Lee Heidhues 4.7.2023
San Francisco Supervisor Connie Chan has been the worst of the worst trying to Destroy JFK Promenade, the Great Walkway and Slow Streets.
Now she is exploiting the death of beloved cyclist Ethan Boyes near her District to call for bike enhancements in the area where he was cut down by an irresponsible motorist on April 4, 2023.
The Supervisor is disparaged by many cyclists for her strenuous well documented opposition to bike lanes and pedestrian car free thoroughfare.
Three years into her four year term Connie Chan wants to make amends.
No way… During her successful election bid in November 2020 Connie stood with environmentalists and received the endorsement of Sunrise Bay Area. A commitment she completely drove away from once safely parked in office.
This is nothing more than a crass political stunt to boost her reelection bid in 2024. Advocates for car free spaces in San Francisco have not forgotten and will never forget or forgive her well documented car centric advocacy.
Articles excerpted from San Francisco Chronicle 4.7.2023
https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/s-f-officials-look-protected-bike-lanes-near-17884950.php
As friends mourned the death of an elite cyclist struck by a car in San Francisco’s Presidio park, Supervisor Connie Chan called for protected bike lanes on roads leading up to the park’s entrance.
“No one should suffer or die from traffic violence,” Chan said in a statement Friday, days after a USA Cycling Champion Ethan Boyes was stuck and killed by a motorist near Inspiration Point — the latest bike fatality to convulse the city.
“We must be proactive in preventing these tragedies from occurring in the first place, Chan continued. “To that end, I have also requested a District 1 Mobility Study to improve traffic safety and transit connectivity in the District, and I am urging SFMTA to explore the possibility of protective bike lanes on Arguello between Geary and the entrance to the Presidio.”
The U.S. Park Police said Friday that they are still investigating what happened. Officers responded to a collision between a cyclist and a vehicle at Arguello Boulevard, south of Washington Boulevard, at about 4 p.m. Tuesday, public information officer Thomas Twiname said. Medics transported the cyclist to a hospital with life-threatening injuries. He was later pronounced dead. The driver was also transported to a hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
U.S. Park Police declined to say whether the driver was arrested or whether drugs or alcohol were involved in the collision.
Jean Fraser, CEO of the Presidio Trust, said the organization’s leaders were heartbroken to learn of Boyes’ death.
Sydney Parcell, right, and Wagner Sousa place a track cycling world champion jersey at a memorial where friend Ethan Boyes was fatally struck by a vehicle Tuesday while cycling along Arguello Boulevard in the Presidio of San Francisco. Parcell, who trained with Boyes, remembered the cyclist for his kindness and humor.
Stephen Lam/The Chroniclehttps://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/ethan-boyes-death-adds-s-f-s-bicycle-fatalities-17884671.php
The death of elite cyclist Ethan Boyes this week angered San Francisco’s cycling community, in part, because it marked the latest tragedy in the growing list of bicyclists killed in the city over the past decade.
Since 2010, there have been 34 bike fatalities in San Francisco — with many of them taking place in the city’s northeast quadrant. A motorist struck and killed Boyes Tuesday while he was cycling on a federally owned stretch of Arguello Boulevard south of Washington Boulevard in the Presidio.
Supervisor Catherine Stefani, whose district includes the Presidio, said in a statement to The Chronicle that she was “devastated” by Boyes’ death and that the corridor “needs to be made safer for all those who use it.”
“This senseless act of traffic violence was totally avoidable, and I urge the U.S. Park Police to hold the driver accountable to the fullest extent of the law,” Stefani said.
Bicyclists, for years, have raised safety concerns traveling along Arguello Boulevard and say they often must navigate speeding traffic. Hundreds of cyclists travel along the corridor’s painted bike lanes which stretch from Golden Gate Park to the Presidio.
Top photo:
A mourner bows during a vigil for Ethan Boyes on Friday at the spot where the cyclist was fatally struck by a car Tuesday. Noah Berger/Special to The Chronicle
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