FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
CONTACT: Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director, Luke@StreetsForward.org, 617-899-4487 (cell)

Streets Forward’s Statement on San Francisco Street Safety Act

Streets Forward appreciates the work that Supervisor Melgar, her staff, and City agencies put into the San Francisco Street Safety Act. With people being killed and injured in roadway crashes at about the same rate as in 2014—when the City adopted its “Vision Zero” goal—it’s critical for Mayor Lurie, all 11 Supervisors, and other policymakers to be actively engaged on this issue and and proactively working to make our roadways safer. This resolution helps raise awareness about our city’s ongoing roadway safety crisis that Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, and other policymakers must address immediately. It’s long past time for the City to make this a top priority, and doing so will help make San Francisco a safer and more appealing place for all people, especially people who live or work here.

While raising awareness about roadway safety is helpful, the most impactful thing that the City can do to address our roadway safety crisis is implement policies and infrastructure improvements that help people shift trips to walking, biking, and public transit (also known as “sustainable mode shift”). Sustainable mode shift—and decreasing the number of car miles driven, or “vehicle miles traveled”—is shown to decrease roadway crashes in addition to decreasing car traffic, noise, air pollution, and climate emissions and increasing public safety, economic vitality, public health, quality-of-life, and social connectedness. Policies like citywide No Turn on Red and a fully funded e-bike incentive program and infrastructure improvements like protected bike lanes, transit-only lanes, transit-signal priority, and modal filters on residential streets will help hundreds of thousands of San Franciscans shift trips to walking, biking, and public transit.

“We need Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, and other policymakers to take action to make our streets safer by making these improvements a reality.” said Luke Bornheimer, Executive Director of Streets Forward. “A citywide No Turn on Red policy can be approved immediately, the E-Bike Incentive Program can be fully funded, and protected bike lanes can be installed on Valencia Street south of 23rd Street and on Arguello Boulevard between Golden Gate Park and the Presidio. These improvements would significantly—and instantly—increase safety throughout San Francisco, but we need someone in power to make them a reality. Streets Forward urges Mayor Lurie and the Board of Supervisors to take action to ensure these improvements are approved and implemented immediately. If the City is going to address our roadway safety crisis, it’s going to be through immediate and effective actions—not more commitments or costly, ineffective solutions. We need less goals, plans, and commitments, and more action on approving proven policies and installing proven infrastructure improvements.”

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Streets Forward is a community-based charity making it safer and faster for people to walk, bike, and take public transit in San Francisco. It does this through grassroots organizing, public policy research and education, and advocacy for policies and infrastructure improvements 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, have the e-bike incentive fund approved, and get the Board of Supervisors to unanimously support a citywide No Turn on Red policy, among other successes. Learn more about Streets Forward at StreetsForward.org.