Traffic Calming
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News from NY: What We Can Learn from Times Square’s Public Spaces
When Tim Tompkins took over as President of the Times Square Alliance, one of New York City's largest Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), the primary concerns were the security and cleanliness of the most iconic, if chaotic, public space in the world. Despite incessant traffic and pedestrian gridlock ("pedlock" to borrow Tompkin's phrase), his Board of Directors and city officials on the whole weren't initially interested in Tompkins' vision for transforming Times Square into a world-class public space, with less traffic and higher design concepts.
October 28, 2009
It’s Time to Turn Oak and Fell Into Slow Streets
The SFMTA's plans to install freeway-style traffic information signs on Oak and Fell Streets were not very popular, to say the least, at last week's meeting of the North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association.
September 24, 2009
NoPa Neighborhood Fights to Calm its Residential Freeway
In a city where people and cars regularly jostle for space, it's not uncommon to have speeding traffic just inches or feet from pedestrians, homes, and parks. This spatial conflict is especially pronounced on Fell and Oak Streets, which serve all at once as de facto residential highways, major bike thoroughfares, and densely built-up residential and commercial streets, their sidewalks bustling with people on their way home or visiting the Panhandle.
September 17, 2009
Reaction to Market Street Pilot Seems Overwhemingly Positive
The series of trials scheduled to begin September 29 on Market Street are still seeping into the public's awareness, but so far, pedestrians, bicyclists, and transit riders seem to share an excitement about the plan, which will reduce traffic by forcing eastbound private automobiles to turn right at 6th and 8th Streets, and enliven the city's main thoroughfare with art projects, mini-plazas and entertainment.
September 10, 2009
Bay Bridge Closure Temporarily Tames Some of SF’s Worst Traffic Sewers
The streets of SoMa were eerily silent today, in the words of one resident, who took a break from working at home to enjoy walking his dog down a pleasantly calm Harrison Street. Gone was the persistent hum of Bay Bridge traffic, both overhead and on feeder streets. The first Bay Bridge workday closure since the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake seemed to bring an unusual tranquility to SoMa's worst traffic sewers.
September 4, 2009
Bay Bridge Closure Inspires Curiosity Among Livable Streets Advocates
The Bay Bridge closure this weekend will be the third in four years, and drivers are starting to figure out alternatives, including taking BART, carpooling on other bridges, and simply avoiding unnecessary trips. But this year's closure is different from those in 2006 and 2007: for the first time, the Bay Bridge will have a planned closure on a regular workday. No one knows what that will entail for certain, but BART will likely be packed, and the streets around Rincon Hill and much of South of Market may be strangely calm.
September 2, 2009
Eyes on the Street: Hit-and-Run Intersection Hazardous to Pedestrians
Details are still trickling in about last Tuesday's hit-and-run crash near the intersection of Van Ness Avenue and California Street that left a 31-year-old San Francisco woman in the hospital with life-threatening injuries, but a visit to the intersection revealed plenty of hazards to pedestrians that could easily result in future injuries.
August 17, 2009
Supervisor Mar Holds Better Streets Town Hall Meeting in the Richmond
San Francisco’s Richmond District is blessed with stunning vistas of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Pacific Ocean, but its street grid has turned its roads into feeder freeways, a fact that bedevils residents and pedestrian and bicycle advocacy organizations and has prompted calls for traffic calming and beautification.
June 1, 2009
For a City of Panhandles! Copenhagenize it!
We’ve been waiting for years now to see some physical changes to accommodate the huge increase in daily bicycling. We did get an odd set of painted bike lanes and green bike route signs, and a significant number of bike racks for parking, before it all came to a halt due to the injunction three years ago. After perusing the much-anticipated Draft Bicycle Plan and its dense bureaucratese, full of overlapping redundant promises, I’m afraid we’ll be waiting a good while longer to see the kinds of changes that we ought to be getting.
May 19, 2009
Bayview Merchants Hopeful Sunday Streets Will Bring Business
It's been reported that the Fisherman's Wharf merchants who vocally opposed Sunday Streets along the Embarcadero last year now proclaim their support for the day and are programming numerous events to coincide with the street closures this Sunday. But merchants in Bayview never voiced concerns last year and this year they are preparing to capitalize on the car-free hours when the second of six Sunday Streets happens on May 10th.
April 21, 2009