Despite the streets being wider than those of Paris, I am required to walk on narrow strips of concrete, where any slip or missed step would cause me to tumble into a road where a passing car would undoubtedly decapitate me. ... Any contact with another pedestrian involves invading their personal space and requires that someone yield to the other. This means you cannot walk side-by-side with another person, taking away all the pleasure of walking. -Mathieu HelieWhen I read that quote in the blog Emergent Urbanism I immediately related to my experiences walking around San Francisco. While some neighborhoods in this city have held onto luxuriously wide sidewalks, they are almost all dissected by arterial roads. That is, streets that were re-engineered after the rise of auto-centrism to serve as expressways for large volumes of car traffic. Since these streets tend to be not much wider than average, the extra road space devoted to cars usually comes at the expense of pedestrians.
The route will connect Dolores and Garfield Square Parks with Rolph Playground. Activities along the route haven't been announced yet, but there should be little doubt that this route will be interesting.
Burrito Justice has some great links to the plans for the next Pavement to Parks project. The new plaza at San Jose Avenue and Guerrero Street has a couple different options planned, according to the San Jose/Guerrero Neighborhood website.‘We hear the shameful complaint of jay walkers, to console jay drivers,’ he wrote. ‘It is the self-conceited individual who thinks people are cattle and run upon them tooting a horn.’ ‘Make every machine stop and wait,’ he demanded, ‘until the road is clear, and give precedent to people who are walking. The streets belong to the people and not to any one class, and we have an equal right, in fact more right than the automobile.’Sadly, 'jay driver' never caught on as an insult (or much of an infraction).
Supes vote 7-4 to schedule a special meeting on the 27th to consider rejecting MTA Budget ... Sophie [Maxwell] voted with us; keep it up!!
According to a Wall post from Lynn Valente, there will be three free concerts in the plaza. The first will be July 4 at 1:30 pm. I've added it to the list of Important Dates in the sidebar.The decision came after a five-hour public hearing at BART headquarters in which more than 70 people - split almost evenly for and against the project - testified. -Rachel Gordon (via SF Chronicle)But how many of those who testified for it were BART staff?
David Chiu may have cut a deal with the Mayor’s Office on the MTA budget, but the Full Board never actually voted to accept it. All they did at the May 12th meeting – by a 6-5 vote – was to “table” Chiu’s motion to reject the MTA budget, but the City Charter still gives them until May 31st to act. -Paul Hogarth (via Beyond Chron)Yesterday the Budget Committee (John Avalos, Ross Mirkarimi, Carmen Chu, David Campos, Bevan Dufty - B Duft and C Chu dissenting) voted to send the Muni budget to the full Board with a recommendation to reject it. Bryan Goebel of Streetsblog reports that the Board will take the matter up at its next meeting on Tuesday.
I made an extra trip out of my way just to see the newly opened pedestrian plaza at Castro and Market Streets. The first impression when popping out of the Muni station is how much more intimate the corner seems to be now.
What was an expanse of asphalt a week ago is a manageable and inviting corner today. (I'm speaking of the shape and perception of safe pedestrian space. The spiky plants in narrow planters placed so closely together are visually jarring - an effect that should be avoided in future 'experiments')
WOO-HOO!! Budget Committee voted 3-2 to send Muni budget back to the full Board, with a recommendation to REJECT!!Does this mean the fight's not over yet? The BOS Budget Committee consists of John Avalos, Ross Mirkarimi, Carmen Chu, David Campos, Bevan Dufty.
APTA calculates the average cost of taking public transit by determining the average monthly transit pass of local public transit agencies across the country ... APTA then compares the average monthly transit fare to the average cost of driving. The cost of driving is calculated using the 2009 AAA average cost of driving formula ... The savings assume a household gives up one car.
More than just planters and chairs, the temporary pedestrian plaza at 17th and Market Streets will be (or is now, I should say) defined by yellow paint. Color and texture differences on the asphalt in similar trial plazas in New York - on which this space is modeled - have proven surprisingly successful in delineating the plazas as safe pedestrian space.
This relic of WWII-era shipbuilding on what was then the shore of the San Francisco still stands out, even as massive suburban-style office parks have popped up around it. Given the large scale and bland look of the entire Mission Bay area, the Bluepeter building is a rare piece of character. One that would improve the feel of Mission Bay if it wasn't slated to be torn down.A group of neighbors has begun the process of lobbying the city to change its plans, however. They would like to see the building preserved and used to enliven the park that will be built on this block. They are encouraging folks who want to help save the Bluepeter Building to contact Supervisor Sophie Maxwell's office and make their concerns known. If you would like to help organize, you can send an email to pier70sf at hotmail dot com.
- More walkers and bicyclists. Compared to 1998, more customers are walking or bicycling from home to BART. (The percentage coming to BART by car stayed the same, and the percentage using other transit to connect to BART went down.)
- Access modes vary considerably by station. The percentage of passengers driving alone from home is highest at North Concord/Martinez (72%) and lowest at Powell (1%). Walking from home is highest at 16th St. Mission (81%) and lowest at Orinda (3%).
I hate the idea of raising fares. I don't want to cut Muni service. But I ask (critics), 'What ideas do you have that do not eviscerate public safety and health and human services?' -Gavin Newsom (via SF Chronicle)But the more I think if it the more shocked I am that he's so brazenly trying to make this connection.
The problem of pedestrians attempting to cross these roads in Leesburg is so severe that the town government has taken up the issue. The main strip-mall shopping area -- home to a Wal-Mart and outlet stores -- sits on a six-lane highway bypass with vast distances between pedestrian crossings. People who live directly across the road have been known to run across the street rather than hike to the nearest crosswalk. The town decided to curb this threat to public safety not by making it safer to cross but by putting up a roadside fence. So now people jump over the fence to get to the Wal-Mart across the street. -Ben AdlerSound familiar?
BART has officially launched a project to replace its current fleet of almost 40-year-old cars with 700 new ones. The project won't wrap up for over a decade (!) so details are in short supply, but a couple of things are already clear:Proposed Project Timeline
I hate the idea of raising fares. I don't want to cut Muni service. But I ask (critics), 'What ideas do you have that do not eviscerate public safety and health and human services?' -Gavin Newsom (via SF Chronicle)Well, lay them on him. Let the mayor know what he and the SFMTA board should do to solve Muni's financial problems for good and without simply passing them on to riders.
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