Skip to Content
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Streetsblog San Francisco home
Log In
CEQA

The Sinister Logic of Old-School Traffic Engineering, in XtraNormal

There is a strange world where up is down, in is out, right is wrong, and black is white. I'm not just talking about the San Francisco Planning Department's indefensible trip-generation analysis for new parking spaces.

No, I mean the world of old-school traffic engineers, where improving safety on the streets means reducing conflicts with cars (you know, like pesky pedestrians), widening lanes and softening turning radii to allow traffic to move more freely. This is the world of Caltrans, for one, and it's antithetical to making your city more livable.

Though the state has started to reform its highway and street design guidelines, city planners throughout the Bay Area can attest to the difficulty of adding bus bulbs, traffic calming or bicycle infrastructure in the face of engineers with their traffic bibles telling them there is no such thing as an acceptable green bike lane.

This excellent XtraNormal cartoon, which was produced by Strong Towns, lays out the problem, complete with jargon that will make your head spin.

If you have eight minutes and a wonky sense of humor/indignation, I recommend you watch. If eight minutes seems like a long time, imagine going up against these guys for a decade to reverse the violent upheaval perpetrated on your neighborhood decades prior in the name of progress.

Gives me chills.

Stay in touch

Sign up for our free newsletter

More from Streetsblog San Francisco

Call to Action: ‘Muni Now, Muni Forever’ Campaign Needs Your Help

The San Francisco Transit Riders, Seamless, Walk, the Bicycle Coalition and others have set up a template so you can take a minute to tell our leaders to fund public transit

April 23, 2025

Advocates Pop-Up Safety on 9th Street in Berkeley

Bike East Bay and other volunteers help show neighbors how much nicer a street can be without cars screaming back and forth

April 22, 2025
See all posts