Causes of traffic congestion
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| Masonic Avenue |
“Traffic schooling” (Editorial, Oct. 22) does not mention two related, very significant, causes of increased traffic congestion in our city: construction and bike lanes. Bike lanes are taking away lanes previously available to cars, often making one lane in place of two.
The decisions creating this cause of traffic congestion are typically made by relatively young and healthy idealists who expect all of us will suddenly get on a bicycle. This option is not available to the handicapped, seniors, people with jobs out of town, or parents of small children.
The construction boom should be good for us, except it causes street and lane closures and the projects seem to pop up with no planning and seem to be endless. Neither of these factors is mentioned as part of the referenced. That makes me wonder how much the study was truly interested in the objective truth and is instead meant as a weapon to use against Uber and Lyft, two companies introducing highly successful and creative business models.
Paul Wildes
Paul Wildes
San Francisco
Labels: Anti-Car, SF Chronicle, SF Weekly, Traffic in SF
posted by Rob Anderson @ 11:10 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Seattle businesses and drivers having enough in Seattle, years after Rob Ford got elected in Toronto by campaigning against the insanity.
https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/transportation/amid-threats-and-rising-tensions-seattle-hires-mediator-over-35th-avenue-northeast-road-project/
The thing that makes me sooooo angry is that SFMTA NEVER consults with residents before making changes. The staff...some freshly minted planners from the UC Berkeley planning program seem to know what's best for everyone without even consulting us. Seems that planning schools use to make a big deal about inclusion in planning efforts. Guess that concept when out the window!!
Wonder if the SF Bike Coalition staff who have since got jobs at SFMTA had anything to do with it. Oh and by the way did you see the political sign up in the windows of SF Bike Coalitions office on Market street? I always thought tax-exemptions for 503 c organization meant they were to be apolitical?? Whats with the campaign signs??
It's not accurate to say that the SFMTA doesn't consult with residents before making changes. The MTA has developed a tactic that it uses over and over again so that it can honestly say it carried out "community outreach". It holds public open-house meetings in which it solicits resident feedback on all the "options" it is considering for screwing up your local street, months before the MTA Board rubber-stamps the eventual choice and before the bulldozers and painters arrive.
Here's the catch: the status quo is NEVER one of the options presented. Residents who prefer that their street stay as it is, or close to it, are never offered a flip chart on which to vote their preference.
They ruined the streets. Removing parking spaces and traffic lanes and selling offcity owned parking lots to private developers for "affordable housing"(market rate).
A few years back they first said that oh well traffic is being caused because too many cars circling the block looking for parking. Alright the solution raise the parking meter rates. A few years after that they blamed it on Uber. Then they blame it on oh it's out of towhees coming into sf causing the traffic out solution for it is congestion pricing. It's never ending.
Let's cause a problem in the city and then ask for more money to fix it. What a fucking hustle.
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