Big Lie campaign on Polk Street continues
The bike lobby and City Hall continue their big lie campaign on Polk Street. Now it's going to be "improved" to qualify as "a Parisian boulevard," because of course American streets are so vulgar and unsophisticated. (Recall how the city turned Octavia Blvd. into a "Parisian thoroughfare" back in 2005.)
One wonders about how cool Paris is after their bike-share program led to a lot of vandalism and theft.
Paris is so cool it named one of its streets after American cop-killer Mumi Abu-Jamal, because, you understand, he's just another victim of US racism.
The MTA is deploying the safety lie about Polk Street just like it did to justify the Fell/Oak and the Masonic Avenue bike projects:
Polk Street ranks among the streets with the highest number of pedestrian injuries in San Francisco. We studied each collision and found that the majority of pedestrian collisions occurred at intersections, involved turning vehicles, and were not the fault of the people walking.
Polk Street ranks among the streets with the highest number of pedestrian injuries in San Francisco. We studied each collision and found that the majority of pedestrian collisions occurred at intersections, involved turning vehicles, and were not the fault of the people walking.
We have a right to be suspicious that this claim---like the same claim about Fell/Oak and Masonic---is not supported by any documents released to the public, like the city's annual Collision Report, where no Polk Street intersections make the city's "Highest Injury Vehicle-Pedestrian Collision Intersections" on page 21.
Labels: Anti-Car, Cycling, Cycling and Safety, Polk Street
posted by Rob Anderson @ 11:27 AM
18 comments
18 Comments:
Thanks for posting about this. SFGate refused to post the article, presumably because it would be skewered like all the Polk St. articles in the Chronicle. In this one, the author compares Polk St. to Detroit!! Is that how stupid he is or how stupid he thinks we are? Then again, you have to resort to smear when you don't have the truth on your side, right?
The bicycle spin machine never stops turning. Where do I contribute my dollars to fund a motorists rights spin machine?
Paris is better. You overstate the vandalism. Your Mumia reference shows your overt racism
Mumia has been convicted of murder, and none of his appeals were successful, even though he was busted at the scene and it was his gun that shot the cop, who was kiled execution-style. But that cop was white and Mumia is black and a Muslim, therefore he must be innocent, right?
What this article really shows is how desperate the Chronicle is for any readership, clutching at any straw as they sink.
And Paris? They're so hip and liberal in Paris.
I guess the will of the people should decide on this, even if it's a foolish one for everyone.
The reasoning for changing a street is multifaceted. You boil things down to a simple issue of safety and bike-nuts, and then knock it down. If only life were that simple, Rob.
http://streetsblog.net/2013/08/13/further-evidence-that-road-diets-dont-hurt-businesses/
When will the people of San Francisco get to "decide on this"? You supporters of this project never read anything critical of it, like you didn't read this post. There is no "safety" problem on Polk Street according to the city's own annual collision report, which I linked for you in the post. The MTA just concocted some phony numbers to push this project.
Somehow the business owners on Polk Street think they know their interests better than Streetsblog does. Gee, I wonder why?
There is no "safety" problem on Polk Street according to the city's own annual collision report
Yes there is. Manipulating the data like you do does not make the problem go away.
What "data" are you referring to? If you have something other than the published city reports, I'd like to see it.
Do you even drive on any of these roads? I bike, walk, take transit and drive on occasion. You don't even represent what a driver experiences in this city, so what authority do you have on any of these changes?
Driving on Octavia is a hell of a lot better than driving on Masonic. As for Polk, it sucks to walk around there, take transit, or bike. They want to change it for more than just safety reasons, if you actually could see through your narrow viewpoint. I pay a lot of taxes here and I use all modes of transportation and don't reflect this artificial "us vs. them" mentality that you've so painstakingly have whipped up.
You can't even write any article without some kind of angry negative divisive sequester. This isn't the 1950s anymore, when your viewpoints were relevant.
I challenge you to actually write a positive piece about something that's happening in this city transit-wise that you actually are happy about. If you can't then it's not the city that's broken, it's you.
You've seen the data. You are just interpreting it wrong
Show me where I'm misinterpreting the Collision Report that I've linked in the post. In fact not a single intersection on Polk Street is on the most dangerous intersection list in that report (page 21). The MTA simply fabricated a safety issue on Polk Street to justify all their "improvements." They should just pave the street and leave it alone.
"I challenge you to actually write a positive piece about something that's happening in this city transit-wise that you actually are happy about."
I admit that I'm not by nature a positive thinker, but I actually like Muni, which, since I don't have a car, I use to get around the city. And, as I've pointed out a number of times, Muni is the only practical alternative to owning a car in SF for most people, not riding a bike. But I don't have to commute anymore, since I'm retired, and commuting is the real test for a transit system. All the major Muni lines are standing-room-only during commute hours.
And I like the NextBus system a lot. It's the best thing Muni has ever done.
"I admit that I'm not by nature a positive thinker"
First true thing you have said.
"I actually like Muni, which, since I don't have a car"
Only because you also don't have a job. Which, not a dig, everyone deserves to retire and sit around, blog, take a couple trips to Hawaii a year, but if you have to get to work, MUNI sucks.
Trips to Hawaii? I've never been there. I live on Social Security. Yes, of course commuting by Muni isn't easy, which is my point. Instead of investing in a better Muni system, the city is squandering money on projects like the Central Subway and the MTA's 5000+ employee bureaucracy.
Good point Rob.
Do you have any ideas how a big pile of money could speed up the 24 Divis? Flying buses perhaps?
The #24 moves pretty well now. The city's Masonic Ave. bike project will slow it down. The best thing to do sometimes is nothing.
"The #24 moves pretty well now. The city's Masonic Ave. bike project will slow it down. The best thing to do sometimes is nothing."
You're thinking of the 43, not the 24. The 24 goes down Divisadero. Masonic Ave redesign has no impact on the 24.
And it doesn't move that well, and "well" is relative. Does it move faster than a car? No? Then it's not well enough. Why do european cities have great transit? Because it's faster to take than cars.
Yes, of course I meant to write "#43," not #24, though, like the #43 the #24 moves pretty well, considering that, also like the #43, there are stop signs or stoplights at every intersection. This is just a densely populated neighborhood with a lot of traffic.
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