencing this. i plead with you to take action immediately, and i thank you for your leadership.

i know this is a challenge thing, but it one i believe we're prepared to support you on to make happen immediately. thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much, supervisor, for your time today. your message is received loudly and clearly. thanyou heard the action. and thank you for being here. i can tell you that our focus in particular will be on the high-injury corridors, as you've requested, and that has been the focus and we'll renew that focus as an agency. thank you very much for your time. ms. boomer, how many speaker cards do we have? >> 32. >> chairman: am i allowed to do 90 seconds instead of a min-minute a minutr two. >> i don't have that capacity. >> chairman: i will tell you oftentimes brevity is persuasive. >> can we just pass the motion and they can go home and do their jobs? do you want to hear them all? >> according to the sunshine ordinance, the

members of the public -- >> chairman: if only we were in sacramento again. no, folks, you've heard the motion. you're welcome to speak. you will have a two-minute time limit. ms. boomer, please call the first speaker. >> harold finley, jordan davis, mitch concres. >> chairman: if you're name has been called, line up. we want to hear what you have to say, but we want to be efficient about it. are you our first speaker sir? >> hold on. we need the cameras to move so they are not blocking the closed captioning on either of the two screens. >> chairman: sir, could you restate your name. >> my name is harold finley. >> chairman: welcome, mr. finley. >> what i'm going to say is something we all know, everybody in the room knows, everybody on the board knows, everybody in government knows, for some reason we refuse to

acknowledge in any meaningful way, drivers have been killing people on san francisco's streets ever since cars have been allowed on san francisco streets. it has been a century. for half a century we've known that cars have been devastating for our community. beyond the severe violence of intimidation and killing people, it is destroying neighborhoods. it is contributing pollution. and now we even know within a decade we're going to destroy our global climate. and this shouldn't even be a question of whether to make our streets safe for people. the question should be -- we should be looking at it as car lanes and parking should be as rare as safe biking and pedestrian streets are now. safe pedestrian and biking streets should be as common as car lanes and parking are now. we need to completely

invert how we think, how we view it. this shouldn't be about making our streets safer. it should be just eliminating the danger. stop focusing on car use. just stop it. you know, immediately. just don't do it anymore. and i don't think i can make the point any clearer than that in the interest of your brevity comment, i'll just stop it right there. >> chairman: thank you very much, mr. finley. >> just stop the focus on car use. >> jordan davis. >> chairwoman: so, folks, we have some rules in here. one of them is we don't applaud. you're welcome to give mer finley a handshake, but we want everybody to feel welcome, and so we don't want applause or boos or anybody's noise. this is the city hall, open forum. so, mr. finley, thank you for your brevity and your eloquence. if you want to show support, throw your hands up, but please let's be respectful of all speakers. >> jordan davis, mitch

concord, and duncan bailey. >> my name is jordan davis, and i live in district 6. and what happened with tess rosstein, that should not happen. i live in a high-injury area. i live on geary avenue. i take my life in my hands even going to the laundromat. i do have a driver's license, but i never drive anymore. i just don't believe -- i believe that with, of course -- we have only 12 years left to curb the cycle of global warming, and i want to say anything that pisses off motorists is a good thing, anything that helps pedestrians is a good thing. anything that would help prevent these bicycle and pedestrian deaths is a good thing. this is also an equity and racial justice issue because district 6 is a

very diverse area in terms of racial demographics, in terms of immigration status, in terms of trans and queer folks, in terms of income levels, in terms of a lot of things. and it just needs to stop. so we really need you to step it up and just put in some bleeping bike lanes. >> mitch duncan and philip buzzley. >> i'm not the next speaker, but can i just get in line? >> chairman: no. >> do you have a speaker card. mitch concord. >> chairman: no, sir, please wait your turn. who is the next speaker, please. >> duncan bailey and philip busby. >> chairman: others that hear your name, please do the same and line up. >> this feels like a no-brainer. i don't think it takes two

minutes to explain that protected bike lanes have, as the supervisor was saying, save lives. they create a more welcoming environment for cyclists as a better mode of transit, a better way to grow the city, and to handle how much more populated these districts are becoming. i just don't see any of the tradeoffs in a way that is meaningfully stopping the progress from saving more lives and creating a more welcoming environment. we can hopefully look forward as a city to welcome far better cities that have taken this thing seriously decades ago. there doesn't seem any reason not to take this action right now and it shouldn't take anymore deaths. >> chairman: thank you so much. the next speaker. >> philip busby and -- >> is there a reason why i have to fill out a speaker card? >> chairman: sir, it is not your turn. >> i just wonder because i've never filled one out

before -- >> chairman: you're taking the time of dozens of people here. it is not your turn. mr. busby, please. >> that's quite all right. i'll be quick. i just what like to say that bikes don't really kill anyone, but cars do, and we should slow them down. i'm more than happy to put some traffic cones in the middle of the street, but i think that is probably not a good idea. we should act now and do it now. thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> jane natoli, jeff lush, and laura josie. >> thanks for having me. i'll also keep this brief. i'm someone who bikes around the city every day. i have been on howard and i know intimately what it is like to get injured in that corridor. i was not surprised to see this news. i'm deeply saddened that it takes another loss of life to see quick action. we know that quick action is possible. we've seen it this week.

we can't keep waiting. there are so many more streets like howard that need protection, that need to be made better for people to get around safely. and i just hope that you take the energy from all of this and apply thkt to every other street in our city. thank you. >> chairman: well-said. thank you very much for being here. next speaker, please. >> jeff lush followed by laura josie. >> my name is jeff lush, and to keep it quick, i bike in the city every day. my wife bikes in the city every day. when i heard the news about tess, my wife bikes that lane every day, and i wondered if it was my wife. and until i found out, i was terrified. we need the bike lanes. and we need enforcement. i biked here from bernell heights today, and there are six cars in the bike lane, two of which were turned off. we see it every day. you'll see photos of this every day. m.t.a. needs to do its job with enforcement. if we need s.f.p.d. to do

it as well, please do it. >> chairman: thank you, var powerful. i appreciate you being here. >> laura josie. >> my name is laura josie, and i live in san francisco, and i, like his wife, use that bike lane every day. that is really hard to hear that news about tess. i thank you for your motion, but i urge you to implement a protected bike lane on the entire street, and the same is needed on fulsom, which i take almost every day. we need a network of safe bike lanes and not just patchwork. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> joe gurten, followed by george lowe and savic pradon. >> hello, my name is joe gurten. thank you for responding so quickly this past week. it should be clear to us that policy-making that

responds only when life is lost is not how we should be designing our streets. i want to add there is an infrastructure solution on how enforcing the city is, and that's building a bike lane that cars cannot park in. if we want to reach our vision goals and sustainable mode-share goals -- when i talk about biking and commuting on bicycle and on foot with my peers here in san francisco who live and work in the city, the main deterrence for getting them more involved in riding bikes is that there is not a safe way for them to do so. and a patchworktomy where patchm where one block gets protected after someone loses their life does not make someone feel safe. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker. >> george lowe. >> sir, welcome. thank you for being here. >> thank you. good afternoon.

as someone who bikes that stretch almost every morning and as someone who is raising a family with young children, why would like to, again, reinforce this idea of a complete network of protected bike lanes. i would love to bike to school with my daughter in the morning. it is not possible, even though it is only a half mile. i've also been working with m.p. a. for about eight months to try to get bike racks put in front of the school. it has not happened. i know the city has put a high priority on trying to keep families here, and one of the ways to do that is to give us, as parents, ways to experience things with our kids, such as biking. and i would also like to reiterate the point about enforcement along howard. every single time when the bike lane merges left and the right-turning cars go right, when the right-turn

lanes are allowed, in invariably, there are cars loading or parked in the merging -- like the blind spots, the merging zones. i see that every morning. i see the vehicles going by every morning. i've never seen anyone get a ticket for that. it creates more blind merging. so in addition to the infrastructure, we really neat enforcement and people taking seriously that you cannot park in the bike lanes and those areas. >> chairman: thank you, sir, very much. next speaker. >> savic pradon, asumi takigowa. >> two days ago i was biking on the paige street on the way to grab dinner with one of my friends when a sports car zipped past me at about 45 miles per hour. had one of the cars to my right have opened their dars at that second, not

only would i not be here right now, i don't know that you'd be able to identify the body. that is not okay and acceptable in a city like this. i would like to thank you and the city for your emergency action on howard. it shows how we can quickly improve the bike lanes when there is a bill to act. it needs to start with protected bike lanes along the full howard, but it must go beyond soma. i shouldn't be fearing for my life as soon as i step out of my home district. and we need to build a protected bike lane that spans across all of san francisco. no more of this piece-meal over the safety and lives of cyclists. because if we don't fundamentally change the process to work more affectively, we're doomed to continue to advance only block by block,

street by street, and funeral by funeral. and i do not want to be that next funeral. thank you. >> chairman: thank you for your time. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, directors. i'm a resident of the richmond district, and i also get around by bicycle in this city. i'm here like many others to mourn the death of tess rosstein, and to ask you to approve the bike lane bill that is in front of you today. and make changes so we don't have to require human sacrifices in order to get the protected infrastructure that we need in this city. please make these improvements systematically throughout the city on high-injury corridors. about a year ago, i saw a cyclist get left-hooked and get severely injured. last week i saw a bicyclist get adora in doored in

goldengate park. and traffic speed and volume are used to determine where a protected bike lane should go, and so on. in north america we have guidelines. the all ages and abilities guidelines which direct agencies to install specific types of infrastructure on streets that have more than 25 miles per hour or 6,000 cars of traffic. we need you to build infrastructure all the way from the bayview to the tenderloin to the outer reaches of the district. so please expeditiously build out a protected network of safe streets throughout the city. thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> tofer lynn followed by martin macerrel. >> my name is tofer lynn, and i was a friend of tess

and her fiance, juan. tess was one of the warmest and most gentle people that i have known. i think all of us have our me moments, tess pretty much had none. what hurts the most is the disproportionality with what a wonderful person she was with how stupid the manner of her death was. i hear that the motion tess specifically regards protected bike lanes on third and fourth by sometime in april. i think what people are asking for is the fully protected bike lane the entire length of full son anfulsomand howard. i think i echo what everyone else here said today about needing a network of connected bikeways in san francisco so that this doesn't happen again. i think there are times

when we understand that we can't prevent every death, but this was just colossally stupid and unnecessary. thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much for putting a personal face on it and for coming down. i know that was hard for you. please know we will adjourn today's meeting in honor of ms. rosstein. next speaker. >> martin macarrel. >> i live in san francisco and i use biking as my main way of getting around. a few years ago i broke my upper arm in two pieces because a car was driving where they weren't supposed to be and taking a left that they weren't supposed to take, but there was no physical barrier for stopping them from doing that. i do want to thank you for the bike lanes we have. the problem is that cars expand to take up all

available space. the culture seems to have changed, especially with uber and lyft. i'd love to see cushmen cruising up and down ticketing everybody. that would be a good start. in general, there needs to be a sense of urgency. it seems like the vision and hazy and off in the horizon. the board of supervisors is considering this climate emergency declaration. it sounds good, but the question is: what do we do after that? we really are in an emergency. i would see not a five-year plan to have a few more bike lanes, but how about in five-year we have inverted how people get around in san francisco. biking, walking is safe and comfortable, and cars and few and far between, and we have lots of roads

that are completely car-free. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker. >> charles defarge. >> charles defarge, senior community organizer at the san francisco bicycle coalition. two fridays ago, tess was killed while riding a bike on her way to work. a protected bike lane would have saved her life. we've gotten pretty good at organizing around tragedy. we just rallied on the steps here, hundreds of us, and i'm frankly sick of it. i don't want to organize other rallies. the truth is i can't remember a protected bike lane that wasn't hard fought, time and time again. we mobilize when somebody is hit and killed, and then we get blocks or scraps of protected bike lanes. the question i've asked this board before: how

many lives will we have to trade for the city to take action? today the answer is one more, and that's tess'. we know that the s.f.m. t.a. can build a protected bike lane in less than a week. we have that in front of us right now on howard. there are hundreds of similar gaps in the bike network. we all know them, everybody in this room. and next week that can be where the next person is hit and killed. today's resolution doesn't go far enough. the bicycle coalition and our members are demanding that you go far yain beyond the extension of protected bike lanes per block. one, we need all of fulsom protected. two, we need a comprended list of protected bike lanes with the same exact urgent see. and, three, we need to reform how we get these projects in the ground. again, with the support of the mayor, with the

support of supervisor haney, make the proactive, transformative changes we need for this to never happen again. thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much, charles. next speaker, please. >> simone monjielli. >> welcome. hi. i live in district 8. i know the motion before this board right now is to put, you know, protected bike lanes on a couple of blocks, but that's not enough. you don't get to leave this meeting and pat yourself on the back for saying yes on this. you don't, edward, art, you don't, lee, you don't, gwyneth, you don't, cheryl, you don't. malcolm, you don't. christina, you don't. this is a reactive measure. that is not a pr proactive measure to make our streets safe. we need protected bike

lanes by default, when the road is reconstructed or repaved, protected bike lanes need to go in by default. we can't have, as the last speaker just said, a protracted fight on each and every fight lane. it needs to go in by default. without protections, as other speakers have said, uber, lyft, they park in the bike lane, the san francisco p.d. parks in the bike lanes. it is not just those companies. it is the city employees parking in the bike lane, making it very dangerous for bikers in the city. we need pedestrian and bike-only streets. vienna, rome, belgrade -- they all have pedestrian malls where thousands and thousands of pedestrians and bikes go without any fear of any vehicles killing them. we just eliminated one. we eliminated a protect

bike and pedestrian-only street that was only bikes and pedestrians, and we eliminated that. we gave it back to cars. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> rohan catcho. >> good afternoon, directors. thank you for having us here. like some of the comments before me, i want to talk about a structural issue. he said there should be protected bike lanes by defaults. not only is m.t.a. not doing that right now, it is doing the opposite. back in october, we had the seven-hour marathon meeting, where the sixth street project was held. it originally had bike lanes on it and two car lanes, and the hotel lobby showed up and wanted an extra car lane and so the

protected bike lanes went away. on bratway, there is a project, and it will say it is doing a project of adding two bike lanes, but stusupervisor stefani said she e-mailed them, and now they are not doing that. i thought we eliminated that on valencia street, but whatever. this keeps happening and it has to stop. projects keep getting watered down. by the time they get to this board, this has already happened. director brinkman said at a previous meeting that you're a policy board. you've got to do something about it. urge your staff to resist watering down projects or take the heat from them. have them bring multiple alternatives to your vote, and take the heat and the blame for not defending people's rights. and for whatever other reasons.

if this board had been voting in october, during that seven-hour meeting on a choice between two car lanes and two bike lanes on sixth street, what would the majority have done? i think i know the answer. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker. >> diana prey. >> thank you. i'm diana prey. on march 7th, my neighborhood was struck while crossing wallace street. on march 12th, an s.u.v. missed its mark and crashed into a home at goldengate. and where yesterday a driver missed their mark and crashed into a light post at paige street. i used to be a driver who drove too fast. here is the kicker, i wasn't breaking the speed limit.

stop favoring automobiles. streets are for people. streets are paved by feet, and cobble-stoned for horses and carriages, and paved for bicyclists. and people using them have been killed by motorists for a century, as i believe our first speaker said. my father is named after his great uncle, who was killed in 1905 by a motorist. people have far too many and far more recent examples of that. 30% of u.s. cities surface area, including san francisco's, are parking spaces. drivers pay pennies to put their unused private property on public land. have you been tracking how expensive land is in san francisco, but they're paying pennies for it. and it takes the streets from people. it shunts pedestrians on

to one-way sidewalks single file, and it shunts cyclists like me, like so many people behind me and outside right now, and like tess, into the paths of motorists who are going too fast. vision zero is failing. build the infrastructure. build the now, and educate motorists and educate everyone who uses the roads, and that's all of us. >> chairman: thank you very much. >> theate theodore randall. >> hello. my name is theodore randall. the proposed bike lanes on howard and fulsom is really important to me. within 12 hours before and after tess' death, i rode through the street where she died twice. and it was really disturbing. i live in the excelsior,

but i can't help but notice that all of this attention and these emergency actions is happening when a pretty, young white wome woman has been killed. when a few years ago, a few blocks from my house, a middle-aged, hispanic man was killed and nothing happened. we know where the high-injury corridors are in the city, and we can act quickly. so we're in the 21st century. our science has advanced since the 20th century, and we know that traffic deaths are not accidents. they're the predictable result of bad road design. so we need the protected bike lanes here right away, where we have the most traffic, and we also need the protected bike infrastructure to deal with the high-injury corridors throughout the city. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please.

>> margare margaret mccarthy. >> i'm a resident of the hateashbury neighborhood. i look forward to further action. but what happens next? what happens after this item is approved? every life lost on our streets is irreplaceable. and the injuries done to the families, the scars on the community, and in the hearts of everyone who loves them, the scars are irrevocable. we had enough deaths. we can have enough urgency. we already have the tools. we know what we need to do to build a fully networked city of protected bike lanes. we just have to decide if we have the courage to do it.

>> chairman: thank you very much, mr. mccarthy. next speaker. >> sofia gomez. >> hi. i've been and a pedestrian in san francisco my whole life. and i've been riding my bike along ful fulsom, and sometimes i'm forced to ride on van ness, have is terrifying, and i bike on howard. between september and march 10th, i've been riding my bike and was almost hit 500 times, until march 11th when i was finally doored. i have evidence that people don't care about bicyclists. someone drove right past me and my debilitated bike. when i was getting my x-rays done -- i should preference and say i'm okay, i'm fine. the person who was taking my x-rays was trying to relate to me, saying he

had been a bike effort in the '80s, and in an effort to make feel better, don't worry, this happens to professionals as well. which i think he was trying to make me feel better, but made me realize this has been happening since before i was born. people who made their living, either by being on their bikes, or even just trying to enjoy this absolute wonderful city that is meant to be walked, meant to be b meant to be seen, have been having collisions with cars. and that's far too long. he was making the point that since bicycle messengers as a profession has probably decreased, i would like t to point out to the board actually there are more people who are still riding their bikes, at least in the food delivery apps, and i see people on their bikes all over the place. i live near valencia, and even though will are bike lanes there, that's

exactly where i was hit on my bike. so these bike lanes need to be respected, they need to be improved, they need to be expanded. i would also like to echo that i see -- >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker. >> claire witherspoon. >> i just want to say again what many people have been saying. we need more protected bike lanes in this city. coming here today i chose to take bart because i didn't feel safe riding my bike in this area in the path i had to take to get here. the other day i was riding, and a car pulled into the bike lane right in front of me, and i was very visible. it was full daylight. and, again, just like enforcement for people who are always in the bike lanes. i'm also a driver, and it makes me very frustrated when i see other drivers not following the same rules that i follow as a driver to protect the

bicyclists and pedestrians, and it is very, very important that we're protected, and everybody is protected on the streets. so thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much for coming down today. next speaker, please. >> jeff yip, elias samario. >> chairman: sir, welcome. thank you for being here. >> my nav is jeffrey yip, and i moved here in 2011 to work at urban "b," actually, and i commuted every day for seven years, and i quit last year, actually, to travel the world. i was amazed at how much the rest of the world really looks up to san francisco because they see the technology that comes from all of the companies here. and, you know, companies like twitter and uber, in addition to airbnb. there is a countless list. we have the opportunity to be leaders in something other than technology. we have the opportunity to lead the world in urban environment that facilitates driving and

cycling because the rest of the world is looking to us. and it just doesn't make sense to have your process wait for someone to die. you could collect more information from people -- you know, maybe some website where people could submit complaints. for example, 17th and harrison by gus' could really use a traffic like. it is a fre a free-for-all during rush-hour. i bike there every day. we have the opportunity to be leadering here and beyond technology and generating wealth. and i ask each of you sincerely what do you want your legacy to be? it's really an enormous opportunity here. thank you. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> elias somaria, paige alozando. >> i elias somaria, and

i've lived in san francisco for 11 years, and biking is scary. last summer i went to the netherlands, and i biked in amsterdam and the hague. and it was completely unlike anything i've seen in the u.s. they're light years ahead of us. everything is safe and inviting. every street is either calm enough to bike on or has a protected bike lane running alongside it. i think we have a long way to go to reach a point where cycling is something that more than a few people, more than a few young, male dare-devils feel comfortable doing. i would like to see us move in this direction. i don't want to see anymore people die. i don't want to die myself. i guess that's it. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker. >> paige lorenzono...

>> chairman: any of those people here? >> tom shroder. >> my name is tom shroder, and i've been living with multiple sclerosis. i've been hit 10 times. i have two screws in my chin. one took seven hours. and another, i was in a bike lane on polk street, and somebody came behind me and hit me. no policemen will come because there was no ambulance. and cyclists and pedestrians need this protection. there was a good chance that he was on a cell

phone, and the police could have checked that out. i have no coverage. and if that's the case, i couldn't even leave the report at the police station. he refused it. also, intersections -- there are crosswalks all over the place. but is the bike lane painted through the intersection? the intersections are the most dangerous. that's where the bike lane is painted because the other lanes are by themselves from the cars. and i don't understand this at all. cars constantly turn right without a signal. they have no idea what the rules are. and i just want to say these streets were invented 150 years ago, and we only had people and

a few horses, and now there are tons of cars and gridlock. this will just stop some day in gridlock. and over half the people are on bicycles in copenhagen. people here quit bikes -- >> chairman: thank you very much, sir. >> paige lorenzono? no? kisia platner, fiona taye -- >> chairman: please line up on the side. thank you for being here. >> i live in d-5 and i commute to d-6, and so i don't have a car, and i get around the city via muni, bike, or walking. just like tess, i regularly bike to work with a route through an unprotected bike lane. every single day, and i'm not exaggerating, i see multiple cars and trucks blocking crosswalks, bike lanes, or intersections.

and it is not just t.m.c. vehicles, it is plenty of privately owned cars, and plenty of trucks. especially when they're huge and completely block the crosswalk, and people can't even cross the street. when cars block unprotected bike lanes, i'm forced to make a dangerous merge into traffic. when that happens, it doesn't matter if i'm wearing a helmet, following all of the rules or anything. when it comes to me versus a two-ton vehicle, i will lose. we need to start following s.f. m.t.s.'s policy. we need to stop treating bike lanes as nice to have thing if drivers are okay with it. we need protected infrastructure throughout the city, not just on a street by street basis, and keep people accountable for their reckless driving. >> chairman: thank you very much. next speaker, please.

>> i was extremely disappointed to know that because i had heard that the protected bike lane started 60 feet from where she was killed. do you know how long 60 feet is? it's the length of a bowling lane. you know what i mean. somebody else today said that bike lanes save lives. i want to tell you bicycle lanes save lives but what it means it stops lives from being stolen. i had to sit through an all-hands team meeting last week where i saw my manager, print-out manager, friends crying. the life was stolen away from her and i never want to be in that position again. as a bicyclist in san francisco, i want you to know i was struck by a car on 11th street and i

was doing everything right. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, jea jean walsh. >> i'm a district 9 resident and i've lived in san francisco for years and i have been sent to the er twice by negligent drives. now i have a family and two young daughters. we bike to daycare five days a week using unprotected bike lanes. we love biking but the problem is drivers park there all day everyday without consequence and we're forced to mix in with high speed car traffic. i have flagged down mtapcos and have shown them people parking in bike lanes and at most, they ask the driver to move.

so from the driver's perspective, there's no consequence. the worst is that they'll be asked to move. fast-tracking is really the only effective safety solution here. thank you. >> thank you very much, sir. >> next speaker, please. >> shirley johnson followed by jean walsh. >> i'm shirley johnson and live in the mission. so i have been doored twice and both times when it happened, i swerved out to avoid hitting the door. there wasn't a car coming and that's why i'm here today. i stood on howard street on friday with people-protected bike lane and handed out small cards to passersby and i asked them, do you bike in san francisco? and the most common response i

got was no, it's too dangerous. that made me really sad and i started thinking about how dangerous it is, especially the intersections, the mixing zones are terrifying. when i'm on my bike, i come out behind a parked car and other cars are turning right and it's terrifying and i understand why those people said that. i urge you, we need to slow the cars down, reduce the number of cars and make the city safe for pedestrians and cyclists, thank you. >> next speaker, please. thank you. >> jean walsh, barry toronto and kyle burkquist. >> this particular death was chilling to me because i ride the same route. i can tell you how dangerous it is, the cars parked in the way, but i encourage you if you're able and you haven't done it to get an ebike and ride around

on the streets of san francisco and see for yourself, if you haven't done it already, how terrifying it is. so the sad thing about this, this is not some third world country where you have this crazy randomness and no money to fix it. this is sanfrancisco. we are a world-class city and the leaders of so many things in the world. as goes san francisco, so goes the rest of the world and you all sit on a very powerful board. you have the power to change things. we're not talking about obstructed views or all of the other things we argue about in san francisco. we're talking about people dying. i encourage you to take that to heart. we need action now. please don't delay and make that happen. >> thank you. mr. toronto. >> mr. toronto followed by kyle bukquist and eva ophosh. >> on behalf of the taxi cab

workers, my do condolences to ts and her family. i think it's behooves you and you need to educate these drivers have never seen a bike lane if their lives based on the cities they come from or that the bike lanes are separate paths because they have wide boulevards, wide streets compared to san francisco. how many people here are bicyclists ride the tncs, so you want your tnc to drop you off where you need to be, but at the same time, you want to make sure that you're protected. so i think it's important you do not support the tncs if you want

a better job because there are too many here and this body doesn't have the ability to control the numbers. it's really atrocious out there, because they just stop everywhere. you need to add poke street to valencia street where they need a better job of enforcement with bike lanes because it's atrocious how the tncs stop everywhere and poke street should be added to that. you need to invest in money to for tcos in the evening because after they do the tow away zones, they just go away. so you need more staff in the evening hours until 8:00 in the heavy traffic corridors to do the enforcement. the last thing is the electric bikes. there's been comments that electric bikes are really more like motorcycles, mopeds and maybe they should be driven in

the traffic lanes because they're not as easy to maneuver or maneuver differently and they may have to be treated differently than a bicyclist. we have a cab stand that they're taking away from us, concerning the m maconie centre. >> thank you, barry. next speaker, please. >> kyle, eva and amber. >> welcome. good afternoon directors. i am a cal student with an internship in san francisco. like cities tess, i live in ber. what happened on friday was not an accident. it was the inevitable result of a reckless street design that gives five speed of space on bike lanes. tess' death is a result of

street improvements. the life-saving infrastructure gets tied up for years, safe signs diluted and lives are jeopardized in the process. this is not a problem uniqu unio sanfrancisco. i've advocated for both sides of the bay and this exists in most cities but san francisco should not be like every other city. we pride ourselves on a willingness to take risks and a desire to pass on a society more conclusive and equitable than the one we were given. in the city was committed to the vision zero goals, the protected lanes wouldn't end abruptly and tess would be align. it doesn't have to be this way. you can streamline the process for improvements. please act successfully by fast-tracking projects and

committing ouche ourselves to ay for forecast-tracking. >> eva, amber and julie. >> welcome. >> hello, my name is eva orvack and i'm a friend of tess, as well. tess would be here asking questions, sharing stories, linning attentively if the city had addressed the urgent safety needs before the tragic accident last friday. we appreciate the rapid response to the unsafe conditions on the portion of howard street and as you've heard today our community cannot wait for another beloved person to do before a comprehensive plan is in place. having lost two friends to bike accidents, i want to support the demand of the bike coalition and added a new point that hasn't

been brought up too much, which is that her death demands training programs, as well. traffic collisions by sudden car door openings can be deadly. we urge you to contact state officials and do everything within your purview to teach drivers and passengers to open the door safely. you've probably heard of the dutch reach, where individuals always open car doors with the far hand, thus forcing then to look over their shoulder. it's a simple technique taught in the the netherlands to prevent deaths. if it were taught here, it could have saved tess' live. we urge you to request the dmv add training about the dutch reach. thank you. >> i'm going leave eight letters for you all here. >> thank you and thank you for

coming down. amber, julie and jodie. >> welcome. >> hello. my name is amber. i've been living in this city for ten years and a cyclist from day one. i bike everyday to work, which is from the vizadaro area into the business district. i take bike lanes when possible. of course, it's not always an option. i actually was hit by a car a year and a half ago right outside of city hall, broke my collar bone, had quite an extensive surgery, nearly had to go to my wedding in a sling. all the while, the driver had zero consequences. thankfully i'm here and still alive. i think a huge problem which is strange to think but i think drivers forget we're not just a bicycle, we're not the object. we are humans on two wheel. our bodies are so fragile.

the tiniest spill could be hundreds of dollars and days missed of work an opportunities missed with family and friends. i didn't personally know tess, i am shaken up. i'm tess, my husband is tess, my best friends. i wear a helmet, wear gloves, i'm a defencive rider and that only goes so far and we need your help in protecting us. >> thank you. next speaker. >> julie, jodie, jeff. >> if your name was called, please line up to follow this speaker. >> hi, name julie woda, i live in outer parkside. i know how to bike because of a class. and i now teach those class. if we meet our climate goals and we want more people on bicycles, we have to create a network in thecy to aw