Streetsblog San Francisco

The NY Times reporter apparently doesn’t see the difference between
– being against cars
– saying cars should pay their own way

Bryan Goebel, the site’s editor, wrote last year, “The kind of change we need is sea change, a complete transition away from 60 years of externalizing the costs of car ownership,” arguing that the toll automobiles take on society is greater than drivers pay.”

but the claim that drivers don’t pay their full cost is a well documented fact. And it should be very obvious to anyone who looks around and sees all the free on-street parking and free use of local roads paid for by gas taxes – not to mention obvious environmental costs like the gulf oil spill.

Treat this as a fringe position that a few people are “arguing” for is like saying: “Some environmentalists claim we should control greenhouse gas emissions, arguing that they cause global warming.”

Looking at the overall picture I find it hard to oppose CityPlace; the garage is still too big, but they have made some good concessions along the way, and it’s so desperately needed on that block.

The key now will be getting the city to come up with better engineered solutions to keep private vehicles off Market street. Why not expand the forced right turns at 10th & 6th to be forced right turns at every block after 10th, so that it really is local access only?

Re: Oakland Protests

Anyone else find comfort in the fact that so many of the protestors/gawkers arrived by bike?