An Action Plan for Racial Equity at the SFMTA

An Action Plan for Racial Equity at the SFMTA
By

In a pre-COVID session, Director Jeff Tumlin and SFMTA staff discuss the agency’s priorities

As the manager of San Francisco’s streets and transportation network, the SFMTA has the immense responsibility of ensuring dignified access and freedom of movement for all through its community engagement, planning and service delivery. The agency also has a significant responsibility to its almost 6,000 employees to dismantle any harmful cultures, practices and policies that reinforce anti-Blackness, structural racism and/or bias in the workplace.

The agency developed our Racial Equity Action Plan as a process and strategic plan for SFMTA, guided by the citywide racial equity framework, to enact institutional and structural change to achieve racial equity.

With leadership from the SFMTA’s newly appointed Race, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Josephine Ayankoya, and Human Resources Director Kimberly Ackerman, the plan commits the SFMTA to ongoing action, reflection and refinement leading to structural change. In particular the plan identifies concrete actions in hiring and recruitment, retention and promotions, discipline and separations, diverse and equitable leadership, mobility and professional development and a culture of inclusion and belonging.

A number of human resources actions are already underway at the SFMTA:

• Permanent Civil Service: A form has been created for HR analysts to use in the hiring process to better understand ethnicity and gender trends at different stages of the hiring process.
• Cost control decisions: The agency’s cost control group membership has been expanded to include a more diverse group of staff, ensuring that a broader set of backgrounds and experiences shape important budget decisions.
• Disciplinary dashboard: Managers will begin using a consistent tracking system across the agency to measure and monitor disciplinary actions.
• Blanding report updates: The agency will make quarterly updates that respond to findings of the 2019 Blanding Report, which outlined racial equity deficiencies at the agency.

 Next steps

The SFMTA Office of Race, Equity and Inclusion has also initiated an agencywide series of listening sessions. These discussions are be a space for staff across the agency to give input on:

• Challenges related to racial and social inequities experienced by staff
• Resources needed to advance racial equity within the workforce
• Perspectives on what should be prioritized in the SFMTA’s racial equity work

Moving forward, the Office of Race, Equity and Inclusion will hire additional staff based on feedback from over 100 meetings with staff members across the agency.

In its next phase, the Racial Equity Action Plan will also extend its efforts to include external equity issues including the services rendered by the SFMTA, the projects we plan, the ways we engage the public and how we support staff who work directly with the public. This will be done in accordance with guidance from the Office of Racial Equity under San Francisco’s Human Rights Commission.

 

Published May 21, 2021 at 06:46PM
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Get Out and Get Going on Bike to Wherever Day, May 21

Get Out and Get Going on Bike to Wherever Day, May 21
By Pamela Johnson

Heading out to run an errand, meeting friends, taking in the sights at the Botanical Garden or Japanese Tea Garden in Golden Gate Park (both now open) or getting a bite to eat? On May 21, join people across the city bicycling for this year's annual Bike to Work Day event in the form of Bike to Wherever Day. 

Bike to Wherever day is a celebration of bicycles as a fun and healthy way to get around the city, hosted by The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition encouraging people to pedal to their destinations for the day. The event promotes the bicycle both as an alternative commute and as a healthy and safe alternative to driving to…wherever!

The SFMTA encourages everyone, including those who don't usually bike, to get out and bike on this special day.  After grabbing a bike (your own or a bikeshare bike), stop by one of the 12 energizer stations that will be hosted citywide as you get going around town. There, you can pick up your free Bike to Work Day canvas tote bag, filled with goodies and collectibles, courtesy of the SF Bicycle Coalition.

Resources to Help You Plan Your Bicycle Trip

The SFMTA has developed handy resources to help you plan your bicycle trips.  Visit the interactive bike network map, that highlights recommended routes and shows bikeshare station locations. At our Get Out, Get Going website you can find an interactive multi-mode map with information about other sustainable ways to get you to your destination that you could pair with your bicycle trip, including walking and using shared mobility devices, like a scooter or moped.  

Like never before, people are riding bicycles all across San Francisco. The SFMTA supports sustainable transportation modes like the use of bicycles, especially for everyday travel. To help meet the needs of an increasing number of people riding bicycles in San Francisco, we support bicycling by building dedicated bike lanes around the city, and by making streets safer and more comfortable for bicycling. We also implemented the Slow Streets Program with nearly 30 new corridors implemented since the start of the pandemic as a way to limit traffic on certain residential streets to be used as a shared space for people traveling by foot and by bicycle.

The SFMTA is proud to sponsor Bike to Wherever Day, San Francisco's favorite biking holiday.  Be sure to check out the history of walking and bicycling in San Francisco through the years. Remember when bicycling on Bike to Whenever Day to ride predictably by following rules of the road and to have fun.

Published May 20, 2021 at 08:59PM
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