Fran Taylor

Fran Taylor, a senior, responds to Chron article lamenting the discomfort of older drivers

Editor's note: This is a guest op-ed that does not represent the views of Streetsblog.

Sustainable transportation advocates may read news headlines about new voter ID laws, roll their eyes at the prejudices of red-state legislators, and turn the page -- at their own peril. This seemingly unrelated issue may have far-reaching consequences for transportation policy. New state laws mandating photo ID for voters threaten to disenfranchise nondrivers, and the skewed elections that would result could lead to political control by forces hostile to transit, cities, and even Safe Routes to Schools.

Snowballs are piling up in hell. I’m about to defend car parking.

Disappointed proponents of the thwarted Cesar Chavez East plan for a road diet between Kansas and Evans were at least spared the temptation of using cliché after a contentious meeting on June 27. They couldn’t say the city was throwing bicyclists and pedestrians under the bus because there is no bus.

An SFMTA hearing room erupted into applause Friday, November 19, when John Newlin, a hearing officer at the SFMTA, ruled that the massive Cesar Chavez Street redesign should move on to the full SFMTA Board. Supporters of the plan, led by CC Puede, the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, and other community groups, swamped opposition. The hearing was the proposal’s first formal test.

Fran Taylor contributes occasionally to Streetsblog San Francisco and wrote this Op-Ed on the CPMC plans for rebuilding the St. Luke's Hospital in the Mission near where she lives.

The BP oil gusher in the Gulf of Mexico provides a fitting backdrop for the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina on August 29. Who better to connect the two disasters than longtime New Orleans community organizer Malik Rahim, who helped found Common Ground Relief in the aftermath of the 2005 catastrophe? Rahim, who calls himself a "novice cyclist but veteran activist," is tackling the 2010 spill with a 1600-mile bike ride along the Gulf and up the eastern seaboard to Washington, D.C., to raise awareness of the need to wean ourselves off fossil fuel dependence.

A new coalition launching in the coming weeks is mobilizing groups with deep roots in their communities to take on Proposition 23, a measure on the November ballot that seeks to overturn AB32, California’s landmark greenhouse gas regulation bill.  Communities United Against the Dirty Energy Proposition represents those who suffer the worst effects of greenhouse gases but often have the most trouble being heard.

One weighs 200 pounds or less, the other maybe two tons or more. One is involved in odd scuffles, the other in nearly 40,000 deaths nationwide each year. One is being targeted by the mayor and the press in San Francisco, the other sails under the radar.