SFPD To Begin Ped Safety Campaign

We could all use some good news amid the SFMTA doomsday nonsense. According to KCBS, the SFPD is starting a year-long program to increase pedestrian safety in San Francisco.

With a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, the police traffic detail along with a civilian crime prevention unit are educating people and enforcing traffic laws. -KCBS

Imagine that, enforcing traffic laws. But before you get too excited, this is apparently what Captain Steve Tacchini means by 'enforcing traffic laws:'

One of the things we see is people stepping off the curbs before the lights change, trying to run across against the reds, trying to catch Muni running up to buses or not looking for vehicles making right turns.

That last one is a gem. Mr. Tacchini doesn't seem to remember the section of the Driver Handbook on how to make a right turn (if he's interested in a refresher, I have a couple extra copies he can borrow).

To make a right turn ... Stop behind the limit line. Look both ways and turn when it is safe. Do not turn wide into another lane. Complete your turn in the right lane.

Right turn against a red light–Signal and stop for a red traffic light at the limit line or at the corner. If there is no sign to prohibit the turn, you may turn right. Yield to pedestrians, motorcyclists, bicyclists, or other vehicles moving on their green light. (emphasis mine)

But if you don't particularly feel like doing that we'll cite the pedestrians you threaten, apparently. Nice.

Bike NoPa reports that 14 motorists have already been cited new Golden Gate Park and the Panhandle, so here's to hoping that the upcoming yearlong campaign is lighter on the blame-the-roadkill nonsense than Mr. Tacchini's statement in the KCBS article.

In any case, Michael Helquist of Bike NoPa advises:

To report crosswalk incidents or red light running:call SFPD at (415) 553-0123 (for non-emergencies)

Preview of Castro Plaza 1.0

Curbed has a sneak preview of the permanent design for the plaza at Market, Castro and 17th Streets, "subject, of course, to further modification and budgetary limitations."

My first reaction: maybe it's the drawing but it seems a little too fortressy. Dialing back some of those planters would give pedestrians more freedom to mill about in any direction. And with the entire space dedicated to pedestrians, it seems odd to me that we would still be funneled diagonally along the old crosswalk.

Pedestrian Spaces to Become Permanent

Two pedestrian plazas on opposite sides of the country - both of which opened last year as temporary spaces - have taken steps toward permanency recently.

Yesterday Curbed reported via the Castro Courier that the plaza at 17th, Castro, and Market Streets will likely become permanent after a vote by the SFMTA and BOS in May or June. This plaza has been wildly successful since day one, despite being cobbled together from some of the cheapest salvaged and donated materials. The plaza tames what was once a dangerous intersection for pedestrians, but its temporary materials are looking less and less civic after this season's rains.

And from New York we have word that the seven sections of Broadway at Times Square that were closed to provide pedestrian refuges and calm traffic on a trial basis have now officially been deemed a success. "The new Broadway is here to stay," said NYC DOT Commissioner Janette Sadik-Khan. And apparently work will soon begin on designing a more beautiful plaza to replace the temporary materials used at the crossroads of the world.

Quote of the Day

More transit means more pedestrians, more people who pay attention to the shape and design of the city up close. That, in turn, means a growing constituency for shared space in Los Angeles and new interest in our long-neglected streetscapes and public sphere.

To put it another way: Transit and the life of the street are inextricably intertwined, and a boost to one is almost always a boost to the other. -Christopher Hawthorne, LA Times

Quote of the Day

In Manhattan, creative jaywalking is an environmental positive, because it makes traveling on foot easier: it enables pedestrians to maintain their forward progress when traffic lights are against them, and to gain small navigational advantages by weaving between cars on clogged side streets - and it also keeps drivers on their guard, forcing them to slow down. -David Owen (via Living Car-Free in Big D)

I definitely agree with this statement, and not because I like pedestrians more than drivers and somehow feel that rules shouldn't apply to everyone. Legally, of course, traffic laws do apply to everyone. But there is a difference in justice of those traffic laws, a difference that reflects the natural hierarchy of vulnerability among road users.

Sad News, Everyone

Thanks for the Alert by Walk SF's Facebook page. The SF Appeal has good coverage of a woman who was hit and killed this morning at Fell and Broderick Streets.

While details are apparently hazy since the crash was so recent, the Appeal reports that, according to police spokeswoman Sgt. Lyn Tomioka,

Apparently, another car had stopped (for the woman) at the intersection and this vehicle went around it.

If true, that's a pretty clear violation of CVC Section 21951, which states:

Whenever any vehicle has stopped at a marked crosswalk or at any unmarked crosswalk at an intersection to permit a pedestrian to cross the roadway the driver of any other vehicle approaching from the rear shall not overtake and pass the stopped vehicle.

According to the Examiner's writeup, 'San Francisco Police Officer Barcena' described this as "not an arrest situation." But the Appeal quotes Sgt. Tomioka as saying that prosecutors "could weigh charging him 'because the driver is required to drive with due caution.'"

My thoughts go out to the family and friends of the victim of this driver's negligence.

The Origins of the Sidewalk

Just found out about a great SoCal pedestrian blog via Streetsblog LA. Brush up on your party trivia with this interesting history of the sidewalk.

Preview the New Showplace/Potrero Hill Plaza

I hope everyone's enjoying their big car-free weekend!

I took a minute to check out the progress on SF's next Pavement to Parks pedestrian plaza at 16th and 8th streets. Work on what the Planning Dept calls 'Showplace Triangle' is ongoing, but one can already get a sense of the final product.

Some pics and descriptions after the jump.

First Look at Mason Street Plaza

It's taken way to long for me to finally get myself over to North Beach to see first hand what life is like there with one tiny block of Mason Street closed. Streetsblog had some great photos of the temporary plaza being installed at the beginning of the month, but I'd never seen it myself.

Similar temporary pedestrian spaces implemented under the city's Pavement to Parks program have been wildly popular in the communities that surround them. But I have to admit I was worried this plaza would become an exception to that experience after a reader left a couple comments indicating the situation in North Beach was bad.

Specifically worrying to me was his assertion

Come by any morning and you'll see a huddle of junkies and alcoholics who have a daily jamboree. -Karl B

Since this plaza was between a surface parking lot and a library, and not directly adjacent to cafes or other businesses that could participate in its upkeep, I was a little concerned that the plaza might be run down after only a month.

So I took Mr. B's advice and went down there this morning. Pics after the jump.

Oh Chuck

Walnut Creek resident Chuck Nevius has one of his typical poorly-researched and poorly-attributed column in today's Chronicle Comical (newspaper columns are not newspaper articles, and columnists are not reporters, Jon Carroll's breaking cat news not withstanding).

This blog cares, however, only because a third of this column is about vocal neighborhood opposition to the Mason Street plaza/horseman-of-the-apocalypse in North Beach. The plaza is formed by a temporary closure of a short block of Mason Street, which is part of a Branch Library Improvement Program project in North Beach.

Showplace/Potrero Ped Plaza Visualized

Streetsblog has the scoop. The Planning Department has released the design for one of the next Pavement to Parks plazas, this one on 16th Street, adjacent to Showplace Square and Potrero Hill:


View Larger Map

Streetsblog doesn't give a date for the opening, but according to the Planning Department's website, both the Showplace Square plaza and the one planned for San Jose and Guerrero Avenues are slated for sometime in September.

North Beach Library Plaza Opens This Weekend

San Francisco will add a new (albeit temporary) pedestrian space to one of its densest neighborhoods tomorrow when a section of Mason Street in North Beach is closed to car traffic. I won't be in town to see its first weekend myself, but I look forward to visiting soon - and taking pictures.

If you can, stop by the new plaza at Mason and Columbus Avenue, in front of the North Beach Branch Library. The space will be open for two months, until September 27th.

Tiny Block of Mason Street Set For Temp Closure

The San Francisco Interdepartmental Staff Committee on Traffic and Transportation (ISCOTT) agreed today to temporarily close a small portion of Mason Street in North beach to cars. The block in question separates Joe DiMaggio Playground from a small triangle of land, on which the SF Public Library wants to build a larger replacement for its current North Beach branch.

Image: Curbed

Those plans include the permanent conversion of that 150-foot length of Mason Street into public open space in order to connect the new library to the playground next door.

Public Pedestrian Spaces Yield Happiness

Crappy cellphone pic

Enrique Peñalosa's speech at the Main Library yesterday was time well-spent. If you'd like a summary of his lecture, Streetsblog has a good writeup. In short, he attempted repeatedly to drive home the point that we - in cities across the world, in America and in San Francisco - are wasting our scarce public space by devoting it to private transportation. Our lives would be more enjoyable if we took as much of that space as we can and devoted it to pedestrian space.

Density and Pedestrianism Go Hand-In-Hand

The Overhead Wire has already written about this article, and it is indeed worth a read. Short and to the point, author Matt Fikse lays out several reasons why a lot of new development fails, and makes a strong implicit connection between the ambiguous measure of "success" and active pedestrian activity.

To paraphrase, the list of traits Fikse finds contribute to the "livability" of a neighborhood includes:

• High density
• Low-rise
• Smaller linear scale of buildings, blocks, streets
• More and smaller units in those buildings
• High vertical ground level spaces
• Mixture of uses in close proximity

Some of these ideas, notably mixed-use buildings and high density, have been fashionable in urban planning circles for a long time. But others, like small units and low-rise buildings, have still only been embraced by a tiny minority of policy makers. And most new development suffers for lack of those qualities

Some local examples after the jump.

This Intersection Sucks

Despite the streets being wider than those of Paris, I am required to walk on narrow strips of concrete, where any slip or missed step would cause me to tumble into a road where a passing car would undoubtedly decapitate me. ... Any contact with another pedestrian involves invading their personal space and requires that someone yield to the other. This means you cannot walk side-by-side with another person, taking away all the pleasure of walking. -Mathieu Helie

When I read that quote in the blog Emergent Urbanism I immediately related to my experiences walking around San Francisco. While some neighborhoods in this city have held onto luxuriously wide sidewalks, they are almost all dissected by arterial roads. That is, streets that were re-engineered after the rise of auto-centrism to serve as expressways for large volumes of car traffic. Since these streets tend to be not much wider than average, the extra road space devoted to cars usually comes at the expense of pedestrians.

The intersection of Potrero Avenue and 16th Street is one of the worst. This is a major transfer point for several Muni lines (37,572 people ride the 9, 22, 33, and 53 lines every day). As people dash between buses, McDonalds and the Potrero shopping center, they jostle for limited space with each other and with speeding traffic.

The layout of the intersection hampers pedestrian flow and lowers the quality of this space. This broad square enjoys lots of sunshine and great views of downtown and Twin Peaks. This is a historic spot, where Joe DiMaggio played with the San Francisco Seals. But it's a miserable place, to be avoided even by those who pass through out of necessity; and it doesn't have to be that way.

Richmond District Town Hall Meeting

District 1 Supervisor Eric Mar is hosting a town hall meeting to discuss pedestrian and street improvements in the Richmond District. I've added it to the Important Dates in the sidebar. For more information visit the Facebook event page

Deets after the jump for those poor Facebookless souls

Preview of the Next Pedestrian Plaza

Burrito Justice has some great links to the plans for the next Pavement to Parks project. The new plaza at San Jose Avenue and Guerrero Street has a couple different options planned, according to the San Jose/Guerrero Neighborhood website.

I'm instinctively hesitant of option #1's plan to "Narrow west-side sidewalk to allow a 14-foot median." Narrow sidewalks are inherently bad for pedestrians and wide medians make cars drive faster, which is also bad for pedestrians. The site does, however, include a good discussion on the differences between the two options.

But both plans include a large amount of reclaimed space where San Jo meets Guerrero at an oblique angle.

Castro Plaza Facebook Group!

Someone has created a Facebook group devoted to the new pedestrian plaza on 17th Street at Castro and Market. Be sure to check it out and add your own commentary and photos. From what I can tell from the photo gallery, the warm weather made the plaza a pretty popular neighborhood amenity in its first weekend:

According to a Wall post from Lynn Valente, there will be three free concerts in the plaza. The first will be July 4 at 1:30 pm. I've added it to the list of Important Dates in the sidebar.

For more information visit peopleinplazas.org

Pedestrian Plazas: Next in Line:

With the successful construction and opening of the Castro pedestrian plaza under their belts, DPW and the "Pavement to Parks" program is already looking ahead to its next projects. Meet the next three plaza locations after the jump