San Francisco Bicycle Advisory Committee

Minutes of the Meeting on January 25, 2007

Members Present:

Richard Tilles, District 2
Susan King, District 5
Hitesh Soneji , District 6 (arrived at about 7 PM)
Bert Hill, Chair, District 7
Jerry Ervin, District 8
Rufus Davis, District 10
Casey Allen, District 11

Announcements and Reports

Chairman Hill announced the presence of Sgt. John Nestor from the SFPD Traffic Company and Oliver Gajda of the MTA
The Minutes of the November 30, 2006 meeting were not available for approval
There was no general public comment
There was no general Chairman’s report
Rufus Davis identified the intersection of 9^th Street, Division Street and San Bruno Ave. as particularly dangerous for bikes and pedestrians and commended the SFPD for ticketing motorists who failed to yield. A major concern in District 10 for the coming year will be bikes on 3^rd Street with the new LRT line and bike lanes on Bayshore Boulevard.
Casey Allen also cited 3^rd Street as a key area for observation and also noted that some in-pavement bicycle loop detectors should have stencils to let bicyclists know where they are located.
Richard Tilles said that his key priorities for the coming year would be pavement management and the Bike Plan EIR.
Susan King discussed the new location of Newcomer High on 6^th Avenue and Irving Street. She said that the BAC should support the school’s efforts to reclaim their current parking lot as a recreation area, particularly since it would eliminate the problem of vehicles crossing the bike lane on 6^th Avenue.

MTA Bicycle Program Report

Oliver Gajda reported that a new website: www.sfmta.com/bikes is up and running and that the Committee should review it and contact the webmaster with any concerns and suggestions (Chairman Hill said that he was unable to print PDF’s off the website). He also said that the SFCTA’s CAC voted 7-1 against using Prop K monies for bicycle education since the current injunction prevents it being used for other projects. He said that issue would be addressed in the February 13th Plans and Programs meeting.

Task Force Reports

Susan King said that the BAC should try to obtain a copy of the MTA’s report on the impact of Sunday closures of Golden Gate Park’s JFK Drive. (Chairman Hill asked Oliver Gajda if he could get a copy to the Committee). She also said that the Supervisors need to hold a promised follow-up hearing on vehicular traffic in the Golden Gate Park Music Concourse.

Chairman Hill noted that there are now Committee vacancies in District 3 (Peskin) and District 9 (Ammiano) and that Committee members and other interested parties should suggest possible candidates for these positions.

Market/Octavia Intersection

Chairman Hill called for Public Comment on the recent accident involving a critically injured bicyclist who was hit by a truck making an illegal right turn from Market Street onto the 101 Freeway at Octavia Boulevard.

Leah Shahum, Executive Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition gave the Committee a copy of a letter from the SFBC to the MTA (attached) and then summarized the concerns expressed in the letter. She called for more and more prominent signage, enforcement cameras at the intersection, more enforcement by the SFPD, colored bike lanes and possible a speed table or closely-spaced Sharrows at the intersection.

Sgt. Nestor said that enforcement at the intersection has suffered because of the understaffing of the Police Department. He suggested that the Committee contact Captain Corallis of the Traffic Company.

Rufus Davis asked if there could be a problem in citing offenders once they were on the Freeway. Sgt. Nestor said that there was no jurisdictional problem but there could be a logistical problem in pulling offenders over on the Freeway.

Greg Siebert asked what the speed limit for bicyclists was on that section of Market Street. Sgt. Nestor said that there was no posted speed limit which meant that the limit was 25 mph or a reasonable or prudent speed. Siebert called for enforcement cameras and noted that Market and 16^th Street was also a problem intersection.

Chairman Hill asked if the offending vehicle was inspected by police and Sgt. Nestor said that he was not involved but that normally that would be part of the investigation.

Oliver Gajda noted that the BAC had been divided 3-3 on a vote in 2004 on whether to prohibit right turns at that intersection. He said that the MTA is committed to working on the problem and will install plastic posts for a 30-day trial. Also, a trailer-mounted sign with no right turn will be installed tomorrow (Friday, the 26^th) and that additional signs will be posted.

Members Soneji and Allen said that allowing right turns and placing the bike lane left of the turn lane was preferable to the current striping. Member King strongly disagreed and said that this would attract many more cars to Market Street that would block the bike lane. Leah Shahum said that the 2004 vote was made well after determination to prohibit right turns and that Market Street was never intended to provide access to the Freeway.

Chairman Hill suggested signs that point motorists to Valencia Street and the Duboce Street as access to the freeway. Gajda said that the MTA did not want to direct vehicles to Valencia, which is a bike street, and that the preferred alternative (if a driver missed the turn at Duboce and Market) was Gough Street to South Van Ness.

Sgt. Nestor suggested attendance at the annual Lifesavers conference (this year in Chicago) to see how other cities have addressed similar problems.

Bicycle Plan – Enforcement

Chairman Hill said that the SFPD should review the recommended enforcement actions in Chapter 6 of the Bicycle Plan Policy framework and work toward implementing those that involve SFPD. Sgt. Nestor said that education of bicyclists should be first priority for the Department. Leah Shahum said that the one of the SFBC’s major initiatives this year is to improve motorist and bicycle safety education by working with bicyclists and drivers of taxis and Muni buses.

Greg Siebert asked for clarification on items 6.5 and 6.6 of the Report. Chairman Hill explained that 6.5 refers to a request that any prohibition of passing on the right not apply to bicyclists and that 6.6 requests that police officers and others understand when stopping in the bike lane is permitted and when it is not.

Bicycle Plan Injunction

Oliver Gajda discussed the timeline for preparation of an EIR on the Bike Plan:

January 5: issuance of an RFP for consultants
January 19: RFP Addendum
January 29: Proposals due
Week of February 5: Consultant team interviews
March 5: Award of contract

He said the total project time could be 17-23 months depending on the number of individual projects that the consultant will address. In response to a question by Tilles, he said that the objective is to get programmatic clearance for all 62 projects in the pipeline and get detailed clearance for as many of the 62 as possible. One of the objectives of programmatic clearance is to clear the way for future approvals of other projects such as Sharrows or wide street bike lanes that might not require any further environmental analysis.

Casey Allen asked what qualifications were required for the consultant and whether the BAC could qualify. Gajda said that the City Controller has a list of qualified transportation and environmental firms and that consultant requests were sent to that list only. The BAC was not on the list.

Chairman Hill said that the BAC would be actively involved in the process. Gajda said that the BAC would be very much involved in approval of the plan itself but that the Planning Department was responsible for environmental review.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM.

Meeting Information