Pedestrianism Vol. 6

Pedestrianism Vol. 6 - NYC High Line on Vimeo. If you didn't watch it in HD, can you be sure you've seen it?

It's been a while since my last Pedestrianism video. The spectacle of last June's Sunday Streets in the Mission District was hard to top!

But I took a trip to New York City over New Years and had the chance to see some of the cool new pedestrian spaces there (check out the photos in my Flickr stream in the sidebar). Despite the freezing cold, I walked the length of the first phase of the High Line. This elevated, linear park opened last year on an abandoned railroad track. The city of New York and its private partner have done an amazing job on the landscaping, and the space is well-used even on days as cold as the one shown above.

Be sure to watch in fullscreen with HD on (and scaling off if you have a larger screen) for the best effect.

Pedestrianism Vol. 5

Pedestrianism Vol. 5 - Sunday Streets on Vimeo. If you didn't watch it in HD, can you be sure you've seen it?

If you weren't able to enjoy San Francisco's third Sunday Streets event - this one through the Mission District - here's your chance to see what you missed. Thousands of people turned out to enjoy the beautiful weather on June 7th. This video traces the length of the route, from Potrero Avenue along 24th to Valencia and down to 19th Street, where it turns West again into Dolores Park.

Even though I filmed this during the last hour of the event, when crowds had thinned just slightly, it's evident that turnout was high. One really gets a sense for how dense the throngs were along 24th Street, which is a vibrant commercial corridor. Pedestrians were represented in higher numbers here than elsewhere along the route; much higher numbers than in previous Sunday Streets.

Along Valencia people spread out in the wider street, and bicyclists drifted happily through the crowd. Kids on training wheels were at home among roller bladers and skateboarders.

By the time I reached Dolores Park the streets were being turned back over to cars, but as you can see at the end of the video, there was still a demand for the space. Many folks have expressed interest in allowing the event to run later in the day. Who knows, maybe it will.

The next Sunday Streets will again wind through the Mission District on July 19th. I'll see you there!

Pedestrianism Vol. 4

Pedestrianism Vol. 4 from Josh Bingham

This edition is HD by Vimeo's standards. I recommend viewing it full-screen with HD on and scaling off.

This walk circumnavigates one of San Francisco's ugliest warts: the tangled maze of on- and off-ramps that connect Potrero Avenue and Cesar Chavez Street to Highway 101 while separating the Mission and Bayview Districts for car-free residents. Other liveable streets advocates have taken to calling this monstrosity the "hairball," and I'll use that term here as well since my own name for it is unprintable.

We start at Muni's Potrero trolly yard and maintenance facility, recipient of some much-needed Federal stimulus funds and end at the Flowercraft garden center on Bayshore Boulevard. Since the hairball cuts off the most direct route, down Potrero, across C Chav and on to Bayshore, I cut across 101 at the 18th Street Pedestrian bridge and over Potrero Hill into the Islais Creek industrial area of Bayview.

Things to note in order of appearance:

• The steep slope of Mariposa between Potrero and Utah Street results in steps for a sidewalk.
• 18th Street pedestrian bridge
• Potrero Hill community garden is planted on former Caltrans land
• McKinley Square park with its formal Victorian lawn and panoramic views
• The section of Vermont Street adjacent to McKinley Square is curvier than Lombard, but far less famous
• The lack of pedestrian crossings on C Chav, even east of the hairball, forces pedestrians to go out of their way around Kansas and Marin Streets, past the KOFY TV20 studios and Beronio Lumber
• The Bayshore Boulevard traffic sewer with its merge turns and narrow sidewalks encourages motorists to drive recklessly. Note the failure to yield at 2:18
• The Old Clam House is a San Francisco institution; a relic of the days when this area was wetlands surrounding Islais Creek
• The old Whole Earth Access and Goodman's Lumber buildings. Locals remember these places fondly; the latter is the site of the ever-controversial and endlessly reincarnated proposed Big Box Home Center store

Pedestrianism Vol. 3

Pedestrianism Vol. 3 from Josh Bingham on Vimeo.

In this video I experimented with night time, longer exposure pictures for the time lapse. The result is something like a drunken stumble. This is also the first Pedestrianism video that is HD by Vimeo's standards, so I recommend viewing in full-screen mode with scaling off.

The walk cuts across a northern section of the Mission District, along Mariposa, 17th and 16th streets. With the low frame rate you may be able to pick out some landmarks and get your bearings, if you are familiar with the area.

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?

Pedestrianism Vol. 2

Pedestrianism Vol. 2 on Vimeo.

An on-the-ground look at one of the worst streets in San Francisco. The stretch of trash-strewn pavement below the Central Skyway is actually three streets that have been combined into an expressway below the elevated freeway structure. Division Street runs between the Caltrain yard and Bryant St. Division curves South at Bryant and the expressway becomes 13th St it crosses Mission. From Mission it becomes Duboce and gradually narrows and calms down. The Skyway leaves the expressway, curving North and touching down on Market and Octavia.

With three lanes of traffic along most of the road, the expressway has roughly the same road space as the freeway above it. Pedestrians trying to make their way along or across this stretch of town have to deal with loud, echoing traffic noise; multi-street intersections, often without Pedestrian signals; off- and on-ramps for the Skyway; incomplete sidewalks and illegally dumped garbage. The blight surrounding this freeway and the vacant Caltrans properties along its way is noticable for blocks in either direction.

In 1999 the Central Freeway was demolished back to Market Street. The stretch of Octavia Blvd along its former route has since blossomed. Regrettably, it is very unlikely that the Division/13th/Duboce traffic sewer has any hope of a similar fate.

Pedestrianism Vol. 1

Pedestrianism - Royksopp - Sing A Song on Vimeo.

Roughly 2-mile walk through San Francisco's Potrero Hill, Showplace Square and South of Market (SoMa) neighborhoods. In this video approximately one hour is condensed into 5 minutes.

Of interest is the number of vehicular code violations and obstacles to the pedestrian right-of-way that you can see in a typical trip through this city.