People

San Francisco is considered one of the leading American cities in the growing movement to tear down freeways. Fortunately, San Franciscans got a head start by averting the freeway-riddled fate of most other American cities in the 20th century by successfully protesting the construction of most of the proposed structures, which would have torn apart some of the city's most livable neighborhoods.

Supervisor London Breed has issued a statement explaining her Twitter comments yesterday on safer streets for bicycling which led her to delete her account. Breed had responded to an inquiry sent out by Twitter user Patrick Traughber to every city supervisor and a few other city officials, asking, "In your opinion, what is the biggest obstacle to creating safer streets for bicycling in San Francisco?"

In response to a Twitter inquiry this morning about what she deems to be "the "biggest obstacle to creating safer streets for bicycling," D5 Supervisor London Breed blamed "the bad behavior of some bicyclist" [sic]. She then argued with several Twitter users before suddenly deleting her Twitter account.

The SF Fire Department tried to delete an amendment to the fire code that would allow city agencies greater flexibility in widening sidewalks to improve pedestrian safety, according to Supervisor Scott Wiener, who championed the measure.

Bay Area Bike Share's celeste-colored fleet of bikes is now part of the streetscape in downtown San Francisco. At many of the city's 35 stations, people took bikes for a spin as soon as the system went live at noon today, while curious observers said they were likely to use it as a convenient way to get around SoMa and the Financial District.

At the press conference held yesterday for the sentencing of Chris Bucchere, it was clear that District Attorney George Gascón's rhetoric concerning traffic safety has evolved somewhat, toward a more accurate reflection of the dangers on city streets. In a departure from the "message to cyclists" that was his focus last month, Gascón emphasized that "traffic safety is a shared responsibility," regardless of one's mode of transport:

Donald Shoup may be known as a guru of smart parking policy, but even he has found a few surprises in the data collected so far from SFpark.

For those who dream of better transportation options on San Francisco's streets, which were engineered in the 20th century to maximize space for cars at the expense of safety and efficient transit, the lack of city leadership on two recent major re-design projects has been troubling.

Thanks to Lisa Ratner for shooting this video on Polk last Friday.