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94103er

Seriously? Do I have to keep getting on here to tell you to take comments like this back to SFGate?

June 8, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
murphstahoe

I have no problem with those decisions. They should just cost appropriate amounts of money.

And Glen Canyon Park has zero hoodlums. Coyotes maybe, no hoodlums.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SweetDickD

I will agree with your last point- the best solution is the conversion of on-street parking to parklets. (please dont impute that I believe that on-street parking should be free to all at all times- those concerned with this issue are in more than two camps).

However, conversion to parklets is far from a transaction/ financial/ market based solution.

I think you need to get out of the micro-econ framework and the concern about how out of touch economists would classify public space as in the end, the average person on the street doesn’t give a sh*it how an economist would classify the space. the average person is concerned about accessing public space and wondering why the city is making it easy for money bags, but harder for the working stiff.

Market pricing is far from the least bad option- what’s best/worst is all subjective and economists and transportation planners cant get their head around the social and the historical. we all dont arrive at the market as equals, and many times because of the doings of markets and their purveyors…

and so the study find the obvious- when you utilize the market to allocate resources it is those with less that are on the short end of the stick.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Sprague

That’s great that a likely low cost solution made a notable safety improvement, although it’s frustrating it took so long. I imagine that corner bulb-outs would make the intersection even safer for pedestrians. Of course, such an improvement is more costly yet it seems that bulb-outs would be cost effective to install when new ADA ramps are added to corners.

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
Anonymous

Who are you to decide who goes where, and how? The transportation commissar? Scratch a progressive and you will find an authoritarian.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Jym Dyer

• I like the sea foam green bikes just fine and prefer it to international orange. But let’s compromise: celeste frames and international orange handlebar tape, with matching bike clothing. I happen to have a lovely example right here:

http://monacaron.com/posters/soma-fabrications.shtml

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Steven Sweat

My office is a proud supporter of both the SFStreetsblog and the LAStreetsblog.

June 7, 2013
in response to Streetsblog Needs Your Support Tonight to Keep Rolling in 2014
Anonymous

Wow, Disqus, way to lose my comment

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
SteveS

I saw the original point as being that SFPark was regressively funding the provision of a public good, which would indeed be very unjust, so I think it’s important to point out that parking is a private good (even though we quite irrationally choose to provide most of it on public land in the city).

The fact that parking is completely rivalrous and also very scarce is relevant to how we allocate it. We can decide that everyone in the city should have access to any book, and the library system is able to deliver this at quite a reasonable cost to San Franciscans. We cannot decide that everyone in the city should have access to street parking on any block; it is not physically possible.

It would be nice if there was no scarcity, but given scarcity exists, market pricing of parking appears to be the least bad option. Making all street parking free with no time limits (what everyone would naively want) would be a disaster, causing huge amount of pollution and eliminating turnover, and neighborhood parking permits transfer the use of public land to the wealthiest at below market costs – much worse than what market rate pricing does.

A solution in the spirit of complete streets would be to gradually convert all on-street parking into parklets, green space and sidewalk extensions, putting the public land back to service delivering a true public good.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Aaron Bialick

They do. The banners alternate between mode of transport. Not 100% sure off the top of my head if they include biking and walking — I think so — but they definitely advertise the transit planner.

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
davistrain

I’m not familiar with the park in Glen Park, but some parks (not necessarily in SF) are so overrun with hoodlums and bums that they’re not fit places for family activities.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
davistrain

I noticed a sign reading “Call 511 for Driving Times”. I wonder if they could insert ads for transit and biking in the messages.

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
SweetDickD

You’re missing the point completely- my comment is not about how economists would classify parking as a good common or public or otherwise. the point is about using the market to allocate resources. that is what is real to everyday people, not textbook econ. (I could go on and nitpick your classification within a micro-econ context about the type of good parking or libraries or whatever. that aint the point…)

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SweetDickD

You’re missing the point completely- my comment is not about how economists would classify parking as a good common or public or otherwise. the point is about using the market to allocate resources. that is what is real to everyday people, not textbook econ. (I could go on and nitpick your classification within a micro-econ context about the type of good parking or libraries or whatever. that aint the point…)

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SteveS

Libraries are almost always non-rivalrous, except maybe for a best-seller in the first couple months after release. The fact that street space in a dense city is so highly rivalrous is what makes it a relevant political issue; in places where there is always an excess of free street parking available, it’s not an issue of debate.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SteveS

Libraries are almost always non-rivalrous, except maybe for a best-seller in the first couple months after release. The fact that street space in a dense city is so highly rivalrous is what makes it a relevant political issue; in places where there is always an excess of free street parking available, it’s not an issue of debate.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SweetDickD

Like the library?

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
SteveS

Parking spaces are a textbook example of a private good: they are 100% excludable and 100% rivalrous. How did we get to the point where people talk about parking as a public good?

A better research question would be, what is income equitability of forcing everyone to publicly fund a private good (parking), regardless of their usage of it?

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
murphstahoe

This doesn’t even touch on the concept of “needing” to drive from say, Glen Park to Golden Gate Park in order to go to the park, when Glen Park has a very nice park right in the neighborhood.

Having a car incites the “need” to go to far flung places simply because you can, instead of evaluating places nearer in proximity. Even if GGP was “better”, is it marginally more better than the time investment to get there and the cost investment of that travel?

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
murphstahoe

This presumes that allocating public space for private parking is actually a “good”

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Ryan Brady

I disagree. Cabs are too scarce in San Francisco, and that vacuum is pulling in these other services.

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
gneiss

Yes they have permits, but they are parking *legally*. I think the point of this blog post is about illegal parking which creates a hazard and how this shows contempt for vulnerable street users by people who should know better, not overuse of *legal* parking permits to reduce the number of available parking spaces.

June 7, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
SweetDickD

RE: Income Equitability of SFPark: Is it a surprise that when we allow the market to allocate parking spaces, there is (economic) discrimination in the allocation of a public good?

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
mikesonn

OMG! Stop ALL metering EVERYWHERE!

June 7, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
gneiss

MrEricSir – No. That’s not my point at all. However, I’d bet that most people think it’s safer to be in a car without a seat beat than outside walking along a busy street next to speeding cars.

The fact that 2 adults need to travel with 9 children in a car (some of whom could be out on their own) shows how badly we’ve failed families and children in particular in providing them with places where they could get around without needing a car.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Sebra Leaves

Captured a block of cars with MTA permits parked near Jackson Square:
http://wp.me/p2aXEz-17g

June 7, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
MrEricSir

If “safe” involves not only driving a car but also involves skipping a seatbelt, I have bad news about your definition of “safe.”

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
Rob Anderson

I’d say nothing at all. Maybe you’re thinking of the SFMTA, which is a different agency. But the city would have saved a lot of money if it had just done the legally required environmental review of the Bicycle Plan in the first place.

June 7, 2013
in response to Support Streetsblog, Your Translator of Transpo Planner Jargon
gneiss

As usual, Stanley Roberts looks at the issue superficially. The deeper problem is how families on the edge are cutting corners or impoverishing themselves trying to hang on to their cars because for them, there is no other safe or reliable transportation option.

June 7, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
peternatural

By that logic, why don’t blue collar workers just park right in the middle of the street and block traffic when they have to go to the bathroom or get a donut? After all, being “blue collar” means the rules don’t apply to you, right?

June 7, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
Anonymous

Rob, how much do you think you persoanly have cost the SFCTA in terms of wasted staff time over the years? I’d say it’s more than $1500.

June 7, 2013
in response to Support Streetsblog, Your Translator of Transpo Planner Jargon
Mike

My number one problem is yuppies stealing food out of working peoples’ mouths. Real cabbies barely break even as it is, and half of them have to commute for hours just for the privilege of driving San Franciscans around.

Safety is my number two problem.

At all times, apply the correct dialectic.

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
Rob Anderson

Turns out that the video wasn’t entirely free, since the SFCTA wasted $1,500 in labor to produce it:

Dear Mr. Anderson,

Thank you for your inquiry about the the Authority’s
video: “A coffee shop encounter with a transportation planner.” This video was produced as a part of outreach activities the Authority conducted in support of the San Francisco Transportation Plan (SFTP) in 2011.The goal of the video was to raise awareness and public involvement in the SFTP, which by its nature is somewhat complex and jargon-filled, but which also relies on broad and deep public input for the identification of transportation needs and investment strategies. As a result, we strive to make the work accessible and engaging to the public.

The video was created using a free video platform,
Xtranormal.The only costs incurred to produce the video were the Authority’s SFTP team staff time and and some support from outreach consultants.Because
the time was bundled together with time for many other outreach activities, we can only estimate the cost in staff time at approximately $1500.

Please contact Tilly Chang, Deputy Director for Planning, at 522-4832 with any questions you may have.

Regards,

Maria Lombardo
Interim Executive Director
San Francisco County Transportation Authority
1455 Market Street,22nd Floor
San Francisco,CA 94103

June 7, 2013
in response to Support Streetsblog, Your Translator of Transpo Planner Jargon
Ryan Brady

Yeah, this is my number one problem with the ‘ride-share’ services.

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
Ryan Brady

Nah, that’ll just get you a felony vandalism arrest.

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
Mike

I was doored by a Lyft driver’s passenger a few months ago.

Perhaps if he was properly licensed as a cabbie and had some actual training, instead of being a yuppie moonlighting as a cabbie, he would have know not to let his passenger out right in the middle of a traffic lane on Market St.

Lyft drivers also haven’t got the “texting while driving” memo. Or really any other memo for that matter.

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
Mike

An excellent video. Gets the most important points across:

• some of the most “annoying” things bicyclists do are for our own safety
• some bicyclists do incredibly unsafe things, and you’d better watch out

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
Anonymous

Inadequate vehicles? A can of paint, some brushes, and a MUNI pass should suffice.

June 7, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
Todd Edelman

Are “Google Bus” or “pink mustache” drivers seeing this video? In recent years in SF, how many bus vs. bike collisions have resulted in cyclist deaths or serious injuries? How many bus vs. bike collisions have also involved a private car, e.g. with a driver opening a door in a too-narrow bike lane?

June 7, 2013
in response to New Video Teaches Muni Drivers How to Share the Streets With Cyclists
Anonymous

Can we be sure this is a budget shortfall issue? I’m hoping to silence the voices in my head screaming “managerial incompetence”

June 6, 2013
in response to Like Night and Day: How Daylighting a Street Corner Makes Everyone Safer
guest

Go by the MTA building on Van Ness and market some day. In that area you will find just about 2 out of 3 cars has a handicapped placard in the window, yet there are mysteriously no senior centers around. I once saw one of the fare inspectors getting out of his car, (big, young guy) with a handicapped placard in the window. Of course the MTA people won’t give themselves or their co-workers tickets..think about it

June 6, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
peternatural

“I need to make an emergency stop at this Starbucks!”

June 6, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
Anonymous

I was just thinking about how I could ride one of the bikes from my house up on a hill down to work.

June 6, 2013
in response to SFMTA Releases Preliminary Map of Bike-Share Station Locations
guest

Easy solution. Daylight each and every intersection in this city. Should’ve been done a long time ago. If a unit needs to park in the red zone once in a while, so be it.

June 6, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
guest

Note that Aaron says the cruiser is parked ‘obnoxiously,’ not ‘illegally.’ We all know that, re what you said about the panhandle path. Doesn’t mean that SFPD can’t be considerate enough to dispatch a motorcycle or bike cop to that location, though.

June 6, 2013
in response to Wanted: Your Photos of Public Servants Parking Obnoxiously
mikesonn

Thirsty Bear Brewery promoting driving to its downtown location. #fail

https://m.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151624532587418&l=027708c2e7&refsrc=http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FM0EwhLYBld&_rdr

June 6, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
mikesonn

I will. But road was just repaved…

June 6, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
lyqwyd

Great news on correcting bicycle helmet misinformation!

June 6, 2013
in response to Today's Headlines
x.trapnel

The front “racks” are an inexcusable mistake. They look identical to the ones in the DC bikeshare bikes, and those are useless. It’s not like they were trying to save weight here–just put a full-size basket it. “Fits more than a basket”–are they joking?

June 6, 2013
in response to Meet Bay Area Bike Share
murphstahoe

What?

If this was to placate the techies the service map would match the Google bus stops. I don’t see any stations in the Mission/Noe/Bernal/Glem/Marina at all.

June 6, 2013
in response to Meet Bay Area Bike Share