Supes silence SF tour bus drivers

San Francisco tour bus drivers will soon have to keep quiet while driving.

The Board of Supervisors unanimously gave its initial approval of an ordinance to prohibit tour bus drivers from narrating while driving in an effort to prevent traffic deaths like the one just outside the steps of City Hall last year.

Priscila “Precy” Moreto, 68, was struck and killed by motorized cable car while in crosswalk on Polk Street in front City Hall last October.

Supervisor Norman Yee introduced the legislation to bring attention to distracted driving:

“I hope that this legislation helps to shift our driving culture so that we focus just on driving to further needless deaths and tragic collisions.”

The month of April also happens to be Distracted Driver Awareness month.

Yee also said that the ordinance will help in getting to the City’s Vision Zero goal of zero traffic fatalities by 2024.

Supervisor Jane Kim said the ordinance will ensure the safety of tourists visiting the City and pedestrians on the streets:

“We want to ensure that the very people and companies that are helping to lead many of our tourists around our city that are in buses throughout all of our neighborhoods in San Francisco are doing that safely and responsibly without endangering our pedestrians, which may be our city residents or other tourists.”

The ordinance still needs a second approval from the board next week. The ordinance will take effect 30 days after Mayor Ed Lee signs it into law.

Yee said he is working with the state legislature on a statewide proposal to include tour bus drivers regulated under the California Public Utilities Commission.

Meanwhile, the City is in the process of installing a traffic signal at the intersection where Moreto was struck.

San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru snapped of photo of crews working on the signal:

Work begins on installation of traffic signal for for pedestrian crossing in front of City Hall. pic.twitter.com/CatNKeAUwO

— Mohammed Nuru (@MrCleanSF) March 26, 2015

The traffic signal is set to turn on Thursday morning in time for Walk to Work Day.

Jerold Chinn

Jerold serves as a reporter and San Francisco Bureau Chief for SFBay covering transportation and occasionally City Hall and the Mayor's Office in San Francisco. His work on transportation has been recognized by the San Francisco Press Club. Born and raised in San Francisco, he graduated from San Francisco State University with a degree in journalism. Jerold previously wrote for the San Francisco Public Press, a nonprofit, noncommercial news organization. When not reporting, you can find Jerold taking Muni to check out new places to eat in the city.