Defining our terms

Photo: Jim Herd

Letter to the editor in yesterday's SF Chronicle:

Transit First defined

San Francisco has long had a Transit First policy. The city government has done a great job of eliminating parking spaces and lanes of traffic to make it increasingly impossible to drive and park in the city. But they have failed to create a viable transit alternative. Don’t they have it backward?

Transit First means first you create an effective, reliable and attractive transit system (by planning and funding it adequately), then you take away driving and parking alternatives. One side of the equation does not work without the other.

Robert Tat

San Francisco

Rob's comment:

Mr. Tat has San Francisco's definition of "transit first" wrong. Here in Progressive Land it includes bicycles, not as he understandably assumes, buses, streetcars, and cable cars. City Hall wants him to give up his wicked car and start riding a bike.

See also Calvin Welch's Wiener’s ‘transit-oriented development’ bill screws public transit.