[Carfreeliving] ISCOTT putting traffic first, safety last

[Joshua Hart]

For those of you who are unfamilar with ISCOTT, the Interdepartmental 
Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation, this committee is made 
up of staff from police, fire, dpt, taxi commission, etc.

They are important because every change in traffic regulations or 
striping needs to go through them unless it is introduced by a member 
of the Board of Supervisors.

We (together with TLC) have been working to encourage DPT to remove 
unnecessary double turn lanes throughout the City, and they have been 
bringing several of these to ISCOTT.

For those of you who are new to San Francisco, or don't remember Carmen 
Murillo, she was a good person who was riding her bike and was killed 
at the double turn lanes on S. Van Ness.   Countless pedestrians and 
cyclists have been killed and injured by these hazardous traffic 
designs over the last few decades in San Francisco.

Portland and other sensible cities have strict guidelines that say that 
the City can only use double turn lanes in the most extreme situations. 
  Here in SF, unfortunately, our bureaucrats are slaves to automobile 
Level of Service, and don't do anything that might delay cars, even if 
it means that some lower class people have to die.

At an ISCOTT meeting a month ago, they tabled a proposal to remove a 
double turn lane at California and Kearny based on anecdotal evidence 
brought up by the Taxi Commission representative (she was concerned 
about taxi drivers getting frustrated by increased congestion and 
running people over) , when DPT's own counts showed that a double turn 
lane was unnecessary.

At this week's meeting, ISCOTT finally killed the proposal- see below:


2.	California and Kearny Streets - Multiple Turn Lanes
	DPT recommends rescinding "Multiple Right Turn Lanes" on northbound 
Kearny at California Street.

	DISAPPROVED.


(that's all they said in the minutes- disapproved)

Whereas ISCOTT was set up to ensure that transportation planning is 
coordinated between the different departments, now it is simply a bunch 
of good old boys who are making policy decisions that prevent DPT from 
doing work to improve safety on our streets, simply to keep traffic 
flowing, even if that means blood is shed.

I'm not being melodramatic here- these are the facts, and I gotta tell 
you- it makes my blood boil to see these people make decisions about 
our public spaces based on car-first policies in our transit first 
City.

If you have a problem with a bunch of backward bureaucrats making 
policy instead of our elected officials, contact your supervisor and 
ask them to make ISCOTT a purely advisory committee without teeth.

Or you can call Harvey Quan, the chair of ISCOTT, directly and ask him 
why his committee is putting the movement of cars above saving people's 
lives- his office number is 554-2319

Or better yet- come to the next ISCOTT meeting in person- April 7th at 
9am at 25 Van Ness Suite 345 and ask all of them.

Thanks,

Josh

p.s. This is a very good topic to bring up and discuss at the BAC's 
Level of Service Hearing on April 6th at City Hall- see 
http://www.sfbike.org/chain


WE'VE MOVED!
Please note my new mailing address and phone extension.

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Joshua Hart Program Director 415-431-2453 ext. 303  joshua at sfbike.org