Year: 2009

The streets of SoMa were eerily silent today, in the words of one resident, who took a break from working at home to enjoy walking his dog down a pleasantly calm Harrison Street. Gone was the persistent hum of Bay Bridge traffic, both overhead and on feeder streets. The first Bay Bridge workday closure since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake seemed to bring an unusual tranquility to SoMa's worst traffic sewers.

There's word from the City Attorney's office this afternoon that the hearing to consider lifting the bike injunction has been delayed. From the press release:

On the weekend eve of the final Sunday Streets of the year, Mayor Gavin Newsom announced that the seasonal events creating wide swaths of car-free space will become permanent in San Francisco.

Transit advocates and community groups have filed a complaint (PDF) with the Federal Transit Administration (FTA), charging that BART has not complied with federal civil rights obligations in its planning of the Oakland Airport Connector (OAC). The move by Public Advocates Inc. on behalf of TransForm, Urban Habitat and Genesis, comes after concerns over the controversial project fell on deaf ears at both BART and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. 

Today on the Streetsblog Network, we return to the question of connectivity -- or, to translate it out of transpo jargon, how to get there from here.

Bay Bridge Closes to Traffic Through Tuesday and Work on Detour Begins (SF Gate, ABC7) Muni “Sets Bar High,” Hopes for 120,000 Translink Users by Next Year (SF Appeal) This Weekend’s Last Sunday Streets Will Feature a lot More Bands (SF Examiner)  Novato Hit-and-Run Driver Gets Four Months in Prison for Crash That Hurt Skateboarder … Continued

If the recent parking battle in Oakland had you thinking of UCLA Professor Donald Shoup, you're not alone.

MTA Chief Nat Ford announced an encouraging reorganization (PDF) of his top brass this week, a move which may usher in a much needed change in the structure of the agency, and potentially give less power to the old school traffic engineers who continue to prioritize automobiles in the design and management of San Francisco's streets.

One of Washington's most enduring truisms is that "pork" is in the eye of the beholder. Self-styled anti-earmark crusaders are fond of bashing clean transportation projects as improper uses of taxpayer money, but most of them recognize privately that rail, bus, and bike investments are a good thing.