Pedestrian Infrastructure
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Cesar Chavez Street Redesign a Test Case For Better Agency Coordination
It appears 2010 is the year the stewards of San Francisco's streets have marked to figure out how to cooperate with each other to design and build a better realm. While the much touted Better Streets Plan
synthesizes best practice principles and standards for street design,
the release of a new City Controller report (weeks early!) outlined
how the city family has historically failed to work together to better our streets [PDF], reminding us of the distance each agency has to
bridge before the public sees any concrete improvements.
January 20, 2010
Eyes on the Street: The Quickly Fading Market Street Safety Zones
Remember the beautiful new Calm the Safety Zone trial that we raved about in late November, with a liberal application of "frappuccino" colored paint to the pavement on Market Street? Yeah, well, now not so much.
January 13, 2010
SF Concrete Commissioner: Stop Parking on the Sidewalk!
Parking a car on the sidewalk is illegal and unsightly, as many San Franciscans know too well, but it also causes a hazard for those with visual impairments, as Lighthouse for the Blind illustrated when they began their campaign to eliminate the practice in the Sunset. And while a simple white line and the threat of consistent enforcement of the law by the MTA prompted drivers to park legally on 19th Avenue, the problem has not disappeared there or in any other district. We've seen examples of the street-cleaning, sidewalk parking ballet throughout the city on sweeping days, though the burden of moving your neighbors' five cars while they're at work has diminished since DPW cut back on their runs (leaving our streets far dirtier in the process).
January 11, 2010
Eyes on the Street: A New Sidewalk Emerges on Valencia Street
Business owners on one block of Valencia Street can see the light at the end of the tunnel after months of painful construction that made their stores less accessible to customers. Street trees, bicycle racks and pedestrian-scale lighting haven't arrived yet, but between 16th and 17th Streets, a sparkling new widened sidewalk is beckoning shoppers and diners back even before DPW crews have finished resurfacing it.
January 6, 2010
Driver Sends Woman to Hospital After Crash Near SF City Hall
A 54-year-old San Francisco woman was sent to the hospital with life-threatening injuries this morning after being hit by a driver at the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and Grove Street near San Francisco City Hall. The victim, whose name has not yet been released, was undergoing surgery this afternoon.
December 21, 2009
In Search of a Better Pedestrian Realm for Broadway in Chinatown
The stretch of Broadway between Columbus Avenue and the Robert C. Levy tunnel is an unheralded segment of San Francisco's Chinatown: storefront after storefront of neighborhood shops and restaurants, with far fewer tourists than Grant Avenue or Stockton Street. But its streetscape, though lively with pedestrians during the day, maintains much the same look it had when the Embarcadero Freeway still touched down several blocks to the east, funneling cars through the neighborhood via Broadway's four lanes of traffic, as pedestrians squeeze onto 12-foot-wide sidewalks.
December 16, 2009
McCain & Coburn: Inadvertent Transportation Reformers?
Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Tom Coburn (R-OK) are no fans of dedicated
federal spending on cleaner transportation. From bike and pedestrian safety to local transit funds, the duo has made a habit of attacking non-road projects as wasteful "pork."
December 9, 2009
“The Highway to Play a Vital Role in the Progress of Civilization”
Disney's Magic Highway USA is one of the more extraordinary examples of the myopic devotion to automobility and its infrastructure I've ever seen. It's probably also required viewing at the Reason Foundation and among Senator James Inhofe's staff in Washington DC.
November 30, 2009
Back to Civilization
Returning to Copenhagen after some years away is always a pleasant shock. Few cities in the world feel as properly scaled as this lovely old Danish capital. My mother was born and raised here, so I've been visiting off and on over the years. No doubt my own visions of what San Francisco could be, in terms of a bicycling city, have always been shaped by my experiences here in Copenhagen.
November 30, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Market Gets New Paint for Calm The Safety Zone
Though we're taking the rest of the week off for the holiday, we thought you'd be excited to see these photos, which represent the first pavement treatments for the new Calm the Safety Zone projects on Market Street, meant to improve pedestrian safety by re-enforcing the separations between motorists and pedestrians. As we reported two weeks ago, this treatment is the next phase after the stop bars were moved back from the crosswalks and fits into the larger rubric of the Better Market Street Initiative. Thanks to Dennis Lee at the Great Streets Project, who snapped these photos at 4th Street and Market.
November 24, 2009