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Grand jury urges changes to scooter contracts and stronger PSAC oversight as pedestrian deaths rise
Summary
The civil grand jury found rising pedestrian fatalities and conflicts from electric mobility devices, recommended signage/engineering, contract changes to allocate maintenance/liability, and stronger Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee oversight; SFMTA and the Board agreed to work on signage, enforcement, and committee structure.
The 2018–2019 civil grand jury presented a report to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee on Sept. 19 highlighting growing pedestrian safety risks as shared electric mobility devices proliferate. Marty Sutherland, presenting the report, said San Francisco pedestrians remain the most vulnerable road users and that deaths in 2019 had already exceeded prior levels. The report documents clashes between pedestrians and powered scooters, early failures of sidewalk parking and device maintenance, and contractual gaps that place inspection responsibility on private contractors with varying training.
Key recommendations included adding signage and visual stencils to direct scooter riders into bike facilities, requiring SFMTA and the city attorney to review and adjust permit and contract language to allocate liability and maintenance responsibility to parties best able to manage risk, and strengthening data capture to identify root causes of injuries. The report also found problems with the Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee (PSAC), noting missing annual reports (no verified annual report since 2014) and irregular quorum records.
Chava Cronenberg, SFMTA pedestrian manager and Vision Zero co‑chair, said the agency will "look into any additional signage as recommended by the civil grand jury, specifically on sidewalks," but noted that bike‑lane markings are governed by the California Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (which constrains pavement markings) and that more work is required to implement some stencil changes.
Speakers from the Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee and neighborhood advocates urged the Board to accept recommendations and maintain PSAC oversight; the committee moved to adopt amendments extending the committee's sunset date for one year and asked PSAC to review its structure and reporting. The committee recommended the amended resolution to the full board and filed the hearing.
