Year: 2009
Top Categories
The Sun Shines Down on a Glorious PARK(ing) Day
When the first Park(ing) Day was launched by Rebar in 2005, right here in San Francisco, it was on the vanguard of street space reclamation. Four years later, it's undoubtedly part of a larger trend that includes such fine company as Sunday Streets, Pavement to Parks plazas, and the first steps towards a car-less Market Street. Park(ing) Day is now officially an international phenomenon, but its rapid growth could be seen just as easily by touring sites across the city today.
September 18, 2009
Boxer Reminds Metrolink: Train Crew Members Shouldn’t Ride Solo
The transportation spending bill passed by the Senate this week includes $50 million in rail safety grants sought in June
by environment committee chairman Barbara Boxer (D-CA) -- but the
bill may not become law for months, and today Boxer told California's
Metrolink commuter rail that interim safety protections would have to
stay in place.
September 18, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Backwards Driver Crashes Into Cyclist in GG Park
From SF Citizen via Eyes on Blogs comes word of a nasty collision between a bicyclist and an SUV driver in Golden Gate Park Wednesday. The photographer who snapped these shots described the crash on his Flickr post:
September 18, 2009
High-Speed Rail Routes and the Looming Choice Among ‘Megaregions’
They may sound like villains in the next Transformers
movie, but "megaregions" are a vital aspect of U.S. life these days.
The vast majority of the nation lives in one of the 11 inter-city
clusters identified by America 2050 in its new analysis of the future of high-speed rail, making megaregions the best potential sites for rail development.
September 18, 2009
Planning and Density: Who’s Forcing Them?
Today we're talking development and density. Greater Greater Washington has a post about zoning policies and traffic congestion in Montgomery County, Maryland, where a debate over growth policy that would encourage in-fill development near existing transit is getting heated.
September 18, 2009
Today Headlines
15-year-old Boy “Badly Injured” in Tiburon Hit-and-Run (CBS5) San Rafael Cyclist Critically Injured by Driver in Crash on San Lucas Road (Marin IJ) PARK(ing) Day One Sign of “Shift Away From the Dominance” of the Automobile (SF Gate Op-Ed) Presidio Trust to Close Roads in Traffic Calming Experiment (Matier & Ross, SF Examiner) SF Business … Continued
September 18, 2009
It’s Time to Reclaim the Curb: Celebrate PARK(ing) Day Friday!
Tomorrow's (PARK)ing Day festivities in San Francisco are likely to be much grander than in years past, with dozens of locations mapped out across the city as spots where metered parking spaces will be transformed into temporary public parks, and other uses, for people, instead of automobiles. Temporary parks are also being planned in locations all over the Bay Area.
September 17, 2009
SPUR Evening Forum: EmBIKEadero: 2009 Patri Fellowship Presentation
"San Francisco's eastern waterfront, from Fisherman's Wharf past the Ferry Building to the Giants' ballpark and Blue Greenway, is a uniquely marvelous setting for a bike ride, whether for fun or utility, one of the city's top two-wheeling attractions for locals and visitors. But it's only just okay for bike traffic — couldn't it be much better? Carrie Nielsen, 2009 Piero N. Patri Fellow, has been working on the long-pondered question: What would it take to provide an excellent waterside bikeway from Mission Bay to North Point, separated from the motor traffic on the Embarcadero roadway and distinct from Herb Caen Way (a.k.a. the Promenade)? Come hear and see what Carrie has put together for a fully-considered vision of a world-class bikeway on the city's waterfront, a next-generation element of the Citywide Bike Network."
September 17, 2009
NoPa Neighborhood Fights to Calm its Residential Freeway
In a city where people and cars regularly jostle for space, it's not uncommon to have speeding traffic just inches or feet from pedestrians, homes, and parks. This spatial conflict is especially pronounced on Fell and Oak Streets, which serve all at once as de facto residential highways, major bike thoroughfares, and densely built-up residential and commercial streets, their sidewalks bustling with people on their way home or visiting the Panhandle.
September 17, 2009