Community, Advocacy and Labor

The SF Planning Commission unanimously approved a major housing development at 55 Laguna Street yesterday, despite an excessive amount of car parking that livable streets advocates say should be lowered under stricter parking maximums.

Police are still looking into whether charges could be filed against the taxi driver who allegedly ran a red light at Eddy and Larkin Streets Saturday, causing a car crash that killed pedestrian Edmund Capalla, the SF Examiner reports. The driver has reportedly yet to be arrested or cited.

The San Francisco Civil Grand Jury released a report [PDF] today blasting Muni's regular practice of dumping riders and turning vehicles around early.

With bikes let loose on this morning's rush hour BART commute, all signs indicate that things went as smoothly -- if not better -- than usual. Our most recent search on the Twittersphere turns up not a single complaint, and reps from the East Bay and San Francisco Bicycle Coalitions, as well as BART, are reporting generally positive comments.

A long-awaited bicycle connection linking Market Street to northbound Polk Street is on the horizon. The two southernmost blocks of Polk, which currently only allow southbound traffic, could get a protected contra-flow bike lane by this time next year.

Three months after San Francisco's first parking-protected bike lanes were striped on John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park, the street continues to thrive as a calmer, safer place all users. The flocks of people using the lanes this summer appear to include more families than ever, and by and large, drivers and pedestrians seem to have adapted well to the new configuration.

Josh Calder, who killed 22-year-old bicyclist Nils Yannick Linke in a drunk driving hit-and-run on Masonic Avenue nearly two years ago, was sentenced yesterday to one year in county jail followed by five years of probation. If he violates that probation, he will serve another eight years in state prison.

If you follow just about any major media coverage of street etiquette and safety, by now you've probably seen a piece vilifying people on bikes for "running" stop signs. But hop on a bike yourself, and you'll start to see why safely rolling and yielding at stop signs makes sense.

The Oakland City Council on Tuesday unanimously approved the 9.5-mile East Bay Bus Rapid Transit line that will run from downtown Oakland to San Leandro. The vote in Oakland follows a similar approval by San Leandro’s City Council on Monday.