Pedestrian Infrastructure
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Community Rallies Around Fisherman’s Wharf Public Realm Plan
After several years of planning, including intense negotiations between merchants, property owners and neighbors who didn't always see eye-to-eye, the San Francisco Planning Department unveiled a comprehensive draft plan last week to revitalize public space and pedestrian amenities around Fisherman's Wharf, the second most-visited tourist attraction in California behind
Disneyland. The plan details numerous deficiencies that degrade the pedestrian experience and proposes design guidelines for public and private investment to transform the district into a world-class waterfront.
June 15, 2010
SFMTA: Market Street Traffic Pilot is Meeting Its Objectives
It appears the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency has come to similar conclusions to Streetsblog's in its review of the pilot traffic changes on Market Street at 6th and 10th Streets: A big thumbs-up for transit, bike riders, and people on foot, relatively minor impacts on traffic, and some uneven results when it comes to driver compliance with the new configuration.
June 7, 2010
Cyclists Laud LaHood’s Bike-Ped Advocacy
Several dozen cyclists rode to U.S. DOT headquarters today to present
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood with a letter signed by hundreds of
local bike-ped groups, hailing the former GOP congressman's support for
their cause during his first 16 months on the job.
May 28, 2010
Technology and Impotence
The BP oil spill goes on. And on. We watch the oil on live web cam pouring into the Gulf of Mexico. And we watch. Political rage is muted, practical responses even more distant. What to do? How do we “take action” on something like this? How can individuals meaningfully respond to this catastrophe? Stop driving? Boycott one brand of gas? Stop buying things made of plastic?
May 28, 2010
The Broadway Tunnel: One of SF’s Meanest Streets for Biking and Walking
The Broadway tunnel, stretching from Hyde Street in Russian Hill to Powell Street in Chinatown, is one of the scariest places in San Francisco to ride a bike, and it's no walk in the park for pedestrians, either.
May 25, 2010
Streets for Walking, Part 2: Dan Burden on Building Support for Change
Last week Streetsblog spoke to walkability expert Dan Burden about
how new design guidelines for urban streets can replace the suburban,
car-oriented standards that have become the norm throughout America
(read the interview here).
April 15, 2010
Bay Area Cities Rediscover the Creeks Under Their Streets
(Editor's note: This is Part 1 in a 3-part series on the Bay Area watershed)
April 9, 2010
Making Streets for Walking: Dan Burden on Reforming Design Standards
One of the foundational documents in our country's history of
car-centric street design is what's known as the Green Book. These
engineering guidelines, which have been published in various editions by
the American Association
of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) since the 1930s,
are only "green" if you're looking at the cover.
April 8, 2010
Newsom Christens New Mojo Cafe “Parklet,” Pledges More to Come
With scores of people crowding the sidewalk and taking up one lane of traffic on Divisadero in front of Mojo Bicycle Cafe, Mayor Gavin Newsom, Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and city department heads heralded a new "parklet" sidewalk extension as a piece of a growing trend of re-purposing street space for people instead of cars. The new trial parklet was built into the space formerly occupied by two parked vehicles, providing several hundred square feet of public space and benches, tables, planters and bike racks.
March 18, 2010
New York City’s Broadway Pedestrian Zone to Become Permanent
Hopefully you don't seethe too much about how many parsecs ahead of us New York City is in reclaiming space for people from cars, but we thought we'd share this momentous news from Streetsblog NY. Looks like Mayor Bloomberg has made a complete one-eighty from his position on traffic just a few years ago. The news actually gives us hope that Mayor Newsom, or his successor, will feel the Livable Streets spirit deep in his soul, too.
February 11, 2010