As noted yesterday, SFPD Park Station Capt. John Sanford, Jr. hosted the first meeting of the Community Advisory Bike Board (CABB) last night at Second Act in the Upper Haight. The meeting was open to the public, with the aim to give community members an opportunity to share concerns and suggestions following the high-profile Park District community meeting on August 11th.
Approximately 20 people attended the meeting, including representatives from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and SafeSF.org, as well as news outlets KPIX and KNTV. (Disclosure: the author attended the meeting as a community member of the CABB).
To open the meeting, Captain Sanford confirmed that the mission of the CABB is to address “anything that can impact the safety of cyclists” with a concentration on the Park District, where he has direct oversight. While Captain Sanford said he was not expecting media to be present, he called on them to play a proactive role in bringing the community together on issues affecting cyclists, motorists and pedestrians.
About the CABB
When asked how the CABB started, Captain Sanford said that he determined that there was a need for a group to "collaborate and take a creative approach" to address road safety issues in partnership with the Park District.
The move comes after this summer's tension between bicyclists, the police, and community members after Park Station announced that it would enforce full stops for cyclists at stop signs. Cyclists protested with a Wiggle "stop-in" protest in July, and last month, Sanford announced that Park Station would roll back the targeted bicycle enforcement. "The enforcement is over for now, but we can revisit it at any time, if we need to," he told attendees at the August Park Station community meeting.
Captain Sanford noted that police enforcement is not a final solution to address bad behavior by drivers and cyclists alike. While enforcement and ticketing of motorists continues regularly, Sanford emphasized that it's his responsibility to respond to traffic complaints reported by residents in his community, including pedestrian complaints of dangerous cyclist behavior, or pedestrian/cyclist collisions.
(Captain Sanford also described two recent incidents where motorists were at fault in collisions with cyclists, one at Baker and Hayes, the other at Masonic and Fell. Captain Sanford confirmed there were no serious injuries in these two incidents.)
At the June 9th Park District community meeting, Captain Sanford announced details of an outreach program where officers would hand out pamphlets to cyclists to share information about road safety using the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s rules of the road. Outreach lasted 40 days and was followed by police enforcement activity in August.
After various Community Police Advisory Board meetings and outreach to community organizations, the Community Advisory Bike Board was formed. Captain Sanford noted that in order to develop sustainable solutions to address the current traffic issues in the Park District, it will be critical for CABB members to “roll up their sleeves for the long haul.” He stated the CABB was "not designed for everyone to agree," and that it will "take time to build trust and rapport to come up with viable solutions" for the community.
Excerpts below are from a document published by Captain Sanford regarding the focus of the CABB:
Mission Statement
“To advise and create effective sustainable solutions on issues impacting cycling in the Park Police District.”
Purpose
“The purpose of the CABB shall be to advise and work with the commanding officer of the Park Police District on bicycle and cycling issues that impact the Park district. Every member of the CABB is expected to bring their individual talents to the group, but to work in a team environment that is dedicated to the principals of community policing. CABB members must have a vested interest in the entire community and contribute to the overall mission of creating sustainable solutions to addressing issues that impact cyclists in our district.”
The Role of the CABB
"In the spirit of community policing and collaboration between civilians and police, the Park Police Station CABB is created to deal specifically with bicycle and cyclist issues in the Park District that may impact motorist, cyclist, or pedestrians."
Members of the CABB will include representation from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and other community groups with an interest in collaborating with the Park District station. Sanford said the CABB hopes to find "innovative and creative ways to determine how to deal with the issues" to educate cyclists, motorists and pedestrians on the rules of the road. According to Captain Sanford "the Park District is a starting point, if this impacts other areas of the city, then good."
