But above all, we want to make sure that people can get around the city safely. Its no good to have a great Transportation System if people cant get around safely. People need to not only be able to be safe, but to be able to feel safe, and nowhere is that more important than when youre on foot because that is when youre arguably the most vulnerable. Its also how every trip starts and ends. And many trips in San Francisco, and we want more of them in between, to be on foot as well because its a nicer way to enjoy the city. But if we want people to be out and walking, we need them to be safe. We want them to feel safe, and thats what were here to talk about today. And none of that will happen without great leadership. So, without further ado, happy to bring up our great leader, the mayor of the city and county, ed lee. applause thank you. Thank you, david. Im the other ed. Happy holidays, everybody, and thank you for being here. We are initializing our Pedestrian Safety, pedestrian stra
Okay, good morning. Thank you all for coming out today. Were very happy to be here. My name is ed rifkin, im the other ed, director of transportation. And as the transportation director, i oversee the sfmta which is the agency that is charged with implementing the citys transit first policy. And what our goal, what the citys goal and the transit first policy is is to make sure that everybody can get around San Francisco, that everyone can get to where they need to go. It is an important part of making the economy of San Francisco work, to making the quality of life good and better. But its not just get around San Francisco any old way. This is San Francisco, and we have values that we bring to our Transportation System. We want people to get around in a way that steps lightly on the environment. We want people to get around in ways that are enjoyable. And that really contribute to what makes San Francisco special, such as our wonderful cable cars. But above all, we want to make sure th
Center for two years now and a immigrant from sierra leon. If he returns to his home he will be killed. He is requesting asylum here in San Francisco. He hasnt gotten s he is not here illegal. Hes a harvard graduate as well. Next year january 31 and i just been coming to city hall to try to get support for him as well, and thats pretty much all i have to sai. I would like him to speak for himself. I want to thank the commission for its work. This is my second time appearing at city hall. The first time i had the opportunity again to witness a session like this, and i want to thank everybody. I want to thank supervisor olague. I have read much about the Commission Work from the examiner, the San Francisco examiner. Like jamal and my case manager. I see supervisor mar and supervisor campos and i have been reading about San Francisco and all about its developments on the San Francisco examiner which as you know is a free newspaper, and i have been seeing all the work you are doing in my d
Pedestrians, what makes a neighborhood more safer. And i suggest to you tonight that or today that in our downtown area is probably one of the most safest areas to walk buzz we pay a lot more attention to that area. But there are a lot of other places where we havent considered the issues of lowering the speed, as weve done around our schools with walk sf. We havent done enough study around the data, completed the data of collision and pedestrian injuries as well as we should have to make it safer. So, our pedestrian strategy really is in draft form. We have completed it in this month, and we plan to introduce it throughout the various public agencies and commissions and allow it to be publicly vented. But we do have two very solid goals, and that is by 2016, we want to reduce the number of serious or fatal pedestrian accidents by 25 in the next four years. And by 20 21, by 50 . We want to reduce that number. Thats a great goal. Weve always got to drive ourselves with reasonable but se
Schools reduced. This strategy will help bolster their efforts in making the city streets a lot safer for pedestrians to walk in. Thank you very much. Thank you, director lee. One of our, one of our strong partnerships is with the Police Department. We kind of share responsibility for managing the public rightofway and enforcement as you heard from mayor is absolutely a part of the strategy. So, its a very Important Partnership for us and very glad to have the Police Department so ably represented here, but more importantly, on the task force and working with us every day. So, very happy to have one of the great leaders of the Police Department, deputy chief denise chef. Its a very tall man. Good morning, im denise smith and i dont know how to work microphones. Thank you. The men and women of San Francisco Police Department are absolutely commit today working with our partners to make the walking, cycling and motoring public safer in our city. We commit to it every day, and based on in