Say this is really urgent. I have seen people actually getting hit. I have seen so many near misses. I have been in near misses. It feels like a battlefield and thats not good for drivers either. They get scared. They come from out of town. Like whats going on . We need to do something to make it work for everybody and there are solutions. Like the protected bike lanes and other stuff. Thank you very much. Chairman peskin thank you. Next speaker please. Hi. I live in bruno heights and i have been living and biking in San Francisco for five years. I have been hit by cars twice. Once in the bike lane and the driver just wanted to leave because he thought i wasnt hurt. We need to protect bike lanes and cyclists because even painting some lines on the street isnt going to help you when the drivers just knock you and they are like oh you didnt fall over, it is fine. We need to change this. Chairman peskin thank you. Next speaker. Good morning. Im a resident on the mission. I commute regularly on valencia street. Valencia street bike lane is unusable at this moment due to the doubleparked cars and it is lifts and ubers but it is not just them. It is delivery trucks, it is residents. Theres no enforcement of parking on valencia street. Often on my bike ride, i have to weave around six cars. What makes me nervous or passionate, there are so many parents using valencia. You see parents with one or two children on the back of their bikes and this is an accident waiting to happen. So, it is great that we are moving with the protected bike lanes. Thank you supervisor sheehy for your leadership, the mta staff told me personally for years this was too difficult of a corridor to build protected bike lanes and that has quickly changed in the past couple of months. We appreciate that. But we need to do everything we can to keep cars out of the bike lanes and get them built as quickly as possible. Thank you. Chairman peskin thank you. Next speaker. Im roger lake. Im a 30year commuter and i just want you to understand that we are the canaries in the coal miner era. If you dont put the barriers in, it wont make a difference. It is not just uber and lift. If you build a simple barrier, people figure it out. They go some place else. It is not product science. We need the barriers. Thank you. Chairman peskin thank you, sir. Next speaker, please. Hello. Im one of the organizers of the people protected bike lane and i want to thank jeff sheehy. I should tell you the people protected bike lane is we organize 50 or 60 people to stand on the line to protect the bike lane from traffic. People are motivated about that issue and valencia is one of the places we organize the most people. I want to focus on two items today. Immediate pilot safety improvements and outdated curve management. In this funding allocation we called out immediate pilot improvements. Im glad changes are happening but we can install immediate safety improvements today. The bike lane next to bike corrals, midblock are protectable today. Theres no reason a car needs to occupy that space or is legally allowed to. Theres room for a twofoot buffer and white posts that we can install immediately. My wife bikes valencia every day from our house to her job Teaching High School in the mission. I feel better with every inch of this bike lane that we protect. Second issue is curb management. I live four blocks and bike, walk, shop and eat there constantly. I want to be clear this is not just a tnc issue. Private cars, delivery trucks, taxis, they all occupy the bike lane. I want to partner with those marine chants merchants. We need to find a way that accommodates them. There should never be a reason for a car or delivery truck to have to cross through a bike lane to access a curb. Pedestrianses do not wear armor. Bicycles do not wear armor. We are pedestrians on wheels. Cars need to be next to cars. Thank you for listening today. Chairman peskin thank you. Let me just call a few mr. Speaker cards. Paul valdez, chris, jeremy and kelsey roader. Commissioners, im a 33year commuter in San Francisco. Thank you for taking our testimony. I like to urge the passage of this item, item eight. Bimding alarms building alarms and curb cuts are useful things. When we are teaching kids how to ride bikes it would be bondsful if as they move wonderful if they see people riding bicycles in a relack laxed manner. Relaxed manner. You may have noticed as you ride down valencia street, that is quite exciting. Valencia, the mission in general has many new cycliscyclists. A lot of young people like to move to the mission and like to learn to ride bikes. Valencia is a dangerous place just like the street i live on, which is 17th street. I urge you to pass this funding and to move as expeditiously as possible. Thank you. Chairman peskin thank you. Hi there. Im a 25year resident of San Francisco. I have lived on 19th street just off valencia for the last 21 years. Before the bike lanes were there. I saw them go in. I have seen the neighborhood evolve and i still try to ride my bike, but it feels less safe. I can echo everything that everybody else said but im not sure in this works. If i held my leg up here and showed you the scars on my shin from when a car pulled over to pick up their furniture, stopped and i slammed into them and jammed by shin into my pedals. I bled a little. It hurt. We heard from someone else who has been hit twice today. That happens twa too often and someone is way too often and someone is going to get hurt. I love the idea of the immediate posts to block any bike corrals or parklets because waiting a year to find out yes we spent this money and indeed, valencias bike lane needs to be improved, thats way too long. Thanks. Chairman peskin thank you, sir. Im a general manager of Mission Bicycle company. We are located on valencia street between 18th and 19th. As not only a cyclist, i ride valencia five days a week and it is a nightmare trying to get around cars parked in the bike lanes, vehicles pulling in and out. Even walking has become an issue. As a Business Owner who caters to cyclists, i hear countless stories of near misses, close calls, severe accidents, everything, every single day and week. Im in full support of doing something to make that a thing of the past. Thank you. Chairman peskin thank you, sir. I have just one mr. Speaker card. Good morning. Thank you for taking the time to listen to us. My name is paul valdez and im a 26year San Francisco resident. Im a volunteer for the bicycle coalition, a former member of the bay area families for safe streets advocacy group. Bottom line, im here to show my support in approving the additional funds that create protected bike lanes from market to mission. I choose to ride my bike in San Francisco because i believe it is a wonderful, sustainable healthy way to get around in our city. Im appreciative of the current bike structure but my bike rides have less enjoyable because of the people who lack the wisdom to share streets safely. There are many situations i was riding down valencia and was forced into oncoming traffic because drivers from Companies Like uber and lift were parked in the bike lanes for several blocks. An uber driver swerved in front of me to pick up passengers and compromised my safety and the safety of others. To take a ride down valencia street, saturday nights are the worst and it is a mess and unsafe. As one of the coorganizers for where we honor cyclists killed we know lives could have been saved. Protected bike lanes are paramount and they will save lives. I urge you to improve the transportation improvement funds today and for a safer valencia street tomorrow. Thank you. Chairman peskin thank you. Public thanks. One of the things that really is meaningful to me about bicycles is that they are for everyone and bicycles are the most equitable form of transportation along with walking. I wanted to echo supervisor cohens comments about funding education for bicyclists in southeast of San Francisco and i hope to see a future planning funding for bike lane between the southeast of San Francisco and places where rich people live like valencia street. Thank you supervisor cohen. Chairman peskin thank you, sir. Next speaker. Public good morning. My name is kelsey and i bike on valencia street from 22nd to market every day. I have been riding my bike in the city since i moved here nine years ago i feel confident in my ability to be safe, courteous and predictable on my bike. In the two years that i have lived in district eight, i have seen a profound change in the safety of valencia street. What used to feel like a true walking and biking corridor now feels like any other street without bike lanes. I have to go around at least one car per block stopped in the bike lane, which means that i have to leave the lane that is for me and enter the car traffic lane. There, im vulnerable to even more uber drivers who are paying more attention to their phones than the road. Even when im in the bike lane, im susceptible to cars as uber drivers pull over. I have had more close calls than any other street in San Francisco. Every day after i bike on valencia, i arrive to my destination shaken, scared and angry. This is an entirely preventable problem. Clearly enforcement of these double parking violations isnt happening and something needs to be done. Protected bike lanes have proven themselves to keep our streets safe for everyone. Valencia street has been a safe and visionary corridor for people instead of a series of crashes waiting to happen. The time for doing nothing has passed. People deserve to be safe. I urge the board of superisors to support funding for protected bike lanes on the entirety of valencia street. Thank you. Chairman peskin next speaker. Public my name is christopher. San francisco resident for about six years. Although this isnt the first city i have learned to bike in. I lived in new york city and had been biking there for the past ten years also. I guess you could say im more of an experienced cyclist and so, im kind of used to the general flow of traffic, riding close to cars, the weaving in and out of streets and everything that existed in cities in the past 15 years, before we really started investing in making cycling safe. What is interesting for me is that recently i began a relationship with my partner. She has never ridden in a city before and going through her and riding with her in the city, im kind of seeing things in a different way. One of the things she came to me with in the past six months is she feels unsafe on va experience la street. Valencia street. She wont ride it by herself on the weekends or after 6 00 p. M. Just because theres so much traffic on that street. She said sew feels more safe riding in the red bus lane on Mission Street because that lane feels more enforced and more separated from cars and sometimes you just have to watch out for one or two buses between the trip of 16th to 24th than she does having to dodge six to ten cars on valencia street. I volunteer at the San Francisco bike kitchen in the mission. Im on the board of directors and from this opportunity i get to speak to lots of individuals and they their these sentiments. Valencia seems to be one of those lotions that more and more locations that more and more people are avoiding for other streets. I feel stories people go all the way to the east side of the city, the east side of the Mission Going up harrison or folsom to completely avoid that area. [bell]. Public thank you for listening to me i would approve more bike lanes. Especially on valencia street. Chairman peskin thank you. Public good morning. Im a volunteer with the bike coalition. I have been a San Francisco resident for over 40 years. Im a bike commuter. My wife is a bike commuter and i want to start by saying that safety is a huge concern to me. 13 years ago i was run over by a bus while riding home from work. I nearly died. I wouldnt be here if it werent for the fire department, if it werent for sfgh, i wouldnt be here. I would be dead. It caused a huge disruption in my life, my familys life. I was in the hospital for three months. I was off work for a year. This cost the city millions of dollars from a suit that i had against the city. And i want to make it really clear that it is cheaper and better for citizens of San Francisco to have safe cycling. Thats just a nobrainer. Motorized vehicles and pedestrians and bikes have no business being in the same place. We have to have bike boulevards, pedestrian areas in this city. I ride valencia five to six times a week. I have to say it has been fab seeing so many fabulous seeing so many new people and the growth of bicycles. But it is horrendous with what has happened with cars on valencia. There are countless cars and trucks double parking as everyone has said. You need to weave in and out. You have no choice. These are just accidents like mine waiting to happen. I think theres a toxic mix in San Francisco today. You have a bunch of new people who have very fast cars and very fancy cars and like to go very fast. And then you have a bunch of new cyclists. [bell]. Public and they are all together and thats causing enormous problems. So, i think theres no question in my mind that we have to make things really different and we have to make cycling safe in this city. Chairman peskin thank you. Next speaker please. And if there are anymore speakers, line up, otherwise this will be the last speaker. Public hi. Thanks for listening today. I moved here recently over the summer and i have been biking for a long time before i moved here. I was in seattle most recently and there i was also involved in a lot of bicycle activism. It took people dying in order to get protected bike lanes there and i really dont want to see that happen here. I would rather move faster, put up posts like has been mentioned before in areas where there are bike corrals and make temporary prevent tifr changes fast preventtive changes faster. I have seen bikes and cars and pedestrians coexisting. It is possible. It happens in a lot of places all over the world. Ty dont see why we cant i dont see why we cant have that here. We can have cars and pickup spots for uber and lifts out of the bike lanes and we can have protected bike lanes. All it is going to take is working for it and i think that we can do that. So, i just want to strongly encourage everyone to keep fighting for these protected bike lanes because i know we can. Thank you. Chairman peskin Public Comment is closed. Commissioner ronen. Supervisor ronen yes. I want to thank everyone who came out. It was very eyeopening. Not that we dont know what is going on. But to hear that bikers are using the red lanes for the buses as a safer alternative to what was supposed to be the bike corridor is just insane. And the crazy thing about it is it makes perfect sense. Thats how dangerous valencia has become. I have asked the mta several times to increase enforcement of double parking on valencia. I know supervisor sheehy has done the same. I see dillon in the audience. I think we need to have that meeting again because while we will continue to prioritize and fight for protected bike lanes, thats going to take some time. I share the urgency of all the public speakers today. Im very fearful that someone is going to get severely injured or killed if we just wait to get those protected bike lanes installed. We need to act urgently right now and that means we need to triple, quadruple enforcement and make it known that if you double park on valencia, you are going to get a ticket. And in addition, we need to push these companies especially uber and lift. I know the problem is beyond them. But those companies are a lot to blame for the fact that the corridor in the mission that is supposed to be the bike corridor has become the one to most avoid for bikers. That just makes no sense. It has thrown the entire scheme of how transportation is supposed to work in the mission up in chaos. And we have to do something about it urgently. So, im looking at dillon and would like to schedule that meeting in an emergency fashion. Chairman peskin commissioner sheehy. Supervisor sheehy it is really an urgent situation. Having stood out there, i have personally seen how dangerous it is. What i have is a question maybe for the director and maybe even for mta. Having looked at this been talking about moving on this, im wondering as we get the data from the study, are there things that we can implement because i look at this as really there seems to be some really lowhanging fruit, putting barriers up around the bike corrals, the parklets. That seems like a nobrainer. And from my discussions from mta it seems from 19th to san jose is a place where the amount of work that you need to do in order to move towards that theres a lower level of complexity. Thats before we get all the overhead wires and the street narrows, it seems like thats something that could move a bit faster. I do know that last stretch as you get closer to market thats more challenging. But is there a way we can think about doing this in phases because every bit that we do will make it safer . And the faster that we can improve if we could just get 19th to san jose which is also bike protected all the way around san jose with concrete barriers and get that as soon as possible. I recognize the challenges that exist once we start having the overhead wires. But if we wait to solve for that before we do these other things, we approach this in phases and take it as we show as we start studying. To wait a whole year to start any of this seems im not sure i understand the necessity there. Jamie parks with mta. Overseeing bicycle capital prompts. Absolutely, we want to look at what we can do now to improve safety. Part of the plan is coming up with a phase implementation structure towards how we move towards a safer valencia street. And if we identify something everyone can agree on, we can move right away. Thats part of our study. Supervisor sheehy great. Lets be in contact on this, please. Thank you. Chairman peskin commissioner kim. Supervisor kim i want to thank supervisor sheehy and ronen for seeking improvements on valencia street. Having looked at the south of market and the tenderloin with sfmta we have protected parking on folsom street. I doesnt go as far as we would like it to. But just having that from division through 4th street really is making a big difference and was just installed last week. But i have to agree, i always assumed that valencia was one of the safer streets to bike down and i dont bike down to the mission very often. But my few experiences biking down there as left me deciding not to bike down valencia as a beginner biker anymore. In fact, i feel safer on some of our corridors in the south