Assemblywoman Fiona Ma: Traffic Safety on Hwy. 1

Have you experienced walking across a dangerous intersection where cars are whizzing by at dangerous speeds?

Whether it's walking home from school or picking up groceries from a local store, city residents face danger simply by walking across the street. When I was a San Francisco supervisor, pedestrian safety was one of my top priorities.

Now, as your Assemblywoman, I am even more determined to make our city's most dangerous streets safe.

Nineteenth Avenue and Park Presidio Boulevard partially fall under the jurisdiction of the state. This seven-mile stretch of city blocks has been the epicenter of at least 786 collisions in the past seven years. During that period, 80 of the collisions involved pedestrians, including almost a dozen deaths.

Shortly after I was sworn into office, I introduced my first piece of legislation, AB 23, which requires the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) to install pedestrian countdown signals on state highways that turn into surface roads within 2,000 feet of a school or senior center.Ê

Working with Assembly Transportation Committee Chairman Assemblyman Pedro Nava (D-Santa Barbara), Caltrans has agreed to install countdown signals at 29 intersections within the next two years on the 19th Avenue and Park Presidio Boulevard portions of Highway 1. You can be assured that I will hold Caltrans accountable and if necessary, take further legislative action

In addition to pedestrian safety, I am also working on another piece of transportation-related legislation which will strongly impact the quality of life of San Francisco residents. I am sure many of you have experienced waiting way too long for a Muni bus that was scheduled to arrive 20 minutes earlier. Our city's designated bus lanes have been clogged by inconsiderate people who park their vehicles illegally in the middle of the lanes.

My legislation, AB 101, would allow the city to place cameras on the front of our Muni buses to ticket offenders, so that buses can get back on schedule and allow our city's police force to spend time on more important business.

As the sponsor of the legislation, Mayor Gavin Newsom testified in support of the bill during a committee hearing in June. The bill is now on the Senate floor and I am hopeful that on Jan. 1, San Francisco will be able to use this valuable tool to make Muni run on time.

Assemblywoman Fiona Ma, the majority whip of the California Assembly, represents the 12th District, which includes the Richmond and Sunset districts.