[Carfreeliving] Complete streets in SF?

[Dave Snyder]

I agree with Josh and Mike. We need a bike network -- facilities 
including exclusive and high quality bike lanes, high quality bike 
paths, and shared lanes where side-by-side slow speed bike riding is 
the social norm -- that is utterly contiguous and reaches to within a 
quarter-mile of every reasonable destination, and wherever possible 
provides the most direct and desirable connection between two points. 
We don't need a bike lane on every street, but the sooner we know 
what a complete bike network will look like, the sooner we can start 
implementing it and put the transit vs. bike fights behind us. As 
noted, the network improvement document will spell out a network, and 
either in the iteration that's before the MTA shortly or in future 
iterations, it needs to express what a complete network will look 
like. That requires a little more conceptual planning and the 
development of minimum quality standards for a "network street." I'm 
looking forward to seeing those projects implemented, now that the 
bike plan process is behind us.

Dave



At 2:59 PM -0700 5/25/05, Joshua Switzky wrote:
>I actually don't agree that bike lanes should be accommodated on ALL
>streets, particularly Van Ness and Geary. These major transit streets need
>major transit infrastructure. It will be hard enough to devote existing
>shared lanes to transit only, and to suggest that we ought to either reduce
>autos to only one lane in each direction or get rid of the curb parking
>(these are really the only options), I think we would be both butting our
>heads against a brick wall and suggesting somewhat extreme solutions to
>problems that don't necessarily exist.  I personally don't think that Van
>Ness or Geary need bike lanes if there are immediately parallel streets
>that are bike-friendly and serve the same corridor. I think there are far
>more important and worthwhile battles to fight than these. Let's focus on
>just completing the bike network and throw our full weight behind these key
>transit projects. These streets needs a lot of work just to make them good
>transit streets.
>my two cents.
>-j
>
>
>
> 
>                                                                                                                                     
>                       Emily 
>Drennen                                                                                                   
>                       <bicyclesf at yahoo.com>             To: 
>Carfreeliving at livablecity.org                                       
>                       Sent by:                          cc: 
>Walk SF Board <board at walksf.org>                                    
>                       Carfreeliving-bounces at liva        Subject: 
>[Carfreeliving] Complete streets in SF?                             
> 
>blecity.org                                                                                                     
> 
>                                                                                                                                     
> 
>                                                                                                                                     
>                       05/25/2005 02:14 
>PM                                                                                             
> 
>                                                                                                                                     
>
>
>
>
>  Hi all-
>
>
>  I am wondering how folks feel about working together to pass a "Complete
>  the Streets" policy here in SF (see www.thunderheadalliance.org for more
>  info). The complete street concept is that *all* streets should serve
>  bikes and walkers (and transit, where applicable)- not just certain
>  streets.
>
>
>  Politically, the bike network concept has succeeded in shifting public and
>  political support towards accommodating bikes. And, while the network idea
>  has been so far successful for bikes, I think we need to look beyond the
>  network model to expecting bike accommodations on all city streets as part
>  of a "complete street" model. (Peds, esp., need to be accommodated on
>  every street because networks just aren't appropriate for peds.)
>
>
>  I know the SFBC has a lot of work and policy already invested in the bike
>  network concept. Any thoughts about adding in a new layer through a
>  "complete streets" push, while retaining a focus on the core route
>  network?
>
>
>  An example of the many places where the bike network model bites us in the
>  butt: the redesigns on Geary and Van Ness Avenues to include BRT don't
>  include bike facilities b/c "they aren't on the bike network". These great
>  streets could (and should!) include bike lanes, even if Polk St bike lanes
>  are right near Van Ness, and there are other bike lanes on streets near
>  Geary.
>
>
>  Ross' resolution to require bike and ped accommodations whenever roads are
>  built/rebuilt (the local "good roads" bill) is a great start. Is anybody
>  involved with his office on this resolution? This could be the vehicle (so
>  to speak) for making complete streets a city policy. Anybody interested in
>  helping on this?
>
>
>  Thanks,
>
>
>  Emily
>
>
>
>
>
>
>Emily Drennen
>
>415/863-2248
>bicyclesf at yahoo.com
>www.emilydrennen.org
>
>Acting Executive Director, Walk San Francisco
>Advisory Council Member, Bay Area Air Quality Management District
>Citizen's Advisory Committee Member, Metropolitian Transportation Agency
>Past Chair, SF Bicycle Advisory Committee
>
>
>Do You Yahoo!?
>Yahoo! Small Business - Try our new Resources site!
>_______________________________________________
>Carfreeliving at livablecity.org mailing list
>to facilitate and promote car-free living in SF
>To unsubscribe:
>mailto:Carfreeliving-request at livablecity.org?subject=unsubscribe
>or, for all options, go to:
>http://livablecity.org/mailman/listinfo/carfreeliving_livablecity.org
>
>
>
>
>_______________________________________________
>Carfreeliving at livablecity.org mailing list
>to facilitate and promote car-free living in SF
>To unsubscribe: 
>mailto:Carfreeliving-request at livablecity.org?subject=unsubscribe
>or, for all options, go to:
>http://livablecity.org/mailman/listinfo/carfreeliving_livablecity.org