Candidate Position Paper on City Traffic
Manuel Jimenez – The Quality of Live Candidate
Candidate Position Paper on City Traffic
www.vicioustwist.com
January 24, 2006
Most people riding bicycles in San Francisco, live in San Francisco. Yet, San Francisco's streets in and around the financial district, are laid out to accommodate commercial vehicles and commuters, at the expense of the quality of life of San Franciscans. Commuters drive their SUV's from faraway suburbs, to aggressively travel at dangerous speeds in and out of the city. This means a lot of one-way streets that act as dangerous inner city freeways. The liberal use of one-way streets means that persons utilizing alternative forms of transportation, such as bicyclists have to travel twice the distance to get to a road going the right direction. This may not mean much for a car, but for cyclists it means a lot.
Because the roads are set up to facilitate commercial and commuter traffic to move fast on surface streets, drivers resent bicyclists as slow moving obstacles. The irony is that people from far away places believe that San Franciscan bicyclists are out of place and in "their" way.
I can't count the number of times some indignant, self-righteous, irrationally frustrated driver (invariably on his way home to Petaluma or Alamo or somewhere) has tried to force me out of the way by positioning his urban tank dangerously close to me. Even the most diminutive person in a SUV becomes an aggressive and dangerous driver on the city streets.
Think I'm exaggerating? Sarah Tucker was killed on January 12, 2006 when she was a victim of hit and run. A black Honda CRV SUV hit Sarah at the intersection of Polk and Geary Streets. The vehicle ran red light as she was bicycling and she slammed into the Honda. The driver failed to stop, turned off his exterior lights, and sped away.
On November 17, 2000, in San Francisco, Christopher Robertson, a bicycle messenger, was riding with 15 friends in a funeral procession for fellow bike messenger Joseph Woods. The procession was riding down 4th Street in the South of Market area of San Francisco. A tractor-trailer came up behind the procession. Enraged that the group was occupying the lane, the driver began weaving his tractor-trailer side-to-side, and blowing his horn. He pulled alongside the group and shouted, before swerving into the group and crushing Chris under his rig. Christopher Robertson died on the streets of San Francisco. (DeMocker, Judy, When Good Drivers Go Bad@, San Francisco Examiner, December 11, 2000). One need only go observe the Messenger Memorial Board maintained by the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association to see the casualties of San Francisco’s poor traffic planning.
One solution that organizations like the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has been pushing for are bicycle lanes. Unfortunately, many drivers think that these lanes transform into "double park" spaces when they put on their emergency lights. Bicyclist then must veer out into the fast moving traffic.
Another traffic disaster for bicyclist is Market Street. For much of Market Street there are no bicycle lanes. Traffic on market is heavy, with automobiles, commercial trucks, streetcars and buses squeezed together. The tight fit is exacerbated by bus drop off islands. The center two lanes of Market have streetcar tracks running down them. At various points there are metal grates that look like shredders, allowing for the circulation of air for the subway that runs under the street. Not just one subway mind you, but two subways systems run under Market; Muni and Bart.
Streets north of Market form a "V" as they intersect Market at a 45 degree angle. The streets to the south are perpendicular. At any given intersection you have upward of four streets coming together at different angles. The intersections are dangerous and unpredictable, as is Market Street itself. In other words, Market Street makes accommodations for all forms of traffic, with the exception of bicycles.
I propose:
1. All roads with traffic lane demarcation in San Francisco have bicycle lanes.
2. That Enforcement of laws requiring people not to park or obstruct bicycle lanes be a priority, and fines be significantly increased.
3. Accommodation of bicycles on ALL public transit, including MUNI.
4. Synchronized lights on all one-way streets to keep traffic flowing at or below the speed limit.
5. Conduct a study for a program that would close all streets to motor-vehicle traffic on which MUNI trains run.
6. Conduct a study for a program that restricts large commercial traffic on city streets during rush hours.
7. Double the fines for speeding or dangerous driving during rush hours.
Candidate Position Paper on City Traffic
www.vicioustwist.com
January 24, 2006
Most people riding bicycles in San Francisco, live in San Francisco. Yet, San Francisco's streets in and around the financial district, are laid out to accommodate commercial vehicles and commuters, at the expense of the quality of life of San Franciscans. Commuters drive their SUV's from faraway suburbs, to aggressively travel at dangerous speeds in and out of the city. This means a lot of one-way streets that act as dangerous inner city freeways. The liberal use of one-way streets means that persons utilizing alternative forms of transportation, such as bicyclists have to travel twice the distance to get to a road going the right direction. This may not mean much for a car, but for cyclists it means a lot.
Because the roads are set up to facilitate commercial and commuter traffic to move fast on surface streets, drivers resent bicyclists as slow moving obstacles. The irony is that people from far away places believe that San Franciscan bicyclists are out of place and in "their" way.
I can't count the number of times some indignant, self-righteous, irrationally frustrated driver (invariably on his way home to Petaluma or Alamo or somewhere) has tried to force me out of the way by positioning his urban tank dangerously close to me. Even the most diminutive person in a SUV becomes an aggressive and dangerous driver on the city streets.
Think I'm exaggerating? Sarah Tucker was killed on January 12, 2006 when she was a victim of hit and run. A black Honda CRV SUV hit Sarah at the intersection of Polk and Geary Streets. The vehicle ran red light as she was bicycling and she slammed into the Honda. The driver failed to stop, turned off his exterior lights, and sped away.
On November 17, 2000, in San Francisco, Christopher Robertson, a bicycle messenger, was riding with 15 friends in a funeral procession for fellow bike messenger Joseph Woods. The procession was riding down 4th Street in the South of Market area of San Francisco. A tractor-trailer came up behind the procession. Enraged that the group was occupying the lane, the driver began weaving his tractor-trailer side-to-side, and blowing his horn. He pulled alongside the group and shouted, before swerving into the group and crushing Chris under his rig. Christopher Robertson died on the streets of San Francisco. (DeMocker, Judy, When Good Drivers Go Bad@, San Francisco Examiner, December 11, 2000). One need only go observe the Messenger Memorial Board maintained by the San Francisco Bike Messenger Association to see the casualties of San Francisco’s poor traffic planning.
One solution that organizations like the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has been pushing for are bicycle lanes. Unfortunately, many drivers think that these lanes transform into "double park" spaces when they put on their emergency lights. Bicyclist then must veer out into the fast moving traffic.
Another traffic disaster for bicyclist is Market Street. For much of Market Street there are no bicycle lanes. Traffic on market is heavy, with automobiles, commercial trucks, streetcars and buses squeezed together. The tight fit is exacerbated by bus drop off islands. The center two lanes of Market have streetcar tracks running down them. At various points there are metal grates that look like shredders, allowing for the circulation of air for the subway that runs under the street. Not just one subway mind you, but two subways systems run under Market; Muni and Bart.
Streets north of Market form a "V" as they intersect Market at a 45 degree angle. The streets to the south are perpendicular. At any given intersection you have upward of four streets coming together at different angles. The intersections are dangerous and unpredictable, as is Market Street itself. In other words, Market Street makes accommodations for all forms of traffic, with the exception of bicycles.
I propose:
1. All roads with traffic lane demarcation in San Francisco have bicycle lanes.
2. That Enforcement of laws requiring people not to park or obstruct bicycle lanes be a priority, and fines be significantly increased.
3. Accommodation of bicycles on ALL public transit, including MUNI.
4. Synchronized lights on all one-way streets to keep traffic flowing at or below the speed limit.
5. Conduct a study for a program that would close all streets to motor-vehicle traffic on which MUNI trains run.
6. Conduct a study for a program that restricts large commercial traffic on city streets during rush hours.
7. Double the fines for speeding or dangerous driving during rush hours.
posted by vicioustwist at 8:34 PM
1 Comments:
There is a flaw to this...
Pedestrians.
I work in the financial district and every day I see people crossing against the light, nearly or sometimes actually getting hit by very slow moving vehicles because they leap out in front of vehicles who have the right of way. Enforcement might retrain some of them, but every slow moving, going-against-the-light pedestrian is bringing all traffic to a stop, including the bikes.
Tickets and a lot of press might clear that up though.
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