Pedestrianist

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2012-09-09T00:20:00.000-07:00

Two-Way Fell Street is a Reality

2011-08-30T20:38:00.000-07:00

I may be a few days late in noticing it, but the paint has now been applied and the block of Fell Street between Van Ness and Franklin is now two-way! Restoration of this block to two-way flow was planned as part of the restoration of Hayes to two-way, helping to undo one more bad legacy of the old Central Freeway spur.

Check Out the New BART Car Designs

2011-08-08T17:39:00.000-07:00

In case you haven't heard, BART will be completely replacing its fleet of cars within the next decade or so. You may have even participated in one of the Seat Labs that BART put on to get public feedback on hew seat dimensions.

BART has just released the design options by BMW Group DesignworksUSA for the public to see. Check them out at BART's website. You can see these designs presented and give feedback at any of a series of open house meetings BART has organized, or at select BART stations.

A couple of my own thoughts? While BART says "There are side panels where art from the community could be featured," it's hard to imagine it will take long for ads to appear there. It's a shame that no seats were removed to make more room for standees, luggage, and bikes. That said, however, the "party seating" in option B leaves more space open near doors, which will be good for circulation

Have a look at the designs yourself and submit your own feedback to BART.

Fairness, Eh?

2011-06-27T21:09:00.000-07:00

Image: dreyboblue

I know, I know, I should check my email more often.

While going through the spam tonight I noticed this gem from last Wednesday. My first thought is that the "SF Small Business Owners for Fairness SF" may want to target their "outreach" a little more narrowly:

Have you ever been five minutes late to move your car...and gotten hit with a parking ticket? Are you sick and tired of forking over your hard-earned cash to the city? Don't have a $384,000 severance package to pay for your parking ticket like Nat Ford does?

If you've gotten a parking ticket in San Francisco within the past year, SF Small Business Owners For Fairness, an organization of San Francisco's minority and family owned local stores and businesses, wants to hear your story and wants to pay your ticket!

Click the link below to tell your parking ticket story and the best three stories will get their tickets paid!

http://www.itisonlikedonkeykong.com/index.php?q=content/petitions

Each year almost 2 million parking tickets are given out in San Francisco, so be sure to share the link with your friends and family!

If you've read any of my past entries it might be obvious that I see no benefit to making it easier for people to park in San Francisco. Past that, one driver's "I was just five minutes late" is another's "there's never any parking in this neighborhood." To what extent are these small businesses (taking them at their word that they are 'composed of minority and family owned local stores and businesses') working against their goals by limiting parking availability?

But my real objection is with the premise that making an area more accessible to drivers is good for business. It's not. Facts speak for themselves.

UPDATE

The Examiner reports that the organization is a front for a group that opposes SF's regulations against advertising. Curiouser and curiouser...

I Park

2011-06-27T17:35:00.000-07:00

Via Tom Vanderbilt. I can't help noticing all the potential conflicts and negotiations between the pedestrians in the parking lot and the parking drivers. I have a vague sense that drivers are generally more courteous to pedestrians in parking lots than they are once they get on the street.

Best New Idea

2011-06-23T15:04:00.000-07:00

MrEricSir wins Thursday with his brilliant, if somewhat mean-spirited idea.

Quote of the Day

2011-06-22T17:22:00.000-07:00

In response to the Streetsblog article on the proposal to make Haight Street two-way:

Are streets still major arteries if they are all major arteries? -Mikesonn

DeathRace 2011

2011-06-14T16:35:00.000-07:00

You know you're in trouble when someone's grandmother scolds you. The SF Weekly reports that tomorrow (Wednesday, June 15) a group of seniors will protest SF's pedestrian conditions by - gasp! - crossing the street. The group will try to traverse the intersection of Third and Yosemite Streets in the Bayview in the event they're calling DeathRace 2011.

Best of luck to them!

More Ped Space Coming to Powell Street

2011-06-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Initially reported to be opening in April, the city's last Pavement-to-Parks project will finally be opening along Powell Street in mid-July. The project will close the parking lane from the end of the cable car mall all the way up to Geary and Union Square. With a six-month trial timeline, the extra space will be available to the crush of holiday shoppers at the end of the year.

Muni, Save Me From Your Riders!

2011-06-09T11:12:00.000-07:00

The Bold Italic has infographic - er, photoessay ... whatever you'd like to call it - on Muni etiquette. Lord knows there's plenty to say; I doubt I'm the only one who has felt like I was watching what must have been the first time a person has ever ridden a bus in their life. Other contributors to the discussion include Muni Manners, which doesn't seem to be as active as it once was (I'm not one to talk).

Anyone have a favorite faux pas?

Walk SF Bartends at Elixir

2011-05-31T20:19:00.000-07:00

This is just a quick ~~shameless plug~~ heads up about a fun fundraising event for Walk San Francisco. From 9 PM until closing on Wednesday, June 22nd, a few awesome Walk SF members will be tending bar at Elixir on 16th and Guerrero.

Mark it on your calendars and invite your friends, because this will be a great chance to share a drink with the Walk SF board, transportation advocates, and other people who just love to walk in San Francisco.

Enjoy yourself and tip well; the tip money will go toward the work that Walk SF does to make San Francisco a safer and more pleasant place to walk.

Truly Green 'Greening'

2011-05-25T23:52:00.000-07:00

It's a nuance not without its risk of controversy, as SF Citizen expressed in a recent post. The movement to add more landscaping to San Francisco streets has been gaining steam and literally gaining ground in the last few years. It think this is a good thing for a lot of reasons. But almost all of the square footage that's been de-paved and planted has been taken from our pedestrian space, and that's a distinctly bad thing.

Instead, we could plant trees in the road, or we could green a street as part of a more comprehensive repurposing of the space.

For example, the redesign of Newcomb Avenue in the Bayview is being heralded as a "sustainable streetscape model," but the amount of car space seems to remain the same and the sidewalks are significantly narrowed to accommodate planting beds. To be clear, we're not talking about a narrow street with barely any space for moving vehicles, Newcomb Ave has ample room for wide traffic lanes and perpendicular parking - an above-average asphalt width for a residential street. But none of that was given up for greening, instead the sidewalks will shrink.

Another unscientifically-selected example that has come across my radar recently is a plan to landscape Turk Boulevard at Lyon St. To be fair, it's unclear from this website what the specific details of the final plan are, but one photo in particular strikes me as a bad sign:

This is a sidewalk that has seen some fairly light planting, but the unobstructed sidewalk that remains is only 6 feet wide. A sidewalk that wide barely allows two people to pass comfortably. If you're walking and talking to a friend, one of you has to stop and fall behind the other to let a neighbor walk by.

One other questionable greening practice that seems to be picking up speed under its own momentum is the center median. I'm not a fan of medians. In those rare cases when the city family actually decides to remove some road space from the sole use of the private car it seems to be given exclusively to plants that nobody is allowed to get close to, and that are far from the gutters where they'd absorb some rainwater. Take this very unspecific plan to give Bryant Street a road diet at Cesar Chavez, part of the Mission Streetscape Plan:

Again, this drawing is both unclear and unspecific, but it seems to show a street being converted from four lanes to two without widening the sidewalks. Instead, we'll get a planted median. We don't even see bulb-outs on the corner to shorten the crossing distance at this busy intersection.

I'd like to take a moment again to be very clear: I support increased landscaping as part of the streetscape of San Francisco. I support more permeable surfaces to help with the problems runoff can present during storms. But I know that the pedestrian realm, and the flexibility of the space we reserve for pedestrians, is vitally important to the success of our streets as public spaces. Well-designed green streets will make more room for its greenest uses, not less.

Such a Waste

2011-05-24T08:50:00.000-07:00

And truly an avoidable one, at that.

National advocacy group Transportation for America has released its latest Dangerous by Design report, and with it an interactive map of pedestrian fatalities in the last 10 years. Just type in an address to see the shocking list of places where someone has been killed while walking in the last decade.

Each black marker on this map represents a person, someone whose life was deemed to be just the cost keeping traffic moving in this city. Whenever a pedestrian safety improvement isn't built because the cost of construction is too high, I'll remember this map. What's the price of a bulb-out or countdown timer compared to the life of the person it saves?

High Speed Road Block

2011-05-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Peninsula NIMBYs.

Go ahead and react. We've been hearing this pejorative label since shortly after the residents of the peninsula voted overwhelmingly in support of the California high speed rail bond. Wealthy residents of Palo Alto, Atherton, and Menlo Park don't want the fast train in Their Back Yards, and so want to scuttle the voter-mandated line to San Francisco. Inexperienced, politically-connected HSR Board members are literally railroading peninsula citizens with a bloated, ill-planned waste of taxpayer dollars. Pick a side, you're either fer it or agin' it.

This argument has gotten unnecessarily heated. Remember, folks, we're all neighbors and our success as cities depends in many ways on our success as a region, which in turn depends on us working together. If that seems too hard to do, let's take a step back and look at how other people managed to work out a very similar conflict right here in the Bay Area.

Elevated BART tracks in Berkeley, image via Eric Fischer's Flickr stream

In the 1960s, when BART was forming its plans to run rapid transit trains through San Francisco, Alameda, and Contra Costa Counties, it became clear that the agency didn't have enough money to dig tunnels beneath every urban area through which the system ran. Instead, to meet the grade separation requirements, most of the less dense areas would get elevated tracks and stations. Sound familiar so far?

Residents of Berkeley didn't want the elevated structures to blight their streets, and opposed those plans. They had a point, elevated structures can lower the quality of public space, darkening streets and conducting sound from the noisy trains. But in order for BART to be an effective system, its trains had to cross Berkeley and connect Richmond and Concord with downtown SF. Its priorities were to reach more people, not guarantee a peaceful quality of life for neighbors. You still with me?

That's there the parallels end, however. Rather than fight to stop BART construction, the city of Berkeley passed a bond, raising its own money to pay for the tunneling within its borders. And their investment has paid off The areas near BART's route through Berkeley don't suffer from the same problems that plague Oakland's elevated tracks and stations right down the street, and the Bay Area has reaped the benefit of our regional rapid transit system for decades now.

I am a strong supporter of High Speed rail, and I think it's important that we build the best system we can. That means providing the best, fastest service from SF to LA without unnecessarily impacting people who live along the way. The CAHSR board doesn't want to run trains on elevated tracks over San Mateo County because it hates Palo Altans or finds train viaducts beautiful, it just doesn't have the money to dig tunnels.

Palo Alto, Atherton, Menlo Park, and any other cities along the tracks have a right to be concerned about what gets built in their back yards. As a resident of SF I have opinions about the alignment here in the city, and the opportunity we have to improve transportation connectivity and the public realm in the Eastern part of town. If a city wants a more expensive alternative to the alignment than the one CAHSR selects, it should be able to get it provided 1) the city comes up with the money to pay for it and 2) it doesn't impact future train service.

The so-called Peninsula NIMBYs happen to be in some of the wealthiest communities in California. It's entirely appropriate for them to pay to gild this infrastructure that our state can't afford not to build.

Mid-Market Deconstruction

2011-05-11T18:50:00.000-07:00

The Southwest-most entrance to the Civic Center BART/Muni station is being deconstructed. I noticed this was closed about a week ago when trying to exit the station, but I didn't know they were doing this kind of work until my walk to work today.

It's possible they're replacing the opaque - if high-quality granite clad - railing with a stainless steel grill, like the one that opens onto UN Plaza North of 7th Street. Anybody know for sure what's up?

Don't Be a Jerk

2011-05-10T21:48:00.000-07:00

San Francisco has the same rules as NYC: you can't ride your bike on the sidewalk if you're over the age of 12. So, you know...

Power Walking

2011-05-08T22:28:00.000-07:00

During Sunday Streets today, interim mayor Ed Lee picked up one of Walk SF's awesome I [walk] SF t-shirts. This strikes me as a refreshing change from the previous administration, and gives me some hope that walkers in our city will start to see some real improvements.

Welcome to Smart Parking

2011-04-29T01:37:00.000-07:00

The SFMTA has officially launched its cutting edge SFPark program. Linking thousands of sensors embedded in San Francisco streets with an online database, the program promises to make it easier to find parking without circling endlessly.

Further, the MTA has pledged to use the real-time availability data to set the price of street parking such that 15% of spaces on any given block are free at any given time. In other words, if a block is consistently full of parked cars, the price of parking will be raised until an average of 15% of spaces are empty. The prices will change no more often than monthly in order to avoid freaking the delicate motorist class out, but the website is already publishing parking data in real time.

And so I give you April 27th, 2011, as seen by SFPark. Enjoy:

Untitled from Josh Bingham on Vimeo.

First Do No Harm

2011-04-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

Every day, St. Francis Memorial Hospital pulls one or several large trucks up to its "loading dock" on Pine St. I put loading dock in quotes because it's actually just a curb cut with a garage door cut into the side if the building. The sidewalk here is all of ten feet wide.

So when a truck longer that ten feet pulls up, the sidewalk disappears. And, as I said, that happens every day.

For the sake of completeness, I should point out that Pine Street is no lazy cul de sac. It's been a traffic sewer since the '50s when it was made one-way and widened to four lanes. But Pine is still a residential street.

A hospital like St. Francis provides an invaluable service to the city, but it should not get a free pass to put its neighbors in danger.

Support Walk SF and Uncover Hayes Valley History

2011-04-19T18:39:00.000-07:00

On May 7th Walk San Francisco, SF's pedestrian advocacy organization, is hosting a special fundraising walk created by Joel Pomerantz of Thinkwalks. The walk will combine a specially designed Thinkwalks tour of the Hayes Creek watershed with a cooperative game that offers a challenge of competitive deduction and recall.

It promises to be a fun afternoon for anyone interested in the history of our city, and anyone who loves to play games with friends!

For more information and to reserve your spot, visit the Eventbrite page.

Not Particularly F***ed

2011-04-05T11:20:00.000-07:00

The ~~Chronicle~~ Comical, in its infinite condescension, can only imagine how awful it must be to take the bus these days. Why, Muni's own study shows it's on-timeyness is down "nearly one point!" On-timeyness being a measurement of how not-too-early or not-too-late a given bus is in comparison to an unpublished schedule that only drivers and people doing on-timeyness studies know. It's a measurement that offers no insight into the quality of my ride home last night on the K/T, which came as soon as I hit the platform, or on the 47 this morning, which also arrived within minutes but took me to work at a pace barely above walking speed.

I mean, everybody loves to complain about Muni. Sometimes it can ruin your day. Sometimes, complaining about the bus can make you look like an entitled princess (and Metro riders - I'm looking at you, N-Judah! - remember that over two thirds of Muni riders take the bus, not your train).

Muni can't be everything to all people. But is it serving its purpose well or, to put it another way, is it fucked? A man named Sam Kimbrel put together a clever and attractive site to ask that question: howfuckedismuni.com. The answer may surprise you. Clicking through line after line, I keep seeing the message "not particularly fucked." I do expect that will change from time to time, nothing is "not particularly fucked" all the time. But maybe the buses are alright.

Mayor Rides Public Transit

2011-03-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

No, not our short-termed former Mayor, who famously never took a bus without a newsmedia photographer there to document it.

MYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg actually rides the Subway every day. So maybe it shouldn't come as a surprise that he rode BART on the way in from SFO to meet our interim mayor Ed Lee (who, it seems, met him at the BART station - Civic Center, I presume).

I'd love to hear his thoughts on the ride.

UPDATE BART TV has a little video of the ride:

Everybody Drives

2011-03-10T11:38:00.000-08:00

I'm occasionally reminded of how lucky we are to live in a city like San Francisco that has sidewalks, inadequate though many may be, on pretty much every street:

Pulte Homes, one of the nation's largest builders, says sidewalks aren't a given in all communities, although it has seen an uptick in localities requiring them to be. Active communities for the over-55 set and "move-up" buyers, meaning growing families, will very likely get sidewalks, says Pulte spokeswoman Valerie Dolenga. "Where you won't see it is in multifamily and entry-level buyers," she says.

Read the full article at the Wall Street Journal online.

Temporarily Stairs

2011-03-04T10:15:00.000-08:00

Broken escalator at the Van Ness Muni station

Has anybody ever been on an escalator when it breaks? BART and Muni escalators are old and live outside, so it's not too surprising that they're broken fairly often. But given how common it is, why isn't it so common to see one in the act of breaking? Or to be on one when it breaks? Do they only break at odd hours, or when station agents go to turn them on first thing in the morning?

Has this happened to you?

An escalator can never break--it can only become stairs. You would never see an "Escalator Temporarily Out Of Order" sign, just "Escalator Temporarily Stairs. Sorry for the convenience. We apologize for the fact that you can still get up there." -Mitch Hedberg, RIP

So Walk!

2011-02-13T21:22:00.001-08:00

On the way home from Walk SF's Russian Hill walk, I stopped into a hardware store on Fourth Street. The woman who checked me out seemed concerned by whether the small paper bag she handed me was easy enough to handle. "It's okay," I said, "I'm only going a few stops on Muni." That didn't seem to convince her, so I added, "I'm pretty tough."

"So walk!" She said. "It's only a few stops."

Color me moded. And my jacket was zipped up so she couldn't even see the I [walk] SF t-shirt I was wearing. So I'm walking home. It's only a couple of stops.

I Just Keep On Rollin…

2011-02-09T20:57:00.000-08:00

It's been linked in the blogroll in the side bar for some time now, but if you haven't yet checked out Bus Driver Stories, take a moment to see what you're missing. Today's story resonates with me as someone who used to take the 9-San Bruno regularly:

The 9 San Bruno is one of those lines that picks up a lot of people at all times of the day. I remember I was doing a schedule on the 9 and it was like 11:30 am and I had a standing load. I mean PACKED. Like where did everyone come from?

Read the rest of the story...

Is a Slight Improvement Much of a Victory?

2011-02-02T16:56:00.000-08:00

Streetsblog reported yesterday that the SFMTA Board unanimously approved the plans for a redesigned Western half of Cesar Chavez Street. The redesign was prompted by a PUC sewer replacement project that will tear up the street anyway, presenting an opportunity to rebuild a more liveable - and above all a more safe - street than the one we currently enjoy. But the multi-million dollar design for the new street falls short as I've written before.

To be sure, the redesign is an improvement over the status quo. It removed one lane of vehicle traffic and replaces it with a median and left-turn lanes. A small amount of the freed-up space will go toward new bike lanes. But while this has been framed as a major improvement for bicyclists and pedestrians throughout the process and even now, I remain unconvinced. And apparently so do many of the bicyclists and pedestrians who read Streetsblog, judging from the comments section:

Only in California can a government official call $6,000,000 for 0.9 miles of painted bike lanes and sidewalk bulbs “cost-efficient.” -SteveS

The doorage will be brutal. -Brian

It’s an improvement, but it’s just plain wrong to only do that kind of bike lane. There’s really no excuse for it. It should be buffered. I don’t see why you’d have to remove anything, just reorganize it. And even if you do have to remove something, so be it. Remove one of the six lanes in the picture above dedicated to motor vehicles, which really have no place in almost any part of our city, anyway. -Stuart Chuang Matthews

But the only street users that seem to have gained in any real significant way from the redesign are drivers in the left lane who will have some nice plants to look at when they’re stopped at red lights (the green space is not accessible to pedestrians, who can only look at it from across 33′ of vehicles) and drivers who use on-street parking who will now have a much nicer parking lane. -SteveS

What do ‘underground sewer pipes’ have to do with the median? Is that what we’re saying — that the raised median, which prevents biking and speeds automobile traffic, has to be 14′-wide because there are ‘underground sewer pipes’ that can only be accommodated with a 14′-wide median? -Peter Smith

I agree that this plan is already outdated, and it’s discouraging to think if it’s implemented, this is what we’ll be stuck with for the next 20 years. (Yes, it’s better than what’s there now, but what’s there now is truly awful.) -taomom

There simply is no reason for us to accept second-rate solutions anymore.

Thanks should be due, in no small part, to Streetsblog SF and all the great work they’ve done in raising these issues and providing these forums.

Keep it up, everyone. We’ll probably lose this battle for Cesar Chavez, at least this portion of it, but I’m encouraged that soon we will begin winning the war, fought in similar battles all over the City and the Bay. -Jake Wegmann

The overall theme of the comments tacks closely to my own thoughts, that this is an incremental improvement to an awful street, but a missed opportunity to improve conditions for the most vulnerable street users. I'm surprised, given the strength of that reaction in the comments above as well as comments on other articles about the redesign, that these thoughts have received very little coverage. While I look forward to any improvement on C. Chav, I can't help but see this as an advocacy failure. Pedestrian advocates need to get louder and more bold in our efforts to create real pedestrian improvements. If we don't, then more streets will be given the green lipstick treatment of planted medians and a few bulb-outs, while pedestrians squeeze past each other on the same narrow sidewalks and abuelitas take refuge on tiny islands of concrete between rushing traffic.

Clipslink

2011-01-13T12:56:00.001-08:00

It always felt like a Translink card reader trapped in a Clipper reader's body.

Sunday Streets 2011 Events Lineup Announced

2011-01-07T17:07:00.000-08:00

Like earthquakes and breakups, we find out about this via Facebook:

3/20 Embarcadero
4/10 Great Highway
5/8 Mission
6/12: Bayview
7/10: Great Highway
8/14: Civic Center/Tenderloin
9/11: Western Addition
10/?; Mission

The specific routes aren't up on their website just yet, but we can probably expect them to be just about the same as last year, albeit in a different order to spread out the risk of inclement weather.

Top Ten of 2010

2011-01-07T16:51:00.000-08:00

Before the first week of 2010 is over I thought it'd be fun to look at the most popular posts of 2010:

#10 Toward a Robust Rapid Transit Network: The H-Potrero Van Ness
Everything old is new again. Muni originally ran the H-line streetcar from the Panama-Pacific Exposition grounds in the Marina out to the edge of the mudflats at Potrero and 25th. With the vast majority of new development in the city slated for the "Eastern neighborhoods" of the Mission, Potrero Hill, and Bayview-Hunters Point, I think Muni should look at reestablishing that cross-town corridor as part of an expanded high-capacity, rapid transit network.

#9 No Parking

If it looks like a driveway, and the property owners defend it like a driveway, and DPT tows cars parked in it like a driveway it must be ... a vacant office.

#8 Reconnecting the Grid in Potrero Hill
Developers announced that their plans to rebuild the Potrero Terrace-Annex public housing complex included reestablishing the grid through the property. Technically posted in December of 2009, this post still received a huge number of views last year.

#7 The Oakland Streetcar Plan
Stanford student Daniel Jacobson's Oakland Streetcar proposal has blown up in local political and transit advocacy circles, and it's also gotten tons of national and international attention.

#6 Hello BART
Oh, The Simpsons. Even after 20+ years that show can be very punny!

#5 Where the Riders Are
This one's a tiny bit embarrassing. After crunching a set of ridership data from BART, I published this map of how many riders are on every stretch of BART track. Then the BART rep who sent me the data wrote me back and said the set contained an error (damn Excel) and I should use a new set of more accurate data. I promised to re-crunch and re-publish, but got sidetracked.

My new year's resolution: to follow up on this!

#4 Doors are Closing
...Please stand clear of the doors.

#3 Welcoming Division Back to San Francisco
Remember when they tore down the Central Freeway? Remember how they stopped at Market Street and the North Mission and SoMa still have to suffer under its sooty turquoise oppression? Caltrans should definitely tear that sucker down, but we can't stop there. The street underneath is ugly even if you ignore the elevated structure. Here's my idea for how to fix that.

#2 Google Demolishes the Central Freeway
Google Street View's 3-D building models create an eerily familiar computer-generated San Francisco. But there's no 3-D model for the Central Freeway, which gives is a surprising peek at a world without that eyesore.

#1 The Pulse of the City

From the brilliant mind of Eric Fischer comes one month of Muni's NextBus data overlapped into a visualization of a single 24-hour period. It's beautiful and enlightening, and it's at the forefront of what we're now able to see with GPS technology.

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-24T23:44:00.001-08:00

It's been an eventful year for walkers in SF. Some great moments and some frustrating, some exciting new projects and some aggravating heel-dragging by the windshield set.

Here's to more and greater success in the new year, and a more walkable city for years to come.

A festive agent booth at the Castro Muni Station

Bus Stop Derby

2010-12-21T14:07:00.000-08:00

This is definitely worth a repost, since I haven't heard much at all about it! Yahoo! has added a bunch of touch screen games to the ad space in some of the new bus shelters that have been going in. Hurry to find one near you before they come down on January 26th!

Almost makes up for the bait and switch over solar panels in the new shelters.

Check out more at busstopderby.com

Soon Enough

2010-12-20T11:16:00.001-08:00

But that's not soon enough!

You mean we have to wait until April?!

Powell Street Sidewalk Widening

2010-12-17T18:27:00.000-08:00

This. Looks. AWESOME

Powell street is so thick with pedestrians, this space is badly needed. Hopefully, bringing the level of the new space up to sidewalk height will lead to it being more well-used than the brief trial the city ran a year ago.

Streetsblog reports that the project will be finished and open in April.

Santa rides the 27

2010-12-09T20:50:00.001-08:00

True story:

Ped Improvements on the Horizon for Haight and Fillmore

2010-12-07T15:50:00.000-08:00

Haighteration brings us news of an upcoming redesign of the intersection at Haight and Fillmore Streets. Elements of the redesign include bulb-outs at the corners, parklets, and "ergonomic crosswalks," which increase visibility and the safe crossing space.

There's a community meeting to discuss the project tonight (December 7th) at 600 Haight Street starting at 6:30 PM.

Now That's Marketing

2010-11-29T21:33:00.001-08:00

In Boulder, Colorado stores along the Pearl Street Mall were doing well on Black Friday. One shoe store in particular has come up with a great marketing gimmick for this pedestrian-only street:

Museums In Motion

2010-11-22T19:24:00.001-08:00

With apologies to the Market Street Railway for borrowing their tagline for the F-Market streetcars, I'd like to take a moment to reflect on another vintage trolley line of sorts: the 49-Van Ness/Mission.

I'm not without a bias, I grew up riding the 49 home from school on Ocean Avenue near Balboa High. My first job was at a movie theater on Van Ness, and the 49 was probably the last bus I rode before going away to college.

And Muni is still running those same 15+ year-old articulated trolley buses on the 49 today. The one I'm on tonight has had a lot of work done recently and is now painted silver and red, but many others still bear the double orange Landor paint scheme - among the last in the city with that iconic livery.

It's kind of a trip to sit here and think that I might be in the exact same seat that I rode in back in high school.

It Should Be Free

2010-11-17T10:43:00.000-08:00

A little late to the punch, the San Jose Mercury News published an article on SF's proposed congestion pricing plan. The quoted reactions of Peninsula officials are predictable, but I love this one:

Where do you stop nickel-and-diming people? You should be able to travel from city to city without paying a toll. -Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo

Sounds like an argument for free public transit to me.

Enforcements Speeds Up Muni Buses

2010-11-15T16:44:00.000-08:00

Tucked away at the end of an article in the Examiner is an encouraging few paragraphs on the enforcement of double-parking laws. You might remember way back about three years ago State Assemblywoman Fiona Ma got us a law passed that allowed Muni to install cameras on buses to catch drivers who double park and slow down Muni vehicles. Since then, according to the Ex, the program was not widely used and results - as you might guess if you've been on a bus int he past three years - haven't been overwhelming.

Apparently that changed three or four months ago, and riders have cause to be optomistic:

Through the first three months of this fiscal year that started in July, the enforcement cameras have issued 1,460 citations for double-parked cars and vehicles in tow-away and bus zones. In the entire 2009 fiscal year, 1,016 citations were issued for those violations. -Will Reisman, The Examiner

I hope the SFMTA continues to maintain and expand a thorough level of enforcement, we've been waiting for signs of improvement for an awfully long time now.

Excuse me

2010-11-13T15:53:00.001-08:00

Parking on the sidewalk was bad enough, but now we're driving on it?

SFist gets it right on Prop L

2010-11-09T15:23:00.000-08:00

In a summary of SF Appeal's post-mortem analysis of Prop L, SFist juxtaposes a story on last week's successful measure to pass a Sit/Lie law - ostensibly to protect pedestrians on our city's sidewalks - with a photo of one of the more common and real threats to walking life.

While the get-off-our-lawn set is celebrating the passage of a law that will never be used to improve SF's pedestrian realm, hundreds of thousands of people are dodging the illegally parked cars and ever-proliferating curb cuts that really are lowering the quality of life. Well done, SFist.

Doing Good on the 9L

2010-11-04T11:00:00.001-07:00

Riding the 9L into work today, a group on fare inspectors boarded at 11th and Market. One inspector caught a kid (who no doubt should have been in school but got away saying he had 'independent studies' ... I remember that one from when I was his age). When he found out the kid was 16 he asked again what he was thinking, why he didn't pay his fare. The kid said he didn't have change, only a five dollar bill. The inspector explained that decision was supposed to get him a $150 ticket and a trip to juvenile court. Then he pulled out five ones and said, "Gimme that five, and go up there and pay your fare. I don't think it's right for kids to go to juvenile court over 75 cents."

Good man.

Vote!

2010-11-02T10:25:00.000-07:00

Today is Election Day, so please please please make sure you vote! On the off chance you haven't made up your mind, here are some thoughts on some of the measures on today's ballot:

Yes on AA
Increases the Vehicle Licence Fee in SF by $10 in order to fund road improvements. Raising the cost of car ownership (even by a barely-noticeable amount) is a good thing, and AA specifically allocates $1.25 million for Pedestrian improvements, and another $1.25 million for transit.

No on L
Sidewalks are for people, as the No campaign's slogan says. Of course they ought to be civil - every corner of society ought to be civil - but measure L does nothing to make sidewalks more civil. Every horror story proponents cite as a reason why SF needs a sit/lie law describes behavior that is already illegal. Making it more illegal won't stop it because nobody's there to enforce the law in the first place!

If you're frustrated with bad behavior in public spaces, consider voting for Measure M instead. Measure M would require the police to create a plan for running foot patrols city-wide, putting cops on the sidewalks instead of taking people off them.

No on 23 and 26
Statewide propositions 23 and 26 may not seem closely related at first read, but they're being funded by the same big out-of-state oil companies. 23 would suspend AB32, California's greenhouse gas law, whenever unemployment is above an arbitrary number. 26 would raise the number of votes required to raise or levy new fees. 26 especially would directly affect San Francisco's efforts to pay for improvements to its pedestrian environment by raising fees on car drivers.

Bert Hill and Robert Raburn for BART board
The entire Bay Area needs BART to do a better job of serving the urban core and promoting good land use. Its Board of Directors, however, is dominated by representatives of suburban and exurban districts, more interested in running BART tracks to the moon at any cost than connecting to hundreds of thousands of potential riders in SF and Oakland.

Bert Hill is running to replace James Fang in District 8 (PDF) and Robert Raburn is vying for Carole Ward Allen's seat in District 4 (PDF). Both oppose BART's trend toward expensive and ineffective "blingfrastructure," and would represent the interests of their urban districts well.

World Series Ups the Shoupian Ante

2010-10-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

Taken by a friend at Pier 38. I wonder what SFPark is doing...

Our Muni

2010-10-26T11:05:00.001-07:00

I'm writing this on an inbound M car, stopped in between Civic Center and Powell stations. It's stopped here because of unspecified "mechanical problems." While the doors were open, back at Civic Center, the operator encouraged everyone to get out and take a bus or streetcar down Market to their destinations.

By my count this is the third delay caused by 'mechanical problems' in as many weeks - and that doesn't count the residual delays that linger after the 'problems' are fixed.

After the operator made his announcement, most of the people on this car took his advice and left; a pretty apt metaphor for a system that's seen its readership shrink significantly in the last few years along with its budget.

Is this what we want for our Muni? Or do we want to invest in a system that actually meets San Francisco's transportation needs?

NLCS Brings Sane Parking Pricing to SF

2010-10-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

Via a Facebook friend this morning, before game 3 of the NLCS. This photo was taken two blocks away from the ballpark.

Last Chance to Register for the Peak2Peak

2010-10-13T16:49:00.000-07:00

Today is the last day to register for this year's Peak2Peak walk. This year's walk will take a new route from the 24th Street BART station to Land's End - across 13 miles and over 10 peaks.

Check out my review of last year's Peak2Peak for photos of some of the amazing sights to see along the way. Registration gets you lunch in a peaceful meadow on Mount Sutro, and the chance to win some cool raffle prizes. Proceeds go to support Walk San Francisco, which is an awesome organization that does a ton of great work to make SF a better place to walk (I'm on the Board of WalkSF so I'm totally not impartial, but I mean it).

Sign up now before it's too late, and I'll see you there!

It's a Smaller System

2010-10-10T22:48:00.000-07:00

Muni used to carry around 700,000 trips per day. Well not anymore. Have we reached the right size yet, Mr. Ford?

Race to the Bottom

2010-10-08T15:09:00.000-07:00

Today Streetsblog featured this Urbanophile post in response to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's decision to kill the ARC rail tunnel into Manhattan. It's a pointed denunciation of the cut-to-the-bone (or prune-to-the-trunk) governing philosophy of this generation's Republican Party, and one quote really stood out to me:

But as I noted before, if you can’t afford your infrastructure, and you can’t afford to provide basic services, what you’re really saying is that you can’t afford to be state and are holding a slow motion going out of business sale.

Worth remembering as Election Day nears.

Words to Live By

2010-10-08T10:19:00.000-07:00

“You can’t spray people with pepper spray just because you’re having a bad day,” - SF Police, via The Examiner

Hat tip to Mikesonn

Walk to School Day

2010-10-06T16:46:00.000-07:00

Posting is still slow, and I apologize to anyone put off by that, but I wanted to take a moment to remember that today, October 6th, is Walk to School Day.

If you missed a chance to join your neighbors walking to school today, then please try to make a point of practicing Walk to School Day everyday. Safe, active streets must be safe and welcoming for the smallest among us, and an active childhood is much likelier to be a healthy childhood than one spent in the backseat.

Three Weeks in Europe

2010-09-22T17:10:00.000-07:00

BART > United Airlines > Heathrow Express > London Undergound > First Capital Connect > EasyJet > Metro de Madrid > AVE > Metro de Barcelona > Eurolines Bus > TGV > Paris Metro > Eurostar > London Undergound > United Airlines > Tragically, a ride by car home, as my backpack containing my Translink card (and several much more expensive things) was stolen in Barcelona.

Europe was for reals, and as soon as I'm slightly less jet-lagged I'll do a decent writeup.

One random point about being without my Translink card for a few days: I got to use the new Muni ticket machines at Civic Center station today. The machines are the product of Clipper maker Cubix, which also runs London's OysterCard system. For a brief moment this morning, until the faregates closed behind me, it honestly seemed like I could have been in a Tube station.

Don't Be That Guy

2010-08-25T10:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, one last gem before I leave:

Via ~~bitchycomments.com~~ Curbed SF, this former Angleno's guide to driving in San Francisco. I'm not condoning auto use but, today at least, I'm not hating on it. We all have friends who drive, and yet we still love them. These ten points are solid pieces of advice to help the overly auto-dependent coexist peacefully with the rest of us:

Park in the street, and it’s totally legal here for anyone waking by to bash your windshield in with a bat. Really, it is. We’re very progressive and don’t have a lot of outlets [for] our stockpiles of rage. Do not tempt us.

Oh, he knows me so well.

Epic Slowness

2010-08-23T17:18:00.000-07:00

Just outside Beijing there's a highway that's experiencing a bit of traffic. In fact, the traffic jam just hit its ninth day. Nine days of traffic - and you thought your commute was bad.

Speaking of slowness, I know I haven't posted in a while. You hear it on blogs all the time, but I've been super busy at work. And after this week I'm off to a much needed vacation in Europe. I hope to see some shining examples of transit and urban infrastructure while I'm there - and I might have a chance to post some of it here while I'm over there. But fair warning, I'm k-k-kinda busy.

Sunday Streets Announces "Central City" Route

2010-08-06T16:45:00.000-07:00

Again via the Sunday Streets Facebook page, we have word of October's Sunday Streets route, from Civic Center through the Tenderloin! From Civic Center Plaza up Polk Street to Ellis and O'Farrell, then down Leavenworth and Jones, this route opens up a tight cluster of street spaces in San Francisco's densest residential neighborhood. For many this will be a great chance to see the TL for the first time, and for the thousands of people who live nearby, it will be a welcome respite from the traffic sewers that burden this neighborhood.

Click through the image above for a closer look - I'll see you all there!

This. Is. Too. CUTE.

2010-08-04T12:51:00.000-07:00

Via SF Appeal, a kid named Sam got a BART cake for his 4th birthday. This would be evidence of reincarnation, except that I'm not dead yet.

The Pulse of the City

2010-07-27T11:52:00.000-07:00

The incomparable Eric Fischer has made his move into video, showing us the movement of every Muni bus in June all lumped together into one imaginary day:

Watch the video on Eric Fischer's Flickr page

Eric's work is at the forefront of public analysis of transit agency data. By opening up its bus GPS data, the SFMTA has created a unique environment where smart and creative people like Mr. Fischer have the tools to do what it can't be expected to do itself. That is to show us our Muni in novel ways that give us unexpected insight into its workings.

What a simple thing to do - to show us a video of where every bus goes in a day - and yet its effect is like the first time Google published a satellite view on its maps. We now have a whole new perspective from which to view Muni. Many perspectives, in fact, as Eric continues to come up with new ways to crunch and mash up the raw data to show us something that was never visible before.

Sunday Streets Western Addition Route Announced

2010-07-26T14:45:00.000-07:00

It's not up on their website yet, but the Sunday Streets Facebook page has posted a map of September 19th's Western Addition route. Winding through a dense residential neighborhood and along part of the Fillmore commercial corridor, this event promises to be much more like the popular Mission District route than the next event in line, a Great Highway route scheduled for August 22nd.

The Western Addition route is a first for Sunday Streets, and will be followed in October by another new route - through the Tenderloin.

Rise Above It

2010-07-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

Commenter Gary snapped this great panoramic shot of New York City's High Line park back in July. Click through to Flickr to see the larger size. The development/planning-minded person will recognize the potential infill site where that ugly parking lot is, and indeed the High Line is part of an impressive redevelopment of its surrounding area.

But this image also beautifully shows a woman enjoying the peace of the park, with great views of Manhattan, oblivious to the blight below. You can get a feel for her perspective by watching around 1:48 of Pedestrianism Vol. 6. Well done, Gary!

Walk Across America

2010-07-23T12:11:00.000-07:00

With the weekend close enough to taste, here's a video my coworker sent me to pass the minutes until quitting time:

It's more like other Pixilation-style videos than my Pedestrianism series, and must have taken an incredible amount of work. The effect is totally amazing!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

The Last Train to Sparseville

2010-07-22T14:29:00.001-07:00

Welcome to San Francisco, Jarrett Walker.

Anyone not familiar with Mr. Walker should definitely take the time to read through all the gold at Humantransit.org

Published with Blogger-droid v1.4.8

Google Demolishes the Central Freeway

2010-07-14T17:11:00.000-07:00

As part of its ongoing effort to not be evil, Google has torn down the hulking Central Freeway in San Francisco.

Well, almost.

I was playing around with the Google Earth plug-in for Google's online maps, which lets you pan around and fly through 3-D buildings and topographic features, when I noticed they didn't include a 3-D model of the elevated freeway structure. Comparing the resulting freeway-less images with the real-life Street View is like looking at before and after pictures of a future in which the skyway has been torn down. One I hope we'll someday see.

15th Street and San Bruno Avenue in Google's freeway-less future (top) and in real life (bottom)

Play around with it for yourself, it's refreshing to see what an improvement all that blue sky can make. More pics after the jump.

15th and Utah Streets

15th and Vermont Streets

Now let's make this a reality!

Pedestrian Removal Project

2010-07-08T10:40:00.001-07:00

If you've walked down Van Ness between Market and City Hall lately, you've seen the results of a recent "Streetscape Improvement Project," new landscaping along the sidewalk planted with bamboo and London Plane trees.

Landscaping along the sidewalk can beautify a street and absorb stormwater but, if poorly designed, it can impede pedestrian traffic and lower the overall quality of the street. And these new plantings on Van Ness are poorly designed. They take up half the sidewalk and are surrounded by a raised lip of granite, which will prevent them from absorbing any rainwater that falls on the sidewalk around them.

Van Ness, particularly this section of Van Ness, is well-used by people on foot. These new plantings take needed space away from them in order to, in my opinion, make the street prettier to people in cars. Bad idea.

$3 Per Person

2010-07-07T10:57:00.000-07:00

I've been cleaning a bunch of old photos out of my cell phone, and I came across this one of the cable car information sign at the Van Ness terminal of the California line.

Of course, the fare for a cable car ride has been $5.00 since 2005 - this sign has been out of date for five years.

While the price of a cable car ride won't be going down any time soon, the SFMTA Board just voted unanimously to restore half of the recent service cuts. Starting September 4th service on some of Muni's most crowded lines will get moderately better than it has been for the last couple months. It's a small step in the right direction.

The Tea Party of Noe Valley

2010-07-01T16:59:00.000-07:00

Regrettably, I missed last night's meeting of Noe Valley residents with members of the Pavement to Parks program. At least I thought it was regrettable before I heard about what happened.

The video in the SFist post corroborates the first-hand accounts I heard. Opponents of the trial stood up and shouted over Planning Department staff, as well as their own neighbors. I'm not the first to compare the opponents to the Tea-Baggers who interrupted a slew of town hall meetings last summer. The behavior was way out of proportion with the perceived harm, completely inappropriate, and shockingly childish. The grown people who treated members of their own community so poorly ought to be ashamed of themselves and, IMHO, they ought to apologize.

I'm a pedestrian and I support any project that increases the safety, or enjoyment of our pedestrian realm, so I support this trial. But I don't live here, and I don't have a personal reason to support a plaza in Noe Valley over one in a neighborhood that will welcome it - or at least treat each other like humans when discussing the proposal.

Get it together, Noe Valley.

Es Ley

2010-06-30T14:09:00.000-07:00

Yes, BART, Title VI is indeed the law. It's comforting that BART got the memo, but this doesn't seem to be an accurate sign of what's to come.

Walk More

2010-06-25T13:13:00.000-07:00

Today is the last Friday of the month, which means Critical Mass will be moving through city streets later this evening (so don't feign surprise). Critical Mass has proven to be a popular way for self-identifying bicyclists to gain visibility and increase awareness of cyclists on SF streets.

So what about a pedestrian Critical Mass? From the comments on a MissionMission blog post it seems somewhat popular at first glance. I'd be lying if I said I didn't fantasize about having such a hard-to-ignore show of pedestrian support after narrowly avoiding a car or bike on the sidewalk or in a crosswalk. And who knows, if someone gets one going it could be a good thing for pedestrians.

But for now I'm skeptical that's the best focus for our effort. Let's not wait for someone to jerry-rig a boom box on a granny cart and tell us all to meet at Justin Herman Plaza. Let's all just walk more. Let's fill up the sidewalks, and then let's work to get the sidewalks widened. Personally, I think it's better if drivers expect to see more of us everywhere than if we create an event that's an easy target of rage. But if someone wants to get something started, let me know how it goes :-)

Gentle Densification Follow-up

2010-06-24T17:36:00.000-07:00

A year after Vancouver began a pilot program to allow small secondary units along its back alleys, or "lanes," some neighbors are finding problems with some of the development. From the Globe and Mail article it sounds like the concerns center around a few buildings that may be pushing the limits of the program.

I first wrote about the laneway housing program over a year ago, and this is a good time to follow-up on the program - which seems to be quite popular - after the president of the SF Planning Commission and some SPUR members recently suggested adding new housing to the ~~forbidden zone~~ West side of town.

Vancouver's experience is still unfolding, but I see plenty of room to be optimistic that sensible planning can add density to otherwise phobic neighborhoods without drastically changing their beloved character.

The Median Mistake

2010-06-17T17:39:00.000-07:00

Michael Helquist at BIKE NOPA has a summary of Tuesday nights MTA workshop on redesigning Masonic Avenue. (I wish I could have attended the meeting but Muni connections to that part of town are slow these days, and I had prior commitments).

According to Helquist, attendees broke into small groups to brainstorm designs for the street. In summary, attendees wanted:

Smooth and steady flowing traffic lanes for vehicles and Muni buses
The current 25 mph speed limit
A designated bike route
Wide sidewalks for walkers
Curb-side parking
But they also wanted to re-design or at least enhance the corridor by
Improving safety and the perception of safety for all users on the street
Enhancing a sense of community or neighborliness that is blunted now by a corridor that separates east from west with several lanes of speeding vehicles
Normalizing traffic flow by removing the changes in number of lanes along the corridor
Quieting the street with landscaping and other sidewalk features
Installing a new landscaped median with refuges for safer pedestrian crossings
Installing a dedicated, perhaps separated, bike lane on one or both sides of the street
Providing for safer crossings for people walking

(enphasis mine)

Masonic Avenue does not currently have a median. I'm curious as to why the folks at this meeting wanted to add a median to this street, except for the stated reason of "refuges for safer pedestrian crossings." I'm not a fan of medians, and I've written about them before. I'd suspect that the median idea is fresh in people's minds because two major streetscape redesigns (Divisadero and Cesar Chavez) include widened medians. Maybe, too, people think it's an opportunity to add more green space.

But Masonic is only so wide, and any space taken up by a median is space that can't be used by pedestrians or bicyclists. Added landscaping is indeed an improvement, but if the sidewalks are wider there's more room for trees and plants there, where people can enjoy them.

And the pedestrian refuge is something that I worry has been improperly lumped into the category of Good Street Design Feature, simply because some very poorly-designed roads may need them to be barely acceptable for people on foot. Any road that's so wide it needs a refuge for those who can't cross is is a road that is just plain too wide. We certainly shouldn't be going out of our way to trap pedestrians in the middle of a road during a signal phase - that's not safer than letting them get all the way to the other side. A Masonic Avenue with fewer auto lanes and corner bulb-outs will certainly be narrow enough to cross safely, provided it isn't kept artificially wide by a median.

Further, medians are mandatory features of highways because they allow cars to travel faster without conflicting with oncoming traffic. Faster traffic is a hazard to all road users, and contradicts the desire to keep the current (widely ignored and barely enforced) 25 mph speed limit.

A better design is one similar to the new Valencia Streetscape, where space gained from reducing the number or width of car lanes is given back to pedestrians and bicyclists.

* * *
If you haven't had a chance to see the improvements along Valencia Street, this Sunday is your chance! Sunday Streets is returning to the Mission District with a larger route this year than last.

After Sunday Streets, head down Valencia to Casanova Lounge. Walk San Francisco is throwing a happy hour party and everyone's invited! Check out the Facebook event page and invite all your friends. I've been serving on the Board of Walk SF for several months, and I'm helping to throw this party - which should absolutely convince you to join us at the party and join Walk SF as a member!

See you Sunday afternoon!

Tow or Be Towed

2010-06-13T23:37:00.000-07:00

There has been some renewed interest lately in the cars that park illegally along Guerrero, Valencia, and Dolores on Sundays. At first, I thought that's why a tow truck was pulling up to a row of such cars around 7pm on Sunday June 13th.

But no. After parking in the center lane, he walked into Tartine bakery and waited in line to order something sweet. Nothing better to do, I guess...

Help Redesign the Bayshore Caltrain Transit Station

2010-06-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority will be hosting a workshop next Saturday (June 19th) to give members of the community an opportunity to discuss some proposed changes to the Bayshore Caltrain station in Visitacion Valley. Those proposals include:

-Extension of the T-Third light rail to Bayshore Station
-Bus Rapid Transit along Geneva Avenue, connecting to Balboa Park BART station
-New local bus and shuttle connections
-Significant new development for Brisbane Baylands, Schlage Lock, and other sites

Check out the Facebook event page for more information. Deets for the Facebookless after the jump.

Date:    Saturday, June 19, 2010
Time:    10:00am - 12:00pm
Location:    Visitacion Valley
Street:    66 Raymond Avenue

Quick News Roundup

2010-06-10T17:11:00.000-07:00

I've never done a news roundup before, but three things came across my radar today and I'm running short on time. Explore at will:

Anyone in the Portland area should check out Portland Afoot, a monthly guide to car-free and car-lite living.
Villaraigosa's "30/10" plan to cram 30 years worth of regional transit projects into 10 years with the help of Federal loans is moving quickly, apparently! Great news for LA - let's hope SF's leaders are watching closely.
A recent meta-analysis suggests that the intersection density of a city or neighborhood has the largest effect on its walkability.

The Oakland Streetcar Plan

2010-06-09T22:33:00.000-07:00

Daniel Jacobson hasn't been posting many new entries to 21st Century Urban Solutions as of late. Now it's clear why. Jacobson's just released his plan for revitalizing Oakland's downtown with a streetcar connecting Jack London Square with MacArthur Blvd via Broadway. Check it out at oaklandstreetcarplan.com.

In his proposal, Jacobson analyzes the potential economic development, environmental benefits, ridership, cost and funding, as well as the line's design and possible extensions. The analysis is meticulous, and the proposal is impressive. Oakland officials should thoroughly read and seriously consider this plan.

Sunday Streets 2010 Mission Route Announced

2010-06-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

Last year's Mission District Sunday Streets event was easily my favorite. There's a real qualitative difference between a long, beautiful, but sparsely activated route like the Embarcadero or Great Highway, and this path through a dense residential neighborhood. The former gives bicyclists a chance to ride free from cars, but the latter makes one big pedestrian plaza out of two of the neighborhood's main commercial drags.

This year's event is bigger than ever, with the addition of Harrison Street to the car-free lineup and a later end time: 3pm. Read more at the Sunday Streets website.

Grid Talk

2010-06-03T17:16:00.000-07:00

Jarrett Walker's posts at Human Transit are always insightful (and his last name's awesome too). In his latest, Jarrett speaks for the street grids, as the grids have no tongues. Have you hugged your four-way stop today?

Walking Men 99

2010-05-31T22:40:00.000-07:00

I don't know why I hadn't heard of this before! Artist Maya Barkai has covered a construction wall near Ground Zero in New York City with 99 images of 99 different 'walk' signals from around the world. I'm fascinated by these different signals and I love this piece of public art!

Pedestrian Turn Signals

2010-05-28T16:41:00.000-07:00

Because, you know, interacting with people is, like, gross. Sixty or so years of car culture and our sick minds come up with things like these:

(via MissionMission)

Enjoy the long weekend, y'all!

No, Parking

2010-05-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

A couple months ago I wrote about new parking meters the city had installed along Brannan Street between 7th and 8th. 20 or so new revenue-generating parking meters is a small, but good development. Even smaller but very puzzling is the absence of meters at two spaces in front of a perennially for-lease building.

These two spaces are in front of roll-up doors that bear stenciled 'NO PARKING' signs and curb cuts. Naturally, these are driveways. Hence, no parking meters, right? Not so. Immediately behind the roll-up doors is a plate glass window.

DPT is losing revenue from meters it never installed at these two parking spaces. And it's likely being called to enforce those bright white 'NO PARKING' signs. All so two people can park for free on our streets. Nice.

This makes a strong case for ending the curb cut free-for-all.

Consider it Done

2010-05-18T12:40:00.000-07:00

The San Francisco County Transportation Authority has created a Facebook page in order to relay announcements and gather feedback from the public. If only changing SF's parking policy was so easy.

Rail-ready BRT

2010-05-17T17:09:00.000-07:00

The Transport Politic follows up today on news of Ottawa, Canada's plan to convert it's bus-only Transitway to light rail. It's worth reading because the Geary BRT project here in SF is using exactly the same "rail-ready" model that Yonah Freemark attributes to Ottawa, a model that may not realize the kind of cost savings its proponents frequently cite.

Hello BART

2010-05-16T20:08:00.000-07:00

Did anybody catch the BART reference on tonight's new episode of The Simpsons? Hilarious!

Note, in the show's 20-year history this isn't the first reference to our BART, but there haven't been many.

Honesty

2010-05-12T23:01:00.000-07:00

I gotta say, it's really tough to be an advocate for Muni these days.

TransForm Wants to Know How Low You Can Go

2010-05-04T11:30:00.000-07:00

According to TransForm, The average American driver drives 250 miles a week. In an effort to get that number as low as possible, the local transit advocacy organization is holding its Car-Free Challenge the first week of June. Check out their first promo video:

And if, like me, you're already car-free you can and should still sign up!

Muni Do

2010-04-26T18:26:00.000-07:00

My friend Lola snapped this photo a couple weeks ago. Apparently the skyline continued around this guy's whole head. I love the cellphone camera's depth of focus showing the packed bus (which will be increasingly less reliable and more crowded thanks to Gavin Newsom).

"My, That's a Lot of Blood! Can I Offer You a Band-Aid?"

2010-04-20T11:26:00.001-07:00

"It will be a smaller system," says Muni chief Nat Ford. As a direct result of the 'leadership' of mayor Gavin Newsom and his appointees on the SFMTA Board, the San Francisco Municipal Railway that has served San Francisco for almost 100 years will be serving fewer people.

This meltdown is readily perceived by Muni riders, and there's a lot of political hay being made by claiming to know how to fix it. Supervisor Sean Elsbernd is riding a wave of bus driver and union contempt to push a ballot measure that he hopes will save Muni some money. And SF Weekly drew a lot of eyeballs with its thorough feature on a large number of ways that Muni wastes some of the money it gets.

Bad management takes its toll on the Muni system, but $3 million in wage cuts here and $7 million in service cuts there won't solve the real underlying problem: Lack. Of. Money.

The Weekly article contains 6 pages of all the ways Muni uses it's money inefficiently, but they buried the lede near the bottom of the 3rd page (online):

"Even if Elsbernd's charter amendment saves Muni millions, there's no guarantee the money won't be gobbled up by other departments."

No guarantee, for that matter, that mayor Newsom won't find another way to raid Muni's budget to patch band-aids on the General Fund. No guarantee, either, that the state won't re-renege on the pittance it's throwing our way in place of voter-mandated STA funds.

Muni has been forced to make do with less for years, because city and state leaders did not think a functional Muni system was worth its cost. At a recent SFMTA Board meeting, Nat Ford referred to the 10% across the board service cuts as "right-sizing" the system. That choice of language indicates that Mr. Ford thinks that Muni serves too many people; a conclusion based on the cost of providing that service. I happen to think that demand for public transportation should determine the size and scope of Muni's system, and the budget should be crafted to support that system.

Muni has some bad habits but let's not miss the forest for the trees. Newsom and the Chamber of Commerce scolding Muni for spending unwisely is like a usurious banker telling a foreclosed homeowner he should have been clipping coupons. And I think transit riders and advocates ought to put in as much effort as possible to fight the underlying strangulation of Muni as we do in small battles over few-million-dollar line items.

Welcoming Division Back to San Francisco

2010-04-12T21:16:00.000-07:00

Welcome to San Francisco

If I said it was the ugliest place in San Francisco, you'd be hard-pressed to prove me wrong. It's the aquamarine elephant in the room that's left standing whenever we celebrate the demolition of the Central Freeway. In fact, that stub of a freeway was only partially torn down, only as far as Market Street. And, today, the place where the freeway starts is where the urban renaissance of Hayes Valley ends.

Believe it or not there's a street under there, a street with more problems than just the shadows and noise of the elevated structure. Duboce Avenue, 13th and Division Streets have been combined into a six-lane expressway with narrow, incomplete sidewalks, cyclone fences and driveways, and piles of illegally dumped garbage. If this place is ever going to be a healthy thread in San Francisco's urban fabric, this corridor will need to become a walkable, livable street.

Contemplating change that drastic is daunting, so in thinking about how to make this transformation I came up with a list of simple, general rules for pedestrian-friendly streets and did my best to apply them to this corridor. This by no means an exhaustive list, but it applies to streets everywhere:

Sidewalks should be wide
The road should be narrow
Crosswalks should be short
No merge turns!
There should be many options for direct travel by foot
It's not important for car traffic to have an obvious direct path

I also think cities, and streets as their largest individually observable elements, benefit from the fine grain that appears on its own when development rules favor building in between the better and best existing features (buildings, streets, parks) rather than busting out the bulldozer and starting from scratch. So I took the list above and applied it to the street we have today, without needing to tear down any buildings. Some privately-owned asphalt would need to be taken by eminent domain in order to realize everything below, but much of the underused land lining this street is already publicly-owned.

Oh yeah, and let's use the reclaimed road space to build a light rail connection from Market Street to Caltrain (an MMX extension - MMXX?). That way riders on the N-Judah heading to Caltrain and Mission Bay won't have to travel through the already overcrowded Market Street Tunnel.

There are already some good proposals out there that incorporate many of these elements. Here is what I came up with. It's not meant to be completely to scale, more of a detailed sketch:

Top: Satellite map
Upper Middle: The street level today
Lower Middle: What the street level could be
Bottom: Lane configuration diagram
(PDF)

1. The intersection of Division, Potrero, Brannan and 10th
This intersection is a nightmare right now! It's so wide that some cars end up stranded in is middle when the lights change. Cars approach people in crosswalks from so far away that anyone who isn't familiar with the traffic patterns is at risk of being hit. The problem is that Division St here is well North of the point where 10th, Brannan and Potrero would intersect. The solution is to shift Division South at this point so that all streets converge on a point, minimizing crossing distances.

(There are a few mature Eucalyptus trees in the median of Division just to the west of this intersection. If the street is moved entirely South of this median, those trees could be preserved, contributing greatly to the beauty of the new space.)

2. 9th and 10th Street off-ramps
These induce traffic on 9th, 10th and Bryant Streets, all of which are one-way here. The physical structure of the off-ramps blocks sightlines on Dore Alley, which creates a sketchy environment. Removing the ramps liberates the alley for higher and better uses and tames the surrounding traffic sewers. Without these ramps, pedestrans would have complete sidewalks around this block, and Muni (27-Bryant, 47-Van Ness) would speed up. The Northwest corner (by screwy convention; the Western corner by real-life geography) should be kept as One Tree Park.

3. The intersection of Division, 9th and San Bruno
Another over-wide intersection. Straighten Division out, shortening crosswalks, and use the available space for a Showplace Square stop for the N-Judah on its way to Caltrain. One block to the West, Utah Street should continue through to Division. This increases the connectivity of the grid and adds street frontage for retail, studio space, or housing.

4. Division Street circle
The road here is too wide. Expanding the curb will slow traffic around the circle and give some breathing room to pedestrians in this historic design district.

5. Connect Alemeda Street
Alameda Street runs parallel to and just North of 15th Street (and is one of the few from the Potrero Hill grid that still bears its original pe-1895 name). But it's interrupted between Alabama and Bryant Streets by private property. Opening it up for its whole length will create an alternate route for local traffic, keeping it off of Division. Keeping one small section of Alameda near a new plaza where Division meets Florida closed to cars but open to pedestrians and bikes will help keep this route a calm, bike-friendly alternative to Division.

6. Continue 14th Street
Increase the connectivity of the grid by continuing 14th St through what is now the Best Buy parking lot. The big box store would then front the street and new mixed use buildings could be built in the rest of the parking lot.

This long block along Division Street could also be improved by preserving a pedestrian path along the parking lot's East side (increasing pedestrian connectivity, just as with Utah Street above). This area even today feels serenely separate from the commotion a block away. A new plaza just to the north of Alameda could become the central square of a very cozy, urbane residential and mixed use area at this crossroads.

7. The intersection of Bryant, 11th, and 13th
Like #1, this intersection is too wide for pedestrians to navigate safely. Ideally, we'd move 13th Street farther South here too, but a building on the Southwestern corner is in the way. If we made any exception from the no-demolition premise, tearing down this structure would allow us to tighten the intersection further. At the very least, though, we can remove the merge turn at the Northwestern corner, which only encourages drivers leaving the Costco parking lot to illegally cut over to 13th.

8. The intersection of 13th and Harrison
Remove the merge turns and median islands to shorten the crossing distance.

9. Folsom-13th-Harrison
One of the widest points of the existing right of way happens to be nearest to the residential centers of the North Mission and Western SoMa. Right now the space is wasted on weird parking lots but it could be better used for a new N-Judah station, opening up access to Caltrain and Mission Bay for nearby residents.

10. Reconnect Erie Street
A looping on-ramp currently blocks this alley. Re-extending it the whole length between Mission and South Van Ness, as well as adding a perpendicular residential alley to the north would make room for new ped-friendly housing in this transit-rich area.

11. The intersection of South Van Ness and Howard
Howard street used to bend and continue South of 13th Street, and the street configuration still shows that. But current rules have traffic continuing North-South along what is now South Van Ness Avenue and up to regular Van Ness. The whole intersection could use a diet, with Howard now bending to hit South Van Ness as close to perpendicular as possible. That shortens crossing distances for pedestrians, and creates an opportunity for traffic to slow itself as cars turn here.

12. The Intersection of Mission, Otis and 13th
This is an important intersection. Right now, Mission Street traffic splits to become a couplet with Otis. The entire length of Mission Street, from Daly City to the Embarcadero, is four lanes of traffic. But for this block in the heart of the city, it has eight. That's partially to accommodate an off-ramp that touches down just to the East. That off-ramp can come down, and Mission street traffic can continue down Mission Street.

Here, also, I have a connection for traffic coming from Octavia Blvd. Those four lanes of freeway-bound traffic can continue across Market, where they'll turn onto McCoppin. The North leg of Otis can be closed to cars, and its South leg can take the cars to 13th, where it can continue to Potrero and eventually god-knows-where.

13. Sunshine in a new park
Removing the elevated freeway structure will open up an already-planned skate park to sunshine and fresh air (excluding, for the moment, the possibility of being downwind of Zeitgeist).

I haven't explicitly addressed the Bayshore Freeway, which would probably still tower over Showplace Square and SoMa over the new N-Judah stop there. I'm not sure I have a strong opinion of what the best way to address it is (other that to tear it down as well). We could just remove the access to it altogether, leaving drivers in the Mission and Potrero Hill to head to Bryant St in SoMa or South to Cesar Chavez to get on the freeway. Personally, I'm fine with that. But if other folks think we need to let cars on the freeway here, we can touch down two narrow ramps South of Division on San Bruno Ave. 9th Street should be two-way anyhow, and traffic from Octavia (via 13th and Division), North of Market (via 9th) and South Beach/Rincon Hill (via Brannan and 9th) could get on and off the freeway here.

Minding Narrowness

2010-04-07T17:14:00.000-07:00

Wow, this blog out of LA does some amazing work visualizing that city's wide streets as more urbane and pedestrian-friendly... in a word, narrower. SF has its share of too-wide streets, and my mind is already buzzing with visuals of how SoMa, for example, could look in this new and improved universe.

Noe Plaza Opponents Have Dufty on Their Side

2010-04-05T13:54:00.000-07:00

It looks like Noe Valleys elected representative, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, is poised to quash the nascent pedestrian plaza in Noe Valley. There will be a community meeting on Thursday evening for neighbors to learn more and discuss the project but Dufty, as quoted in today's Examiner, sounds like he's already made up his mind:

I’m not closing the door forever. I’m just saying that at this stage I sense enough division and opposition that I don’t even feel that it can work on even a trial basis. The notion isn’t to create conflict, it’s to create more public spaces.

If you live in the neighborhood and care about public space there, you may want to send Dufty an email. Please also make sure to attend the meeting at 6:30pm on Thursday. It's been added to the calendar in the sidebar.

Please note that the dead-tree version of today's Ex contains an important error. There is no plan to close 24th Street. The proposed plaza would close a small section of Noe Street, just South of 24th. The online edition has since been corrected.

Minnatoma...

2010-03-30T19:52:00.001-07:00

Dear God this is frightening.

Noe Valley's Pavement to Parks Drama

2010-03-30T15:46:00.000-07:00

There's trouble a-brewin' high in Noe Valley. The intersection of 24th and Noe Streets was chosen by the Planning Department to be the site of an upcoming Pavement to Parks pedestrian plaza. In a bold move, Planning is planning to close a section of Noe Street at the Intersection to create a broad plaza in an area of Noe Valley that sees some really intense pedestrian traffic.

A few neighbors weren't too happy when they got word of the plans, however. They're trying to push Andres Power, manager of the Pavement to Parks program, to scrap the plaza design. Power has responded by drafting a second option for the intersection. Instead of a plaza, they could build a "parklet" (bulbout) on either side of the street, keeping Noe open for cars.

Supervisor Bevan Dufty will be holding a community meeting to gauge public support for the two proposals on April 8th at 6:30 p.m. at St. Philips Church Community Room (725 Diamond).

There's a group of neighbors working to demonstrate support for the full plaza. You should join their effort, if you're so inclined, and attend the meeting next Thursday to let Mr. Dufty know you support Noe Plaza.

Do Us a Favor

2010-03-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

When forced to fill an unprecedented budget deficit over the last year, the SFMTA took some rare, if wobbly, steps toward bringing in new revenue from drivers in addition to their go-to fare hikes and service cuts. The political resistance to charging drivers bent slightly when confronted with the sheer size of gap, and for the first time the MTA Board was seriously considering charging more to park in SF.

Well now Governor Schwarzenegger has agreed to a (dubious) gas tax swap that will give the SFMTA $36 million dollars for Muni. My first reaction was not 'Hooray, no more service cuts or fare hikes.' It was 'Great, there go the revenue measures.' I had hoped I was wrong, but it's looking like the MTA staff is considering just what I was afraid of. Lame, lame, lame.

Walk to School

2010-03-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

Via Streetsblog.net, an elementary school in Milton, Ontario has a new policy banning parents from driving their kids to school. Not sure why it costs $125,000 to ban parents from driving, but apparently it's been working well so far.

SFTRU Ramping Up

2010-03-23T16:14:00.000-07:00

Dave Snyder of the newly formed San Francisco Transit Riders Union sent out the group's first email to its members. If you haven't already joined their ranks yet, you can do so by filling out the form at muniriders.org (they also have a Facebook page). SFTRU is planning its first member meeting for this Thursday, March 25th.

Read the email message after the jump.

Thanks for signing up for the San Francisco Transit Riders Union. I am writing to give you a brief update on the status of this brand new organization. Expect more updates in the next few weeks, as we get more momentum!

I’ll divide this report in two to reflect the way I’ve been dividing my work as coordinator: advocating on behalf of and organizing Muni riders and building the organization to provide a strong and sustainable voice for Muni riders.

Advocacy update.

Our main focus for the next several weeks will be the FY 2010-2012 MTA budget, and our main goal will be restoring the 10% service cuts that are planned to go into effect May 1.

There are three important hearings coming up where we hope to place unprecedented pressure on the MTA Board. Mark your calendars now for 2:00 p.m. meetings at City Hall on the following dates:

Tuesday, March 30 (public hearing on fare, fine, and fee increases)
Tuesday, April 6 (FY 2010-2012 budget hearing)
Tuesday, April 20 (FY 2010-2012 budget adoption)

These cuts -- literally a decimation of service -- are going to be an ugly surprise to most Muni riders. When I ride the bus and ask fellow riders, “do you know they plan to cut service by 10% on May 1?”, people shake their heads in disbelief and look around at the crowded bus and ask, “they want it to get more crowded?! What are they thinking?!”

Every bus will be even more crowded and even slower. Owl buses will run every hour instead of half-hour. Almost every route will cease service 1 to 2 hours earlier.

We can use the anger that people will feel once these cuts go into effect as an organizing tool, but unfortunately the go into effect after MTA Board approves its budget, which it must do in April. Then the budget goes to the Board of Supervisors for its approval. We will do our best to get the MTA Board to devise a budget that restores all the lost service, but if we need to, we can organize riders affected by the May 1 service cuts to pressure the Board of Supervisors to reject the budget and suggest ways to restore service.

We’ll discuss this campaign and others that we can work on at the SF Transit Riders Union first member meeting, planned for this Thursday. I hope you can come.

SF Transit Riders Union Volunteer Meeting
Everyone is invited.
Thursday, March 25, 6:00 p.m.
Place TBD (close to Market Street)

I’ll send out a reminder with the location as soon as I know it.

Organization-building update.

In this first month of our existence, we’ve chosen a name -- the San Francisco Transit Riders Union -- and a mission: to promote excellent and growing public transit in San Francisco. We’ll focus mostly on Muni but also seek to improve BART and other transit agencies’ services as well.

We’ve developed some principles. We’ll reach out to riders in multiple languages, learn from riders and authentically represent riders’ interests. We will promote best practices in public transit, and educate riders as we learn from them. We will keep at least three campaigns going at once, to engage as many people as possible in the work of improving transit. And we will maintain a cooperative relationship with the workers who make Muni run every day.

I’ll coordinate the day-to-day work of the Riders Union, while policy decisions will be made by the steering committee which is still coming together. While the membership of that committee is not final, I can say that it has a balance of policy organizations and community-based organizations with constituencies who ride transit. Once the committee is finalized I can share with you its membership. We are a fiscally sponsored project of Livable City, a 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation.

We will accept membership dues soon, but we’ll never turn someone away for lack of funds. Right now, we’re seeking startup funding, major donations of $500 or more. If you can help with that or know someone who can, please contact me.

We need an office. We need a web presence. We need a team of volunteers to help us plan our campaigns and outreach, and implement those plans! These issues will be on the agenda for Thursday’s meeting. I hope you can come.

I’ve heard so many ideas for actions and received so many offers of help! I’m excited to be a part of this movement, where people realize we can’t take our public transit for granted, that we must fight for it. It’s exciting.

In solidarity for excellent transit,

Dave Snyder

Stop Go

2010-03-23T15:49:00.001-07:00

I spotted this bus stop driving away down Brannan Street this morning. It turned right on 5th and looked like it was about to turn right again onto Townsend as I walked away. I have no idea which line it could have been from because the numbers had already been removed from the sides.

It could either be from a stop that's been removed as part of the incessant service cuts we've seen, or one that's been replaced with a new ~~solar~~ bus shelter. (Only one of of the new shelters, deep in the Fog Belt of all places, seems to actually have solar panels. But hey, Clear Channel got their money already, aren't Public Private Partnerships the best?!)

In Support of the Versatility of Pedestrian Space

2010-03-18T19:57:00.000-07:00

If I didn't read the ~~Chronicle~~ Comical I'd probably have a very poor understanding of how visiting suburbanites view San Francisco.

You may have noticed I like to walk around this city, and I consider myself to be very familiar with its pedestrian realm. The sidewalk is my primary point of view, almost all of my interactions with public space are on the sidewalk.

And I'm not afraid of people sitting or lying down on it.

Streetsblog posted a piece on the Newsom-Gascon sit-lie law, which generated some controversy. And I'm glad they did because this law will directly affect the public space that Streetsblog and all livability advocates fight for. The law as proposed would prohibit behavior that's beneficial for such spaces because, ostensibly, the SFPD currently lacks the tools to deal with the bad behavior of a tiny few.

The proximate motivation for this law is a group of street kids on Haight who are harassing passersby. Gascon has told the Bay Guardian that he knows these street kids wouldn't be harassing anyone if cops regularly walked up and down Haight Street. So he acknowledges that adequate tools already exist to keep the peace. This law is not necessary to protect the citizens of the Haigh-Ashbury neighborhood, nor is it likely to be effective without the same increased police presence that Gascon says would solve the problem on its own.

What this city-wide ban on using the sidewalk for anything other than walking could do, however, is stop people from leisurely enjoying the largest amount of public pedestrian space in the city.

The Guardian today reports that some folks are organizing a demonstration of how enjoyable that public space can be. On March 27th people all over the city will be enjoying the sidewalk in any way they like. Check out the interactive map for festivities near you. There's also a Facebook page for you to join if you're so inclined. Who knows, you might not get another chance to stop and smell the roses after this law passes.

Alley Love in Seattle

2010-03-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

Seattle's Crosscut has a nice piece on that city's alleys. Alleys can provide a great pedestrian experience, and Crosscut gives some good examples around the world (including Maiden Lane here in SF) and discusses a design competition with the goal of improving the local alley environment and public awareness thereof.

SF has several dense pockets of narrow streets or alleys. Western SoMa, the Mission District (or what used to be the Mission District) near 16th West of Mission, The Mission District surrounding 24th and Mission Streets, and Hayes Valley come to mind. I'd like to see some minor improvements made to these pockets of walkable urbanity, and I'd like to see new pockets in areas of the city slated for future development.

Sunday Streets: Embarcadero 2010

2010-03-16T00:00:00.001-07:00

At the risk of jinxing it, Sunday Streets has an impressive track record for weather. Following are some photos I took at this past weekend's street opening:

First 2010 Sunday Streets is This Sunday

2010-03-09T15:09:00.001-08:00

My how time flies. The first of this year's 9 Sunday Streets events is already upon us! Check out a car-free Third Street/Embarcadero from Mariposa Street to Fisherman's Wharf this Sunday, March 14th, from 10am-3pm.

That's right! This year's events will last an hour longer - until 3pm! See you there! (map after the jump)

New Parking Meters on Brannan

2010-03-09T14:52:00.000-08:00

I spotted these on my walk to work Friday. When I took this picture the North (Northwest, geographically) side of Brannan Street between 7th and 8th was dotted along half its length by the poles you see, while the other half had fresh holes drilled in the concrete. This entire block now has the poles which, based on their height and spacing, seem to be harbingers of parking meters to come.

I hope DPT plans to collect the money they're entitled to from these meters.

UPDATE
The meter heads are up and running as of Friday morning. A woman was performing some work on them as I walked past that day. She let out a contented chuckle when I called out, "Hooray, new parking meters!" I doubt she gets much encouragement from the public at her job.