Former Deputy Director of NYC DOT will bolster efforts for San Francisco’s complete and safe streets

Image of Siemens overhead wire streetcars for SF, start late 2016.
Image courtesy of SFMTA
Nanjing, China, recently initiated service of modern battery (Li-ion) powered streetcars by Bombardier.

San Francisco—The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which oversees all transportation in the city, including the Municipal Railway (Muni), announced today the appointment of Tom Maguire as Director of SFMTA’s Sustainable Streets Division (SSD). Maguire, currently the Assistant Commissioner in New York City’s Department of Transportation’s (DOT) Division of Traffic and Planning will start in San Francisco, effective October 14.

“I’m pleased that an accomplished leader like Tom is joining the SFMTA in this key role managing the critical infrastructure and leveraging public dollars to create better sustainable streets,” said Mayor Ed Lee. “Bringing Tom in at this critical juncture when voters consider a $500 million Transportation and Road Safety Bond in November will create a more reliable and affordable transportation network, keep pedestrians safe and keep our City moving well into the future.”

“San Francisco is at the forefront of creating safe and complete streets for a livable urban environment,” said Ed Reiskin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “Tom’s leadership will help sustain the work we’ve done and take us to the next level in our vision to provide excellent transportation choices for San Francisco.”

“The Giants moving to San Francisco in the late 50s had a big impact in the baseball world, and Tom Maguire becoming SFMTA Sustainable Streets Director is a big win for San Francisco in the transportation field,” said Polly Trottenberg, Commissioner of New York City’s Department of Transportation. “Tom is a remarkable leader and oversaw some of NYC DOT’s major initiatives from PlaNYC and post-Sandy resiliency to the Select Bus Service partnership and Freight Mobility. We will miss his vision and energy in New York.”

Sustainable Streets is the SFMTA division specifically responsible for providing multimodal transportation planning, engineering and operational improvements to San Francisco’s transportation system to support sustainable community and economic development. Maguire will report directly to Reiskin and will be responsible for six coordinated groups within the division, including Field Operations, Livable Streets, Parking, Security, Investigations and Enforcement, Strategic Planning and Policy, and Transportation Engineering.

“I am thrilled to be joining SFMTA at a time when transportation is so critical to shaping the livability of the city,” said Maguire. “I am a firm believer that if we want to create a livable city, we can never rest in our efforts to keep all street users safe – pedestrians, Muni riders, drivers, cyclists. SFMTA’s embrace of Vision Zero shows San Francisco is serious about safety. Everything we do to improve our streets should put safety first.”

During his time with DOT, Maguire oversaw the agency’s Bus Rapid Transit, Freight Mobility, Peak Rate Parking (PARK Smart), and Alternative Fuels programs. He has been working on road pricing and parking pricing for DOT since the effort to implement congestion pricing in Manhattan in 2007-2008, and has led the agency’s effort to develop Drive Smart, a technology partnership with the insurance industry to improve traffic safety while saving drivers time and money. In his time at DOT, he has managed the transportation elements of the City’s 2007 PlaNYC strategic plan and the transportation resiliency strategy in the City’s Stronger, More Resilient New York plan to rebuild after Hurricane Sandy. He has also found ways to use innovative data sources to demonstrate the transportation and economic benefits of livable streets. Prior to joining DOT, he worked at the engineering and design firm Arup, and holds a degree in city planning from UC Berkeley.

“From rolling out the fastest bus routes in New York City to devising groundbreaking parking policies, Tom Maguire worked on some of the most innovative changes to New York City streets over the last eight years,” said Janette Sadik-Khan, former NYC DOT Commissioner and Principal at Bloomberg Associates. “But the Big Apple’s loss is the Bay Area’s gain. With his one-of-a-kind mix of creative policy skills, technical expertise and political savvy, there’s no one better equipped to deliver world-class streets and chart San Francisco on a course to safer, more sustainable future.”

Established by voter proposition in 1999, the SFMTA, a department of the City and County of San Francisco, oversees the Municipal Railway (Muni), parking and traffic, bicycling, walking and taxis. With five modes of transit, Muni has approximately 700,000 passenger boardings each day. Over 35,000 extra vehicles enter San Francisco on any given business day, and rely on the SFMTA to keep the flow of cars, transit vehicles, taxis, delivery trucks, pedestrians and bicycles moving smoothly through the streets.

This article is a repost, credit: SFMTA.

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