“Build public support and political power to win affordable and sustainable transportation for all San Franciscans.”
Of the four goals in the SF Bicycle Coalition’s strategic plan, this goal makes clear the need to participate in our city’s political process and elect champions to promote the bicycle for everyday transportation. This year, your 15-person member-elected board of directors had difficult decisions before them as we considered endorsements for all local ballot measures and for three local races: Mayor, District Attorney, and District 5 Supervisor.
After candidate questionnaires, a candidate forum and plenty of engagement with membership through polling and communications to the board, we are proud to present the following endorsements for the Nov. 5, 2019 elections:
Mayor: Elected in June 2018 as our city’s first black woman to serve as mayor, Mayor London Breed has championed several initiatives to advance biking and street safety in her first thirteen months in office. She successfully directed the SFMTA to construct a protected bike lane on Valencia Street within four months and then set the bar even higher on Bike to Work Day, where she announced that our City will install 20 miles of new protected bike lanes over the next two years. This is the sort of leadership we need to achieve Vision Zero by 2024, the goal of ending serious injuries and traffic fatalities on our streets. We are excited to continue working with Mayor Breed to urgently advance street safety, decrease congestion and keep our city’s transportation affordable and accessible for everyone.
District Attorney: Of the four candidates running for District Attorney, only one candidate has demonstrated leadership, implemented reforms and has a history of fighting for street safety. In her five years on the Police Commission, Suzy Loftus fought for and won commitments to Vision Zero to reduce bias in traffic enforcement. As candidate for District Attorney, she has distinguished herself by being the first to develop a robust platform for street safety that promises real justice for victims of traffic violence. We hope to be able to work with Suzy Loftus to see those commitments through.
District 5 Supervisor: We’ve heard loud and clear from our members that there is significant support for the two frontrunner candidates, Vallie Brown and Dean Preston. We have been impressed by their commitments to street safety, particularly as they seek to represent a supervisorial district with some of our city’s most popular bike routes. In her first year of being in office, current Supervisor Vallie Brown has lent her support to siting bike share stations in her district, repaving the Kezar path, making a block of Octavia Boulevard car-free and fixing the traffic jam on Page Street. If elected, Dean Preston has pledged that he would hold Uber and Lyft accountable for safety and congestion on our streets and would seek aggressive policies to prioritize people biking, walking and taking transit.
Given the many SF Bicycle Coalition members who live in District 5, we acknowledge that there is both strong and divided support for these two candidates amongst our membership. There is no way to endorse in this race that fully represents our membership, but we believe that there are two strong candidates in Vallie Brown and Dean Preston. Both understand and would fight to advance our mission of promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation in District 5.
Therefore, our board has voted for no endorsement in this race.
Yes on Proposition D: On the ballot this November, voters will be asked whether there should be a local tax on rideshare companies like Uber and Lyft at a rate of 3.25% per trip. With half of the revenues raised going to Muni service and the other half to bicycle and pedestrian safety, we are in strong support of this measure. This measure will raise an estimated $30-$35 million per year and will be the first opportunity for the City to raise revenue to address the inordinate impact that Uber, Lyft and other transportation network companies are having on our streets.
We are proud to endorse this measure alongside Mayor Breed, all 11 Supervisors and our transportation advocacy allies at Walk San Francisco and SF Transit Riders.
