Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20180116

Crackdown on those individuals speeding and breaking the law and doing things that could create these kinds of accidents. No one wants to see the accidents on the side of the road, no one wants to experience going to a crime scene on the road knowing your loved one has been hit by a car or sadly tragically killed. I remember years ago on turk street and laguna, when a lot of us were hanging out and just kind of enjoying the weather, it was a really nice hot time, like in the fall and my god son was crossing the street on turk at the intersection of turk and buchanan where theres no stoplight and he was hit by a car. We watched as you flew in the air and thought oh my god, oh my god, just to see it, and had no control over what was going to happen was devastating. And luckily he had minor injuries, luckily he survived, and i just really felt strongly, we have to do better as a city. We have to do better with the vehicles that are speeding on our streets. We have to do better with our infrastructures and when people push back on me about the improvements and bike infrastructure and all of those things we need to do, we have to make our roads safe. Its not about catering to a particular group. There are a lot of the bicyclists riding in our city, theres a lot of pedestrians walking in the city, we have to make sure that people know this is where bicyclists ride, this is where pedestrians walk, this is where vehicles are supposed to be, so that everyone behaves responsibly on the road and knows the infrastructure, it helps them to understand exactly where everyone is supposed to be. Our ultimate goal is Public Safety. We want everyone to be safe on our roads and everyone to make it home to their loved ones at the end of the night and that what this is about, this is about a team effort, working with our mta, the Police Department, department of Public Health, department of public works and families for safe streets, this is how were going to change the behavior of whats happening on our roads and get to the zero, the vision zero that we are promising San Francisco. This is an important thing we must all participate in. So, again, i just want to emphasize that i have been in Constant Contact with the chief because enforcement, enforcement is going to play a key role in helping us address those issues. Pulling over those vehicles running stop signs, pulling over the bicyclists who are sometimes doing the wrong thing, if you are breaking the law on our street, then there will be consequences for that behavior. Its not because the city wants to add another layer of bureaucracy or ticket you or collect that money, its because we want to make sure that people change their behavior so that theyre safe on our streets. Thats what this is about. This is about bringing the number of 20 in 2017 down to zero. We dont want another death on our streets because of human error, because of anything we can avoid. If we change our behavior, we change our roads and do a better job here in the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you all for being here. We have so much more work to do, but we are moving forward and working together to really make sure that vision zero is a reality and not just a dream. Thank you. applause thank you. I think what you heard there is leadership of vision zero is not always easy. It can entail making decisions that are not always popular and theres always tradeoffs when talking about redesigning streets and enforcing laws and that kind of leadership we have from mayor breed and the whole board of supervisors and were joined by supervisor jeff sheehy who has been strongly behind the difficult decisions we have to make, thats the kind of leadership we need. And the board of directors legislating the changes and faced with the tradeoffs but willing to move forward with things that will get us to zero. As mayor breed mentioned, enforcement is an important part of it. A part of ed lee approach to vision zero, theres not just one tool in the tool kit. Its not just about street design. Its not just about education, its not just about enforcement. Its about a collection of activities we can do together as city and community to drive fatalities to zero. The rules of the road are there to keep people safe, and the work that the Police Department has done in support of vision zero with direction from previous and current mayor, is a big part of the story of what were seeing out on the streets in terms of success with regards to vision zero. Welcome our chief of police bill scott. applause thank you. Good morning everybody. Id like to echo director and acting mayor breed comments, you know, when i first learned about vision zero in 2013 it did seem like a dream. We were not only in San Francisco but in other parts of the country because many other cities embarked on a vision zero initiative. It did seem like a dream but now four years into this and we have made significant progress in reducing the amount of traffic fatalities, that dream is becoming a reality. And i think its very much within our reach to actually realize that vision of zero traffic fatalities in our city. Before i go any further, when we talked about the numbers and the statistics and the fact that the numbers are down and the statistics are down, i dont think its lost on any of us that those numbers represent human lives and the families here today that have the courage to keep this on the forefront of our conscious, i thank you for being here. I know its very painful to keep having to relive the loss of a loved one by way of a traffic fatality. Thank you for being here today. From the perspective of the San Francisco Police Department, our role is enforcement and also education. Any time we have a Traffic Violation and we engage in a traffic stop or come in contact with a motorist or pedestrian or bicyclist, we have an opportunity to educate and that opportunity to educate is really probably one of the most important things we can do. Enforcement is very important but education is even more important. This year in San Francisco, we issued over 38,000 citations and i dont say that to brag, unfortunately thats 38,000 plus people that have violated the law. However, its also 38,000 contacts that we had the opportunity to educate people about really the impact of some of the violations that are more likely to cause traffic accidents. And our officers really take that work seriously. Its an opportunity to share stories about people that have lost loved ones and probably everybody in the room has a story. Mayor breed told one that was compelling and i have one and many of you have their own. But when our officers engage in enforcement, its more than enforcement. Its education. Its preventing these terrible acts from occurring by putting it on the forefront of peoples minds when they violate the law. I want to go through a couple of things of how we intend from the Police Departments perception to realize the vision. Our captains coordinate efforts with patrol officers and our traffic unit on the enforcement. We work carefully with mta to use data to determine which intersections and corridors are more likely to have accidents and thats one of the ways we focus on those particular streets and intersections. The five violations that cause, speeding, running stop signs, failure to yield to pedestrians, failure to yield to turns, running red lights. Those are the violations most likely to cause fatalities. This year there were 20 fatalities, 14 involved pedestrians. My ask of the public is number one, be aware of your surroundings, be aware of the laws, be aware of street signals. Be aware of crosswalks and try to work within the laws designed to keep you safe. It is really important that this effort be a partnership, not only with Law Enforcement but partnership between the community. If you follow the laws, you have much less of a chance of becoming involved in a fatality. That is particularly important with pedestrians. Just the laws of physics. It takes a little while for 2,000 pound or 3,000 pound vehicle to stop. Physics is going to win every time. If you pay attention, if you follow the laws you have less of a chance of getting involved in these type of incidents. For the elderly in the community, its more important. A majority of our Traffic Related Fatalities involve elderly. People cant get across the street as fast, they may not hear as well as some other members of the community. So for our elderly, lets pay attention. Lets help them in terms of paying attention to our roadways when we are driving and bicycling, that is a huge issue in our city. Our outreach is a huge priority and again we use traffic stops as a way of outreach but we also have many public campaigns to remind drivers and pedestrians and bicyclists of their responsibilities when they are often the roadways. The partnership we talk about between the mta, city government, board of supervisors, Fire Department, the department of Public Health, it really is a team effort to realize the vision of zero fatalities. I remind you, look at where we were and where we are. This vision will be a reality, it will be a reality and well Work Together to make that happen. I thank you for your time. Families thank you for being here and remember, vision zero is about all of us. Thank you. applause thank you chief. The chief made reference that back in 2013 it seemed not a very realistic goal and we were one of the first cities in the country, i think perhaps only new york had adopted vision zero and now its more common term and many more cities have adopted it. Back then one of the things we started doing differently from the transportation standpoint, thinking of it as a Public Health issue and not just Public Safety issue. With the leadership of department of Public Health is a large part of why we are where we are, taking that view of the issues not just street design or enforcement view, i think has been a game changer for us here in San Francisco. Were grateful to be able to colead between sfmta and department of Public Health and joined on behalf of Public Health director garcia and chief medical director argon. applause good morning everyone. First of all i want to thank acting mayor breed for being here today and being behind this vision zero, which is really important to the department of Public Health. I was born and raised in San Francisco. I grew up in the Mission District. I live in glenn park, i raised three children and my wife is a first grade teacher. We have been dealing with the issue of traffic and Pedestrian Safety all of our lives. And i can tell you that whats happened in 2017 is a big accomplishment. If you just walk outside and you see the volume of people, the volume of cars all the activity, and the fact that we are down in terms of the number of deaths is a huge accomplishment. Its a huge accomplishment and i think everyone should really take pride in that. The other thing to realize is for every person that dies, theres a dozen who were severely injured. So think of it as a pyramid. The whole pyramid is getting smaller. Again, thats a big accomplishment. We all have to remember that all of us, all of us every single day no matter how you get to work, school, wherever you go, all of us are always pedestrians. This is really this impacts all of us. From a Public Health issue, one of the side effects of having Pedestrian Safety is that it really promotes community health. It allows people to walk more, to bike more, to do what we call in Public Health, active transportation and this is really good. Its promoting health in other ways, reducing peoples stress as they feel they can take a walk in the neighborhood and feel safe while getting healthy. And i also just want to acknowledge the clinicians and workers at San Francisco General Hospital working 24 7 so when someone gets injured, we have a team of people part of the city family who are the best in the world of taking care of the patients who are injured. The last thing i want to say is for us in Public Health, everybody coming together, working together, this way, this collective action, this collective impact, to us thats the best way to do Public Health and were very excited. We have a lot of great staff, please visit visionzero. Sf. You can read about our collaborative success. Again, thank you so much. applause thank you dr. Argon. To echo the praise for the folks at the San Francisco General Hospital, i heard a stat a couple years ago, i dont know if its 100 accurate but nearly half of the admittance are from traffic issues. You think of the First Responders who bring the folks there and the impact it has on the system, it gives you the scope of the impact of Traffic Safety in San Francisco beyond what were talking about here today. The folks on the front line are largely from the Police Department, the First Responders to the scene and its not just fatalities but 200 or so people who are seriously injured each year in San Francisco. So the Fire Department plays a Critical Role in getting people to the Trauma Center to be helped as quickly as possible. I want to acknowledge and ask to say a few words our fire chief. applause . Good morning. Thank you for being here. I wanted to comment on the alignment around vision zero and acknowledge the progress being made and has been said by many speakers before me, one death is one too many. We come some times from different angles but the San Francisco Fire Department is fully committed. The men and women of the San Francisco Fire Department are some of the First Responders to the difficult scenes. We experience the emotion and have the conversations with the families and i want to acknowledge the families here that have lost loved ones due to traffic collisions and fatalities related to our congested city. And it is worth noting as dr. Argon noted, in a city whose population is rising, theres more vehicles and pedestrians and bicycles on the street, to have a reduction is significant but theres more work to do. There are three prongs i believe are part of vision zero, the education poliiece that the pol department has a role in. It is important to be alert and aware at all times. I know as a pedestrian, im the mother of three boys, one of the things i say, try to gain the eye contact with the driver and dont assume because you have a green light or ability to walk across that it will be safe. So awareness is a key factor. Our role is one of education as well. We have the contacts to support the family, enforcement obviously, the Police Department does very capably. I would like to touch on the engineering piece, the mta does a great job in engineering and reengineering our streets, we sit regularly with the mta, sometimes its looked at as a competing interest, we want to as First Responders be able to navigate to the scene of an emergency in a timely fashion but one of the things we heard loud and clear and i have seen, and we have worked closely with the city administrators office, we have taken bold steps, not always popular in my department but bold steps to shrink the responding apparatus. Very proud that just last year we took delivery of eight new fire engines with a smaller profile, easier to maneuver and increased visibility for the drivers to make us safer as First Responders and more responsive to the vision zero goals. I have driven the engines and theyre more responsive in the city streets. Were piloting two new ambulances, they work different, were hoping to work with our members to get them on board to take a look at a smaller ambulance as well. I drove that yesterday and its much more user friendly through our narrow streets. Were hoping from an engineering perspective as part of vision zero to be very responsive to the size of our apparatus to be able to continue to fulfill our goals of saving lives and property but also be responsive to our growing population and many different varieties of pedestrians, bicyclists, cars and Public Transportation on the street. So thank you very much. applause thank you chief. From the executive branch and other government agencies, department of public works, one of our Main Partners and Public Utilities commission, Planning Department with the unified school district, dozens of other agencies all working together. And i want to invite up some of our community partners, but before i do that, the bridge between the executive branch or one of the important bridges between the executive branch and our community are the elected officials that represent the community, our board of supervisors repr