Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Car Culture

New Data Shows Most Trips in SF Are Made Without a Private Automobile

By Aaron Bialick | Feb 3, 2015 | 40 Comments

San Franciscans don’t drive nearly as much as previously thought, according to new SFMTA survey data. But the needle hasn’t moved much in recent years either. More than 50 percent of trips in San Francisco are made without a private automobile — and it’s been that way for at least three years, according to travel […]

American Driver’s Ed Is a Joke

By Stephen Miller | Sep 16, 2014

Want a driver’s license? It’s easy. Fill out some paperwork and pop on over to the DMV to take a 20-question test for your learner’s permit. Then, get in some practice with a licensed driver. (But if you’re over 18, you can just ignore that part!) Then sit through a five-hour course before taking a […]

This post is supported by GJEL Accident Attorneys

Car-Free Households Are Booming in San Francisco

By Aaron Bialick | Aug 15, 2014 | 78 Comments

San Francisco is quickly adding residents, but very few cars. Between 2000 and 2012, the city has seen a net increase of 11,139 households, and 88 percent of them have been car-free. That’s according to an analysis of U.S. Census data by Michael Rhodes, a transportation planner at Nelson\Nygaard and a former Streetsblog reporter. One net result […]

Car-Free Lombard Street, Filled With People, is KPIX’s Vision of “Chaos”

By Aaron Bialick | Jun 23, 2014 | 37 Comments

Last weekend, San Francisco’s world-famous crooked block of Lombard Street saw most of its car traffic disappear as part of a month-long trial, opening the street up for people. The SFMTA’s goal is to eliminate the gridlock caused by tourist drivers who queue up for blocks to cruise down the street. To KPIX, SF’s CBS affiliate, however, […]

“Closing” Lombard Street: The Language of Taking Cars For Granted

By Aaron Bialick | May 23, 2014 | 97 Comments

A peculiar thing tends to happen when we talk about streets and transportation: We don’t talk about cars. Seriously — listen to conversations, read news headlines, and you’ll start to notice that even when cars are the main subject, people will, consciously or unconsciously, fail to explicitly mention them. This phenomenon was particularly apparent to […]

Free Parking Forever: Motorhead Group Wants to “Restore Balance” in SF

By Aaron Bialick | Apr 24, 2014 | 53 Comments

The vast majority of San Francisco’s street space is devoted primarily to moving and storing cars, and most of that curbside parking for private automobiles is given away for free. Most of the city’s street infrastructure is not paid for by fees related to driving, so it is disproportionately bankrolled by those who don’t drive, […]

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