As we studied the November 6, 2018 ballot, we continue to face a key challenge we identified in the June election: transportation is overshadowed by other important issues like housing and homelessness. But we also understand that this is a critical election for all San Franciscans who bike. In considering these endorsements, we checked our broader opinions at the door and focused on what is best for advancing our mission of promoting the bicycle for everyday transportation.

We are fortunate to see so many new candidates who are SF Bicycle Coalition members or have been long-standing supporters of our mission. While our member vote showed a diversity of opinions, it also showed strong support for the endorsements we have ratified as your SF Bicycle Coalition’s board of directors. We believe the candidates we’ve endorsed will elevate biking in our city and be the leaders for smart, accessible and affordable transportation that San Franciscans deserve. These candidates represent a diverse set of approaches and ideas for our city, but they all share a common belief that San Francisco needs to invest in infrastructure and safety for people who bike.

Note: This post was updated September 19 to reflect the endorsement for BART Board District 8.

For the 2018 San Francisco elections on Nov. 6, our official endorsements are:

Board of Supervisors, District 2: Nick Josefowitz

Board of Supervisors, District 4: #1: Gordon Mar; #2: Trevor McNeil

Board of Supervisors, District 6: #1: Matt Haney; #2: Christine Johnson

Board of Supervisors, District 8: Rafael Mandelman

Board of Supervisors, District 10: Shamann Walton and Theo Ellington (dual endorsement)

BART Board of Directors, District 8: Janice Li

No on Proposition 6

Yes on Proposition A

Yes on Proposition C

Board of Supervisors, District 2: Among a field of four candidates, members overwhelmingly favored Nick Josefowitz. Nick has had a long history with our organization and is the only candidate in District 2 who is a current SF Bicycle Coalition member. He also received our endorsement in 2014 when he ran and won the BART Board race. He was instrumental in passing the BART bond in 2016, which will keep our transit infrastructure strong and help increase bike accessibility to BART stations. We believe he will be the change needed to make District 2 more bike-friendly.

Board of Supervisors, District 4: This is the first open race in District 4 in a long time and it represents an opportunity to elect a pro-biking Supervisor. Among the eight candidates running, members favored Gordon Mar. He has been a member in the past and is also committed to holding transportation network companies like Uber and Lyft accountable, recognizing the negative impact they’ve had on our streets in terms of congestion and safety.

Trevor McNeil ranked the second highest in favorability amongst our membership and is a committed street safety advocate, having served as the District 4 representative on the city’s Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee.

Board of Supervisors, District 6: Having received the sole endorsement of current District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, we believe Matt Haney will continue the strong leadership that Sup. Kim has brought to championing bike and pedestrian safety projects through SoMa, Tenderloin and beyond. Matt’s broad list of individual and organizational endorsements show that he is a coalition builder who we hope will build the support we need to make streets safer across the diverse communities of District 6. He has also committed to holding transportation network companies accountable to making our streets safer. As a member of the School Board, Matt co-authored the resolution to make Vision Zero official policy at the school district, expanded the Safe Routes to School Program, and worked with us to develop the district’s first comprehensive transportation plan.

Christine Johnson has lived and biked in District 6 longer than any other candidate. Given her time on the Planning Commission and her detailed answers to our questionnaire, we believe that she understands the changing needs of our city and would be a strong advocate for street safety.

Board of Supervisors, District 8: We are proud to endorse Rafael Mandelman once again, who received the highest favorability rating from our members out of all candidates in all the Supervisor races. We look forward to continuing our work with Sup. Mandelman in pushing for protected bike lanes on Valencia Street and expanding bike share throughout his district.

Board of Supervisors, District 10: We’re proud to support two candidates with strong ties to the community to represent District 10, which includes historically black neighborhoods like Bayview-Hunters Point. We have worked with Theo Ellington in his previous role at the Warriors in ensuring the new Chase Center will have safe bike connections to their site in Mission Bay and will also have the best bike parking solutions of any arena in the country. Last year, we partnered with Shamann Walton in his role as the executive director of Young Community Developers through our Bike It Forward program, where we distributed 22 bikes to local youth in the Bayview to increase access to safe, healthy and affordable transportation choices.

We believe both would be strong partners to the SF Bicycle Coalition and would look forward to either Theo or Shamann as the next District 10 supervisor.

BART Board of Directors, District 8: We are proud to endorse Janice Li for BART Director. Janice has been an employee at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition since 2013 and has been Advocacy Director since 2015. She is a true champion for integrating bikes and transit, with deep experience working with communities and the City to improve safety and access for all people. We believe that no one is better qualified to represent the interests of people who bike on the BART board.

Yes on Proposition A – Seawall Bond: The SF Bicycle Coalition has had a long history of pushing for better bike infrastructure to bring a world-class biking experience along our waterfront. Passing Prop A would generate $425 million for critical seismic strengthening and repair of the Embarcadero Seawall, our city’s first line of defense against an eventual large earthquake, while also supporting better bike infrastructure there. Additionally, one of our organization’s core values is sustainability, which calls on us to fight climate change, while also protecting against the inevitable sea-level rise that is coming. That’s why we are in strong support of Prop A to maintain and upgrade our Embarcadero Seawall for decades to come to prepare our city for whatever the future holds.

Yes on Proposition C – Our City, Our Home: Passing Prop C would bring in hundreds of millions of dollars per year to tackle the homelessness crisis and make our streets more safe and accessible for all San Franciscans. We know that street safety isn’t just about bike lanes; it’s about creating welcoming and safe spaces on our streets for all of us. In recent years, we have seen how the homelessness crisis has intersected with biking at places like the Hairball or the Duboce bikeway, and we support Prop C to bring compassionate solutions to make San Francisco a better place to live, work and bike.

We also believe Prop C will help us in the long-term to accomplish our Strategic Plan’s objective of “securing significant, new funding sources for bicycle infrastructure.” We advocated with the Transportation Justice Coalition for transportation funding ballot measures for both the June and November ballots this year. However both times, elected officials decided that housing and homelessness were higher priorities. We believe Prop C’s solutions to homelessness will better position us to win new transportation funding in 2019 and beyond.

No on Proposition 6 – Gas Tax Repeal: The stakes for our climate and transportation infrastructure have never been higher, and we are resoundingly opposing state Proposition 6, which would repeal the gasoline tax that state legislature passed last year. The SF Bicycle Coalition has always supported sustainable modes of transportation, and we believe that drivers should be paying their fair share back into the system to fund road repaving, bike lanes and transit improvements. This measure has been critical in investing in our state’s transportation needs, especially at a time when federal funds are limited. It’s critical that we fight back against this repeal effort. If the gas tax is repealed, we will see an immediate threat to bicycle and pedestrian safety projects locally and our ability to fund these projects in the future will be strongly curtailed, requiring a 2/3 threshold in the future, making it difficult to meet our transportation needs.