FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, September 2, 2025
CONTACT: Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director, Luke@StreetsForward.org, 617-899-4487 (cell)

San Francisco Needs to Prioritize Safety of Children, Families, and Other People Near Schools

Streets Forward is glad to see SFMTA responding to our grassroots organizing and advocacy, but disappointed by the City’s insufficient and ineffective response to address safety for children, families, and other people near schools. With a City budget of $15.9 billion—and a combined budget of $1.2 billion for the San Francisco Police Department and Sheriff's Office—it’s unacceptable that the real and effective public safety work of the Crossing Guard Program has only $3.9 million of funding, is understaffed, and has been unnecessarily hampered by a hiring freeze that explicitly exempted “positions […] that directly support public safety and health.”[1]

“The safety of children and families going to school should be paramount for the City, so it’s disappointing and concerning to see the Crossing Guard Program have only $3.9 million in funding and have staffing frozen and deprioritized while City funding for the Police Department and Sheriff's Office increased $74 million in this year’s budget to a total combined budget of $1.2 billion,” said Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director of Streets Forward. “The City should double the Crossing Guard Program budget by shifting public safety funding, which would have real, quantifiable safety benefits for our city and its residents, while unfreezing, streamlining, and fast tracking hiring and onboarding of new crossing guards for all SFUSD schools.”

Beyond the immediate need for crossing guards, Streets Forward is urging Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, and SFMTA Board of Directors to support and approve proven roadway safety and sustainable transportation solutions around schools to decrease car traffic, noise, air pollution, and carbon emissions and increase sustainable transportation usage, public safety, public health, and social connectedness. School Streets—which exclusively open the streets around schools to children, families, and other people either all the time or only during school hours—have been successful in decreasing air pollution by 23%, decreasing car traffic by 100%, increasing the use of public space by 300%, increasing the number of children playing by 400%, and significantly increasing the percentage of families walking, scooting, or biking to school in New York City, Paris, London, Barcelona, and Vienna.[2; 3; 4; 5; 6]

“While crossing guards serve a critical and immediate need for public safety around schools, we need Mayor Lurie and the City to support and implement School Streets immediately, Bornheimer said. “Given the dangerous design of streets—where around 40 people are killed and around 500 are severely injured in roadway crashes every year—and the unsustainable nature of transportation policies, it’s time for Mayor Lurie and the City to prioritize safe, sustainable, and socially beneficial policies and infrastructure.”

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Streets Forward is a nonprofit organization making it safer and faster for people to walk, bike, and take public transit in San Francisco. It fulfills its mission through grassroots organizing, public policy research and education, and advocacy for infrastructure improvements and policies that are proven to help people shift trips to walking, biking, and transit, which increases roadway safety, among other benefits. Streets Forward was founded by its Executive Director, Luke Bornheimer, who successfully organized and advocated to make Car-Free JFK Promenade permanent, convert Upper Great Highway into a full-time, oceanfront park (Sunset Dunes), get curbside protected bike lanes installed on Valencia Street, the e-bike incentive fund approved, and a citywide No Turn on Red policy unanimously supported by the Board of Supervisors, among other successes. You can learn more about Streets Forward at StreetsForward.org.

Footnotes:

[1] SF.gov: Mayor Daniel Lurie takes decisive action to tackle largest budget deficit in city’s history and improve city services
[2] Momentum Magazine: School Streets Programs Surging In Some Cities But Others Have More Homework To Do
[3] Cities For Everyone: School Streets: Enhancing Neighborhoods in Paris & Barcelona
[4] City Lab Barcelona: School Streets create healthy, playful and more social environments
[5] OpenPlans: Creating car-free zones around schools so every student has safe space to play, learn, and thrive
[6] Upworthy: Paris turned roads for cars into streets for school kids and it’s a great lesson in priorities