Don't Be That Guy

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.

BOS Should Reject the Badly Flawed SFMTA Budget

Rachel Gordon reports that the SFMTA board has approved a budget that balances a $129,000,000 deficit (~$80,000,000 of which it absorbed from other departments for no good reason) almost entirely on the backs of Muni riders.

• Adult fares will go up 50¢ to $2.00
• Senior/disabled/youth fares will go up 25¢ to 75¢
• Adult Fast Passes will go up to $55.00 in July (already scheduled) before reaching $60.00 in January
• Senior/disabled/youth Fast Passes will go up by the same amount, to $15.00 in July and $20.00 in January
• The following lines will be canceled:
• The 4-Sutter
• 7-Haight
• 16-Noriega morning express
• 20-Columbus
• 26-Valencia
• 53-Southern Heights
• 74X-Culture bus
• 89-Laguna Honda
• And to quote Ms. Gordon, "Dozens of other lines will have their routes modified or hours cut back."

Private motorists' share of the pain:

• Meter rates will go up 50¢ an hour and operate on all holidays except New Year's Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Sound fair? Not to me.

A Privilege, Not a Right

Drop a flower pot off a high-up windowsill and kill someone, you might face criminal charges. Slam into a pedestrian in the middle of a crosswalk and what happens, exactly?

WalkBikeCT has a spot-on analysis of modern American transportation pathology. Despite words to the contrary (words, I might add, that every would-be young driver is supposed to learn and take to heart) we treat driving as a god-given right in this country, and especially here in California. And as long as we keep thinking that way we can expect atrocities like these to keep happening.

Portland has a Vulnerable Users Law that puts responsibility on the operators of more dangerous vehicles for the safety of more vulnerable road users. Bikes have to look out for the safety of pedestrians and cars have more responsibility to look after bicyclists. San Francisco needs a law like this. Otherwise we will continue to tacitly discourage walking and biking because of what is essentially bullying by motorists - the threat of physical harm if we don't give up our lunch money right of way.

And we need to enforce laws already on the books protecting that right of way. DPT needs to actually respond to calls about cars parked on the sidewalk. The police need to ticket drivers who fail to yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. And in the unfortunate instances where vulnerable roadway user is hurt or killed by a vehicle, appropriate criminal charges need to be filed. It's against the law to kill people. Why doesn't law enforcement act like it?

Utah St Sidewalk Parking

Clearly it's street-sweeping day:
To report sidewalk parking in SF, call DPT at (415) 553-1200
Hit 1 for English
4 for "more options"
3 for "sidewalk parking"

You'll need to catch the address in front of which the car is parked. It's stupid and unnecessary, but DPT won't send someone out unless you give them the exact address. Local activist Carleigh notes that this is a blatant violation of ADA laws, so maybe mention that if you're given a hard time.

Also, it's worth going back a few days later to everyblock.com, which lists police reports by location, to check on how your report was resolved. And if you like, take a picture and upload it to Flickr with "pedestrianist" as a tag. I'll post it here along with any resolution or notes in the comment section.

If Traffic is Bad, And Freeways Cause Urban Traffic...

Why don't we remove the freeways?

Yesterday I pointed out a great article in Scientific American documenting the plain, simple reality that removing freeways improves traffic flow in urban areas. That article leads with the example of an elevated freeway in Seoul, Korea that was removed, and the improvement in traffic flow that resulted.

Reading up a little more, I found an excellent website devoted to real-world examples of urban freeways that have been nixed. The Preservation Institute of Berkeley, CA tells the whole story of the Cheonggye Freeway. From river to freeway and back again in less than half a century, the Cheonggye is a remarkable case, but freeway removal in cities around the world are strikingly similar.

Here in SF we have two good cases where freeways were closed and the sky remained firmly up. The Embarcadero and Central Freeways were removed after much hair-pulling and hand wringing, and replaced with surface streets that have proven to be wildly successful.


View Larger Map

Here's a little map of the scars across San Francisco caused by elevated freeways. Blue represents extant freeway, green represents those removed.

These monstrosities cut off neighborhoods and blight the area for blocks around. This map doesn't even highlight those traffic sewers that some of our city streets have been turned into in a vain effort to whisk people on and off these concrete octopuses. Streets like Alemany Blvd, San Jose Ave and Division St.

If we can see that these misguided structures cause tangible problems, and we know that removing them improves traffic flow while eliminating those problems, then why the hell don't we tear them all down?

Forgive them, they know not what they do?

I ran across this gem while looking through the draft of the Better Streets Plan:

The California motor vehicle code requires drivers to yield to
pedestrians in marked or unmarked crosswalks, but many drivers
are unfamiliar with the details of the vehicle code.

Awesome. Part of creating a safer, more pedestrian-friendly street environment rests on infrastructure and policy making, but I really hope we can also re-develop a culture of personal responsibility. Driving is a privilege, not a right. Everyone behind the wheel of a car was required to take a test of their knowledge of the CVC, and they need to be held responsible for violating the code.