Month: February 2009

The Metropolitan Transportation Commission's (MTC) main auditorium in Oakland was standing-room-only  Wednesday for an Allocations Committee meeting where the MTC board debated proposals by staff on how to spend the expected stimulus money when President Obama signs the bill into law.  MTC Executive Director Steve Heminger explained the need to get the discussion started even before Washington made anything final because the deadlines for spending the stimulus money are so tight and the MTC doesn't want to return unspent funds.

Too often, in the struggle for meager financial resources, progressive transportation advocates can become divided -- and the division sometimes leaves bicyclists on one side and transit boosters on the other. Today, Streetsblog Network member blog Cyclelicious makes the case that not only do bikes need transit, transit needs bikes to increase efficiency and ridership, giving the example of Caltrain in the Bay Area:

Transit News Disappointing in Final Stimulus but HSR Gets a Boost (AP via Transport Politic) Transit Takes a $459 Million Hit in State Budget Deal But Will it Pass? (LAT, Ca.Progress Rep.) BART Board to Get Update on Police Oversight Committee (SF Gate) SF Park Rangers Want to Carry Guns and Get Full Law-Enforcement Status … Continued

San Francisco's Traffic Code states that a motorcycle officer or the driver of any other emergency vehicle is allowed to park in a bike lane when "engaged in emergency services." California code is a little less clear but Streetsblog tipster Andrew Turley points out that cops obstructing the bike lane can create dangerous conditions for cyclists forced to merge into busy traffic. He came upon an officer parked in the bike lane on Market Street between 8th and 9th today. He sent these pictures and his account of what happened when he confronted the officer, who was preparing to eat a plate of eggs at Sam's Diner:

Over the holiday I read a new biography of John Muir, the iconic Victorian-era environmentalist and tireless advocate for wilderness conservation who helped establish the Sierra Club.  Written by environmental historian Donald Worster, the book narrates Muir’s well-known struggle and political machinations over the damming of Hetch Hetchy.  Less widely known was that as a pacifist Muir was a draft dodger during the Civil War (he did abhor slavery), and although he believed America was immoral for allowing the 19th century killing-off of animals, he had to subsume his values to court Teddy Roosevelt, an avid sports hunter, in order to advocate for protecting wilderness.  The storylines about Muir included a critical deconstruction of the politics of the early American conservation movement and this led me to reflect on the similarities between that movement and San Francisco’s contemporary livable city movement.

Have you, or someone you know, been injured by a car while walking in SF or the Bay Area? Tell your story in a Streetfilm. We want to make pedestrian injury statistics come alive with actual experiences. Here is your chance to help make San Francisco safer for pedestrians.