Polls closed less than 24 hours ago, yet we already know San Franciscans voted for sound policy and exciting new leadership.
Your San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has weighed in on ballot measures and candidates for decades, and we were proud to once again make endorsements to support Mark Leno and Jane Kim for mayor, Rafael Mandelman for District 8 supervisor, No on Proposition H and Yes on Regional Measure 3.
While votes continue to be counted by the San Francisco Department of Elections, decided races point toward a bright future for people biking in San Francisco.
Congratulations to Rafael Mandelman for becoming the next Supervisor from District 8. We are excited to see Rafael join the Board of Supervisors to represent the district, which includes the Castro, Noe Valley, Duboce Triangle and Glen Park. We look forward to working with him to advance his campaign promises of protected bike lanes on Valencia Street and expanding bike share throughout his district.
We’ve defeated Proposition H, which pushes back on the Police Officers Association and acknowledges that robust public safety policymaking process should never be shortcutted.
Regional Measure 3 passed to bring in millions for more bike infrastructure along with more Muni and BART cars. While the measure was not perfect, this funding will keep our city moving and our public transit affordable, while improvements for people biking and walking see a boost of $150 million regionally on Bay Trail projects.
As for the mayor’s race, it remains too close to call. We are proud of the work of our dual-endorsed candidates, Mark Leno and Jane Kim. We also know that London Breed ran a powerful campaign, and we have a lot of respect for how all mayoral candidates deeply engaged San Franciscans to talk about the issues our city faces and how we can move forward together. With all eight candidates completing our candidate questionnaires and engaging on how to make San Francisco more bike-friendly, we know that biking is central to the future of mobility in our city.
You can follow the election results at the SF Department of Elections website here, and we will be certain to continue updating our members over the coming days and weeks. And for all of our members who took part in our endorsements process and volunteered to Bike the Vote, thank you. We celebrate today because we bike and we vote.
Lastly, none of this work — winning policies and elevating leaders with the interests of people biking — would be possible without the support of our 10,000-plus members. If you bike or support our work for more and better bike lanes, but haven’t joined yet, please consider turning over a new leaf today. Join us as a member, and together we’ll deliver more victories in the months and years ahead for safe, livable streets.
