Government Organizations

A civil jury has determined that a truck driver was negligent when he killed Amelie Le Moullac as she rode her bike at Folsom and Sixth Streets in August 2013, KQED's Bryan Goebel (Streetsblog SF's first editor) reported today:

For SFPD Traffic Company Commander Mikail Ali, the reason so many people are getting killed by drivers on SF's streets apparently has nothing to do with the fact that every station but one is failing miserably to adhere to the department's "Focus on the Five" enforcement strategy.

Caltrain will add a third bike car to all six of its Bombardier trains, Executive Director Michael Scanlon announced at the transit agency’s monthly board of directors meeting last week. With the new cars, bike capacity will increase from 48 to 72 on each of the Bombardier trains. But it could take up to one year to place the six-car trains into service.

California signaled its commitment to high-speed rail with a groundbreaking Tuesdayday in Fresno. The ceremony, featuring a speech by Governor Jerry Brown, marks the official beginning of construction on the long-awaited train.

Julie Christensen, a leading North Beach advocate for wider sidewalks and a Central Subway extension, has been appointed as the new District 3 Supervisor by Mayor Ed Lee.

The SFMTA wants to legalize life-saving speed enforcement cameras, and plans to campaign for a state law that would enable San Francisco to install them, the agency's director of government affairs, Kate Breen, said today.

For the second time in two years, a homeless man was run over and killed by a driver exiting the same garage exit on Third near Bryant Street in SoMa.

Nearly two years after SFPD announced its "Focus on the Five" program, only one of the 10 police stations is actually meeting its goal of issuing at least 50 percent of traffic citations for the five most common violations that cause pedestrian injuries. Department-wide, that rate was an abysmal 24 percent in September, the latest month for which data is available [PDF]. Southern Station, which covers crash-plagued SoMa, had the lowest rate with just 6 percent.

The SFPD says it has arrested one of the bike thieves who assaulted six people biking on the Panhandle in October and stole their bikes. Lieutenant Jason Sawyer of SFPD Park Station's Investigations Unit said police "have no doubt" that the juvenile male was one of the assailants who threw bottles at bike commuters and jammed sticks into their spokes late at night.