Month: July 2013

You can't avoid them: leaping out of your television, a magazine, or the billboard you walk by on the overpass. There they are -- cars, sleek and shiny, racing unfettered on some pristine street to the soothing tones of a hyper-masculine narrator.

More headlines at Streetsblog Capitol Hill

Last Saturday, Daly City officials and residents convened to celebrate a newly built transit plaza, the centerpiece of the long-awaited $3.4 million Top of the Hill project, which includes a series of pedestrian and streetscape improvements along three blocks of Mission Street between John Daly Boulevard and Parkview Avenue. The project was constructed with $2.3 million from the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and $700,000 from the San Mateo County Transit District (SamTrans).

Two weeks ago, transportation researcher Michael Sivak brought us the news that there are fewer cars per person in the U.S. now than there were a few years ago – and that the number isn’t expected to rise again.

Lugging around groceries, heavy equipment, and even pets on a bicycle might be easier than you think. In the latest edition of her video series of tips for getting around San Francisco by bike, producer Laura Lukitsch featured some regular riders sharing their takes on "the art of carrying things." It's a refreshing way to get introduced to the surprising convenience of pedaling around for your everyday needs.

Today on the Network, Copenhagenize takes a look at a proposal that shakes up the traditional "complete street" concept.

Cross-posted from the SPUR blog. Gabriel Metcalf and Ratna Amin are SPUR's executive director and transportation policy director, respectively.

BART Strike Ends, Trains to Run by 3 p.m. Today (SF Gate, SF Examiner, CoCo Times, ABC) Strikes Cost Transit Agencies, But May Also Attract New Riders (SF Business Times) …Not to Mention New Bike Commuters (CBS, SF Weekly) What If BART Included Marin County as Originally Planned? (Marin IJ) More Cars on Most Bay Area Bridges … Continued

Most of the space on the busy commercial stretch of central Irving Street in the Sunset serves as a clogged parking lot, with rampant double parking and drivers circling the easternmost block to work around 19th Avenue's left-turn bans. But while the car traffic and angled parking spots that eat up public space may not disappear any time soon, the Department of Public Works held a recent public meeting to field input on how to make the street more livable with new trees, re-paving, a median with greenery, and a few corner bulb-outs.