Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Car-Free Streets

Sup. Christensen Gives Tentative Support for Car-Free Powell Street

By Aaron Bialick | Sep 4, 2015 | 1 Comment

District 3 Supervisor Julie Christensen offered tentative support for the car-free Powell Street trial proposed for Union Square. The SFMTA hopes to have a pilot project in place in November, in time for the holiday shopping season, but it has met some resistance from the Union Square Business Improvement District because delivery vehicles would be banned during daytime […]

SFMTA Proposes a Car-Free Powell Street in Union Square

By Aaron Bialick | Aug 26, 2015 | 19 Comments

The SFMTA has proposed making crowded, traffic-clogged Powell Street in Union Square a car-free street on a trial basis. Removing cars from the equation would make the street function better for pedestrians and cable cars on the blocks between Ellis and Geary Streets. As we wrote last year, it makes little sense to have cars on Powell, which […]

Eyes on the Street: Twitter’s Alley-Turned-Plaza Bustles Near Civic Center

By Aaron Bialick | Jul 30, 2015 | 7 Comments

A plaza is bustling with life several months after its creation on a segment of the Stevenson Street alleyway at 10th Street, next to the Twitter offices. The “Market Square” plaza is a privately-owned public open space built as part of Twitter’s office construction and renovations. That intersection of the mid-Market, SoMa, and Civic Center areas was relatively dead just a few […]

New York City Now Has Permanently Car-Free Roads in Two Major Parks

By Stephen Miller | Jul 7, 2015

A week after New York City’s Central Park went mostly car-free, today marked the beginning of the permanent car-free zone on the west side of Prospect Park [PDF]. Leading up to today, the traffic shortcuts through Prospect Park had been gradually winnowed down to one lane on the west side during the evening rush and one lane […]

This post is supported by GJEL Accident Attorneys

Cars Will Remain on the Crooked Block of Lombard Street Until at Least 2016

By Aaron Bialick | Jun 24, 2015 | 13 Comments

Cars will continue to fill the crooked block of Lombard Street until at least 2016. Although the trial car closures last summer were seen as a success, the gears of city bureaucracy appear to have slowed the momentum for going permanently car-free. It will take until December for the city to issue a report on the restrictions. No timeline […]

This post is supported by GJEL Accident Attorneys

Should SF Streets Go Car-Free to Make Room for Nightlife?

By Aaron Bialick | Feb 24, 2015 | 28 Comments

Polk, Valencia, Castro, Broadway — when bar patrons crowd these streets at night, should they go car-free? While the idea may be novel to San Francisco, many other cities have done it. Up the coast in Vancouver, British Columbia, downtown Granville Street is often closed to cars on bustling weekend nights for people to roam […]

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