Community, Advocacy and Labor

Plan Bay Area, the 25-year regional development and transportation funding strategy, was approved by the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments last night. The commissions passed a plan that includes some highway expansions and won't meet the region's own goals for sustainable transportation, according to projections, but which nevertheless represents a step forward for smart growth.

All the way down the Peninsula, excitement around the pilot launch of Bay Area Bike Share comes tempered with a dose of concern about the small number of bikes that will be clustered around Caltrain stations in five cities.

Updated 5:16 p.m. with corrections on the number of blocks.

Two blocks in the Western Addition were closed to cars and turned into a neighborhood gathering space Saturday for the city's first "Play Streets" event. The program is an effort to build on the success of Sunday Streets and provide smaller-scale car-free spaces where people can play and socialize on a more frequent basis.

Muni shouldn't cut service to save money while school's out for summer, the SF Transit Riders Union said in a statement yesterday. SFTRU is speaking out against what they call the SFMTA's double standard of reducing transit service in "the blink of an eye" while deliberating smart parking policy changes for years.

As if San Francisco's sidewalks weren't narrow enough, they're often cluttered with objects like newspaper racks, utility poles, street signs, and utility boxes.

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

Members of the SF Police Commission, a civilian body charged with police oversight, urged SFPD officials at a hearing last week to focus their traffic enforcement efforts on the greatest danger facing people walking: driver violations.

I know it's tempting to gloat.