http://www.flickr.com/photos/krudolph/sets/72157623481640643

the architecture firm doing the design is located in SOMA, San Francisco:

http://rg-architecture.com/rg-architecture-site/home.html

I LIVE RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO MOJO CAFE AND WOULD LOVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVVE IF THEY IMPLEMENT THIS THERE!!

although parking is really tough in that area, the loss of a few spots wouldn’t make a major impact on the already conjested parking situation. so , though i may have to search a little longer for a spot, i don’t mind at all, and would whole-heartedly support this movement!!!!!!

Additionally, particularly for the walking person, parking visually disrupts the streetscape and creates physical and visual obstacles, largely destroying the sense of openness or safety (both in the traffic and even criminal sense). You might not feel these differences until you see a street with no cars parked on it – who would think it’s possible that you could actually see everything on a street?

Finally, parking lanes often yield the need for additional travel lanes (for moving traffic to pass [un]parking vehicles), so in that sense street parking actually takes up a lot more space than meets the eye.

In Aarhus and Copenhagen, Denmark, planners seem to know all this and street parking is reserved quite conservatively for side-streets, never for travel streets (and usually with bulb-outs).

In summation: do we really need street parking on every street? What do we have to gain by removing it?

8′ of parked cars don’t do a lot to cut down on noise or exhaust. 1′ wide planters and cabled fencing provide more protection against accidents than there is at the corner of any given intersection. And how is it that doubling the width of level pedestrian space (split between the sidewalk and the new patio seating) more confining than the current canyon created by buildings on one side and the parked cars on the other? It’s also pretty well established by now that traffic slows down when it’s right up against pedestrians than when there’s a buffer of parked cars, right?

It might not be your cup of tea, but nobody is going to force you to sit there. If the majority of customers feel the same and avoid the patio then it’s easy enough to revert back to parking.

Not so good is that they seem to be one of these architects where half the work on their website was done by another architecture firm they were employed by – always found that to be a questionable trick.

@dan – Are you familiar with Park(ing) day? It’s almost exactly the same as this, but done for 1 day by anybody who wants to, and it is quite successful. It’s also already done in a more formal way in many cities in and out of the U.S. While some people may feel uncomfortable, many more find it perfectly comfortable and quite enjoyable.

Imagine a commerical street in the city that has an LRV line run down it, but no bike racks or even a simple coffee shop. It exists and is ignored.

The most dramatic type of change is possible in those neighborhoods that advocacy doesn’t reach. I hate to say it but organizations like Streetsblog and SPUR and (to a lesser extent) SFBC don’t seem to think in city-wide terms. The problems that are being discussed pale in comparison to those that could be discussed.

That’s what’s exceptional about this design. It will come in at $10k for this project and it should be scalable and replicable, assuming it works. Of course, after all the generous designers and builders are tired of giving their services for free, the city is going to have to come up with a funding stream if these are really to scale up.

Bulb outs are different from sidewalk widenings. The bus bulb-outs did add space as people who are now waiting for buses do not need to stand in the path of those walking along the sidewalk.

Sidewalk widening means the entire length of the sidewalk is widened, which has not happened, and there are currently no plans I am aware of to do this, it’s certainly not part of the Divisadero improvements (the reason that I’ve been told is that it is much more expensive as they also have to move the fire hydrants and associated plumbing)

This article is talking about adding sidewalk (or seating if you prefer) where there are currently 2 metered street parking space outside of Mojo Bicycle. There is no existing sidewalk in the space that is being discussed, and it has nothing to do with the bus bulb-outs.

You say: “@Noah, the sidewalks on Divis have not been widened. Some bus/pedestrian bulb-outs have been added, but that’s a different matter.”

Um, right, which widened the sidewalk (one block from the above picture, actually), with the justification that it would provide more walking space. Now they want to cover that walking space with stuff.