Bryan Goebel
Bryan Goebel is a reporter at KQED Public Radio in San Francisco. A veteran journalist and writer, he helped launch Streetsblog SF in 2009 and served as editor for three years. He lives car-free in the Castro District.
Recent Posts
Advocates Call on Gov. Brown to Prioritize Biking, Walking in State Budget
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This article is cross-posted from the blog of former Streetsblog SF editor Bryan Goebel, who’s aiming to launch a new website “devoted to sustained coverage of biking, walking and transit issues in Sacramento, both at the Capitol and locally.” You can also follow Bryan on Twitter. A proposal in Governor Jerry Brown’s budget that would change how the administration doles […]
In East Palo Alto, Meager Bike/Ped Funding Leads to Half-Baked Safety Fixes
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East Palo Alto was recently awarded $5 million to build a freeway off-ramp designed a decade ago that even the city’s traffic engineer admits is no longer needed because traffic volumes are down. But as part of the project, the north section of the University Avenue overpass — a treacherous but often necessary route for […]
East Palo Alto Begins Design Process for Bike/Pedestrian Overcrossing
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This is part two of our series on the proposed bike and pedestrian overcrossing in East Palo Alto. You can read part one here. During the public outreach for the proposed bike and pedestrian overcrossing in East Palo Alto, residents made clear to city planners and consultants that their main concern is safety. For decades, […]
Advocates: San Mateo County Needs Full-Time Bike/Ped Coordinator
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Margaret Pye has been bike commuting from San Carlos to her job at a law firm in Palo Alto for the past 10 years. Pedaling home on Middlefield Road through Menlo Park and Atherton, there are bike lanes, but when she gets to North Fair Oaks in unincorporated San Mateo County, the bike lanes suddenly […]
With Turnover at the Top of C/CAG, an Opportunity for Change in San Mateo
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San Mateo County has the third highest rate of driving mileage per capita in the Bay Area, behind Marin and Sonoma counties. Eighty-two percent of residents drive as their primary mode, due in part to a built environment that keeps people stuck in their cars. Low-income and transit-dependent populations who take the bus face dwindling […]
A Critical Change in Leadership Faces San Mateo County’s Planning Agency
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As San Mateo County’s congestion management agency, the City/County Association of Governments (C/CAG), is supposed to be responsible for reducing auto congestion. It also controls the purse strings on transportation projects, doling out millions of dollars in state and federal grants to the region’s 20 cities, whose appointed representatives make up the agency’s governing board. “It […]
Divided By a Highway, East Palo Alto Looks to Reconnect Its West Side
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This is the first in a series of stories on East Palo Alto’s proposed bicycle and pedestrian overcrossing. It takes Maria del Socorro Macias about 40 minutes to walk from her neighborhood on the west side of East Palo Alto to her kids’ schools on the east side of Highway 101. To get there, she […]
Bike Donation Program to Benefit East Palo Alto Elementary Students
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Brent Butler was leading a bicycle rodeo in East Palo Alto for the city’s first Streets Alive event last year when he realized just how many children were there without bikes. “What I decided to do is continue to teach the rules of the road even if we don’t have bicycles,” said Butler, the city’s […]
Streetscape and Bike Improvements on Tap for Burlingame
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Burlingame is moving forward on a project to give its downtown boulevard a much-needed facelift, and planning a number of citywide bike improvements. Key features of the four-block Burlingame Avenue Streetscape Project include a gateway, wider sidewalks, shorter crossings, street furniture, large bulb-outs, “play areas” with public chess sets and parklets. The project was approved earlier […]
San Jose Sets Out to Build the Bay Area’s Most Bike-Friendly Downtown
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San Jose — which wants its central district to become the urban center of Silicon Valley — hopes to build the Bay Area’s most bike-friendly downtown, where pedaling to work, school or the farmers market is “safe, convenient and commonplace” for people of all ages. The vision includes Long Beach-inspired bicycle-friendly business districts, where merchants would […]
Palo Alto, Choked By Famously Free Parking, May Consider Pricing the Curb
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For the first time in 15 years, Palo Alto’s outdated parking policies are being reviewed, and planners will consider recommending sustainable parking principles in the downtown core to better manage the supply. The affluent Silicon Valley city has not had a comprehensive examination of its parking strategies since 1997, when it installed four color-coded parking […]
Will San Mateo County Finally Fix a Dangerous Overpass for Cyclists?
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For the second time in a year, San Mateo County transportation officials are seeking funding for a proposal to improve conditions for bike riders at a dangerous highway interchange where a big-rig driver with a history of fatal collisions killed a 47-year-old Los Altos woman riding her bicycle less than two years ago. The Interstate 280 and […]