Yee has hardly led on sustainable transportation and livable streets since he joined the Board of Supervisors, representing the Sunset District in 1996, before moving on to the State Assembly and Senate, and running for SF mayor in 2011. He participated in a "Critical Mass for cars" in 1999, fought for full reconstruction of the Central Freeway, and blocked a traffic camera that protects bicycle commuters from illegal right turns where the freeway ends today, at Market Street and Octavia Boulevard. (Yee saw the camera "as a police state issue," his aide told the Bay Guardian at the time.)
"He was certainly never any kind of leader in sustainable transportation," said Livable City Executive Director Tom Radulovich. "For San Francisco, you really want somebody who's going to be a leader."
Even Yee's push for double-fine zones seemed largely "symbolic," he said. "They sound good, but design changes would be much more effective."
Yee "was an early adopter of whining about the 'war on cars' in San Francisco," Radulovich added, highlighting his participation in the "Critical Mass for cars" (which occurs daily citywide, whether organized or not). "Folks involved in sustainable transportation and livability do remember all that."
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.
No other field would tolerate this level of death and destruction. The tragedy of West Portal is more evidence that the traffic engineering profession is fundamentally broken