SAN FRANCISCO—On Tuesday, July 29, Mayor Edwin M. Lee signed the $500 million general obligation fund towards transportation infrastructure to appear on the November 2014 ballot. The goal would be to improve the City’s transportation network without causing an increase in property tax rates.
According to a press release from the Mayor’s website, Mayor Lee was joined by District 4 Supervisor Katy Tang, San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) and San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) to celebrate the installation of new traffic signals at Sunset Boulevard and Yorba Street. The SFMTA has decreased the speed limit on Sunset Boulevard from 35 mph to 30 mph between Martin Luther King Jr. Drive and Lake Merced Boulevard.
“This November, with my support and the support of every member of the Board of Supervisors, San Francisco voters will have a historic opportunity to invest in the future of transportation in our City without raising property tax rates,” said Mayor Lee.
“This $500 million transportation bond is the first recommendation of our Transportation 2030 Task Force and will be a major step toward delivering a more reliable, safe, and affordable transportation network today and keep our City moving into the future. This bond invests $300 million in street safety upgrades that will prevent traffic injuries and fatalities and keep pedestrians safe. The new traffic signals and the reduced speed limit here on Sunset Boulevard bring us closer to reaching our Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities in San Francisco by 2024.”
Some key investments for the $500 million general obligation bond include:
• Muni Forward Rapid Network Capital Projects and other transit improvement projects: $230 million
• Transit stop accessibility improvements: $30 million
• Muni maintenance facility upgrades: $70 million
• Pedestrian safety enhancements: $68 million
• Traffic signal replacement: $22 million
• “Complete Streets” projects, including new or enhanced bikeways: $52 million
“San Francisco streets are showing real improvements, from better street paving to engineering measures that make our streets safety, but more is needed,” said Supervisor Tang. “Our office has advocated for these improvements on Sunset Boulevard after receiving extensive feedback from the community regarding the safety of our streets. Our city needs to continue to support smart investments into our City’s aging transportation infrastructure to ensure safety and keep up with growth.”
The bond will allow citizen oversight and will include regular audits to make sure accountability is held. For the general obligation bond requires a 2/3 majority vote by San Francisco voters. The bond is a recommendation from the SF 2030 Transportation Task Force which is aimed to improving the city’s transportation infrastructure, which indicated to meet the current and future need the city, would need a $10 billion investment in transportation infrastructure through 2030. So far the City has amounted $3.7 billion in funding and still needs $6.3 billion to fund the gap in the next 15 years.
The new traffic signals and speed reduction on Sunset Boulevard are amongst the SFMTA’s 24 Vision Zero projects to be placed into effect by January 2016.
“Sunset Boulevard is among the six percent of streets that account for more than 60 percent of the City’s severe and fatal traffic injuries. We have been working hard to change that statistic by increasing safety for people who walk on this street,” said SFMTA Director of Transportation Ed Reiskin. “Everyone walks at some point. These new signals and lower speed limit, coupled with all the other recent improvements made on this corridor, will make Sunset Boulevard a better, safer walking environment for the Sunset District’s communities.”
The entire cost for the new signals at Sunset and Yorba was $266,000, including contract cost, design, construction, and coordination.
To learn more about the November 2014 transportation bond, go to: http://sftransportation2030.com/.
By LaDale Anderson
