Mayor Ed Lee

The funding measures recommended by the Mayor's Transportation 2030 Task Force are a promising step toward building out the safe, reliable networks for transit, walking, and biking that San Franciscans need. Only a portion of the $10.1 billion needed for improvements identified by the task force would be funded by the measures, but if approved by voters on the November 2014 ballot, they could build traction to help city agencies obtain the rest.

With the spotlight turned on the dangers and dysfunction that result from the sorry state of double-parking enforcement in San Francisco, Mayor Ed Lee has staked out a position on the matter that seems to show a tone-deaf windshield perspective on city streets more than an actual commitment to making them safer.

Bay Area Bike Share's celeste-colored fleet of bikes is now part of the streetscape in downtown San Francisco. At many of the city's 35 stations, people took bikes for a spin as soon as the system went live at noon today, while curious observers said they were likely to use it as a convenient way to get around SoMa and the Financial District.

Leona Bridges is no longer a member of the SFMTA Board of Directors, for reasons which remain unclear. At the start of this week's board meeting, which Bridges didn't attend, chairperson Tom Nolan announced that she'd been sworn in as a member of the city's Retirement Board. Appointments to both boards are made by Mayor Ed Lee.

It looks like Supervisor Eric Mar is ready to make some noise about the need to fund the SFMTA's vision for a major expansion of bike-friendly streets -- which Mayor Ed Lee hasn't prioritized at all since the agency released its Draft Bicycle Strategy earlier this year.

Elected officials and thousands of commuters took to two wheels for the 19th annual Bike to Work Day, welcomed by the new protected bike lane on Oak Street and the city's first bicycle counter on Market Street. As in the past few years, the mayor and city supervisors gathered on the steps of City Hall to give speeches cheering bicycling, with some calling for the implementation of more bike lanes.

SF District Attorney George Gascón and SFPD Traffic Company Commander Mikail Ali held a press conference last Thursday to bring attention to distracted driving, since April is officially National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

On Walk to Work Day, touted as the first official event of its kind in the nation, city officials strolled to a press conference on the steps of City Hall, where Mayor Ed Lee promised to implement the city's Pedestrian Strategy [PDF].

In the first three months of 2013, six pedestrians have been killed on San Francisco streets. At that rate, the city is on course for pedestrian deaths to rise for the third year in a row.