SFist Tonight
Week Around the Ists
SFist Tonight
Two new urban planning documents in two major American cities -- our own and New York City -- are being released this week that reflect a growing a trend toward creating pedestrian-friendly environments and pushing private automobiles out of downtown congestion. A San Francisco Transportation Authority study released yesterday recommends phasing in an all-out ban of auto traffic on Market Street east of Van Ness, beginning by forcing motorists to turn right onto Eighth Street off of Market and outlawing left turns off of Hyde (the full ban, they're saying, is "shelved" for now). SFist previously noted the pilot-program street closure and temporary plaza at Castro and 17th Street, which we didn't think would move forward quite as quickly as it has.
A new manual of guidelines by the New York City Transportation Authority has just been released today, which intends to create a "single playbook" for urban planners and designers that re-emphasizes pedestrian-friendliness on city streets. The New York Times website has a fancy interactive graphic showing Carlton Avenue in Brooklyn being transformed by a tree-lined median. Also in New York, beginning this weekend, a semi-radical plan is moving forward which will close portions of Broadway at Times Square and Herald Square to car traffic altogether, creating pedestrian-only plazas and diverting traffic onto Seventh Avenue.
We think they should just start charging a $10 toll to get into both cities and cut down on the we-don't-know-where-we're-going-is-this-a-one-way-street? bullshit once and for all.
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I like the idea of the "plaza" in the Castro but the execution is another story. What good is it with the F-market still running through there??
Dude, the F-train is the best part about the plaza. It's like, front row seats to the show.
If you went to the plaza this Saturday you'd find almost every one of those chairs and granite benches with a butt on it, late into the night. So apparently, the F-line doesn't matter much at all. Maybe the people-watching is so entertaining the trolley just fades into the background. (this is the Castro, afterall...)
After spending time in the plaza myself, I think it's kind of neat to watch the F-Market turn through. The trolleys kinda get lost in the hub-bub of Market Street but in the plaza you really notice how colorful and unique they are. Puts them on display akin to the Cable Cars on Powell.
I'd like to propose making a pedestrian/bicycle plaza right down the middle 3 lanes of Folsom and use the outside lanes for allowing vehicles to safely (25 MPH limit) drive through SoMa.
Either that or BRT down Folsom.
The traffic in SOMA is incredibly dangerous, drivers don't even pretend to look where they're going.
"We think they should just start charging a $10 toll to get into both cities and cut down on the we-don't-know-where-we're-going-is-this-a-one-way-street? bullshit once and for all."
Amen!
Allow me to be the first.
Closing down Market Street from 8th to Embarcadero will turn into a world class cluster fuck. Van Ness and Embarcadero will become impassable, pushing traffic loads onto back streets and clogging up everything heading north through the city.
I give it exactly 3 weeks before they realize what a mess they will have caused.
Alternative?
http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=114015866436347201682.00046a5faf2dae38dd3c5&z=16&mid=1242860842
Aside from this is there really a need for it? Are the sidewalks so unusably clogged along Market that we need to have the entire street as well? We'll just end up with a bunch of wasted, unused space and even worse congestion elsewhere. Not to mention keeping people stuck on the wrong side of Market and putting even further traffic into side streets as they try to work their way around streets that aren't designed to handle that sort of load.
That's already part of our traffic problems. We try to rely on overused arteries, but also forbid turning onto or off of them in most places so we end up with severe funneling problems that simply create overflow to nearby streets and ends up causing even more congestion.
I don't drive around town except on incredibly rare occasions, but even I can see that this is a flawed and short-sighted plan. It's not about cars vs. pedestrians vs. transit vs. cyclists, but about creating a unified approach that will serve everyone's needs best. Too often we forget this and just go with the flavor of the month creating problems that will likely never be fully corrected.
The point on Market is to reduce auto traffic to let the buses and bikes get through, not to expand the sidewalks. Many more commuters take buses on Market than cars, and they get stuck easily.
I'm not sure about the right turn though. If there's not a green right arrow with a red light for pedestrians, the traffic will never get through, or there will be a bunch of accidents.
Well, the real problem is that we're trying to use buses so heavily. It's not a reasonable solution and we need to heavily expand our subways. Yes, the current subways go to Market, but that's just about the only place they do go reliably. We need to start using buses only for local, last mile transit. It won't solve for bikes (and if the current systems are any indication we won't be allowed to have bikes on them), but it'll be a lot easier trying to find room for bikes than trying to do both.
@Robinsf
Do you think they're closing all the intersections? Nobody's advocating that, you're imagining it.