San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee

Minutes of the Meeting on October 25, 2007

Members Present:

• Andy Bindman, District 1
• Richard Tilles, District 2
• Marc Brandt, District 3
• Bert  Hill, Chair, District 7
• Jerry Ervin, District 8
• Casey Allen, District 11

Introduction

• Meeting was called to order at 6:40 pm.
• Approval of the minutes from the August 23 meeting was postponed until the next meeting.

Public Comment

• There was no public comment at the meeting.

Fell/Masonic Crossing

• Greg Hayes, a 2^nd year law student and former BAC member handed out a report  on legal issues affecting the crossing of Masonic Ave. near Fell Street
• Jerry Irvin suggested that we accept the report and transmit it to the City Attorney
• Richard Tilles suggested that the BAC review the report first and then decide whether or not to transmit it to the City Attorney.  This was approved by the Committee on a unanimous vote and so the subject will be brought up at the next meeting.

Chairman’s Report

• Chairman Hill wants to follow up on the State’s willingness to cede responsibility for Sloat Blvd. (Rte 35) to the City.  He plans to set up meetings with City departments and Supervisor Elsbernd to determine if there is interest in taking over the street.
• He is also planning to speak at the next BOS meeting to let them know what is going on with the BAC and alert them to the fact that three positions are still unfilled.
• The Board is going to decide whether to make ‘Healthy Saturdays’ permanent.  The BAC could not support it with a resolution since it was not on tonight’s agenda, but members present unanimously declared support for its permanence.
• Hill also cited a study sent to him from former BAC member Hitesh Soneji, now studying in Sweden . The study indicates that persons in the interior of automobiles are subject to concentrations of hazardous materials 3-4 times greater than pedestrians or bicyclists on city streets.

MTA Bike Program Report

• The report was handed out by Oliver Gajda, Bicycle Program Manager, who elaborated on some of the listed items.
• Gajda said that there has been an overall increase of 12% in bicycling between 2006 and 2007, though results vary significantly depending on the intersections counted.  The counts listed include all bikes at a given intersection in all directions. 
• MTA would like to use automatic counters rather than expensive visual counts.  They are looking to see if a counter for pedestrians could be adapted for use by bicycles.
• Marc Brandt said that the MTA should build up their information capabilities now that they cannot spend money on facilities.  Gajda agreed but said that facility money has largely been diverted to safety and education programs.
• Hill mentioned that in Sweden has a program that actually prominently displays the number of bikes that have passed the automatic counter for use to publicize the importance of bike traffic. Bindman suggested that the MTA consider the same system for San Francisco.
• Gajda spoke about MTA’s campaign to increase the use of lights through ads on buses and giveaway of 1000 free lights on November 1. 
• Gajda then introduced Dustin White who is responsible for MTA’s part of the Bike Plan EIR.
• White presented the schedule for the EIR and was questioned by Tilles and Brandt about why the project was moving so slowly when it should have high priority.  White said that MEA isn’t putting the project on a fast track.  Hill said that we should deal with this in a Planning Commission meeting.
• White then discussed the MTA’s testing of colored bike lanes and proposed study locations.  Brandt wanted to know why some of the locations are for lanes in the middle of the street as opposed to lanes on the curb or adjacent to parking.  White replied that it’s particularly important to warn motorists of the lanes when they are not at the side of the street.  Brandt then spoke about general problems of having the lanes in the middle of the street.
• Casey Allen wanted to know if the Masonic crossing at Fell could be included and whether Sharrows could be included.
• Allen also asked removal of the double left turn lane at 9^th and Howard.  Gajda said that is being considered and was brought up primarily as an issue for pedestrian safety.
• Andy Bindman asked what is being done about bike lane violations.  Gajda said that Mike Sallaberry is working on this – particularly on Fell Street.

Committee Comments

• Brandt brought up the question of bike storage on Caltrain.  Gajda said that Caltrain is holding public meetings on November 8^th and 14^th (the latter to specifically address bikes on Caltrain).  So the matter was deferred to next month’s meeting.
• Hill said that next month’s meeting would be on November 29^th since the regular meeting would be scheduled on Thanksgiving.

Adjournment

• The meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM.