The Slow Streets lie

Illustrating the Panhandle lie

From the MTA's Slow Streets site:

We are very excited to be moving forward with the third phase Slow Streets, which will connect new and existing Slow Streets together into a network that allows most San Franciscans to be able to access essential services and employment without being reliant on either a car or Muni.

With Muni’s reduced capacity due to COVID-19 physical distancing, an additional 30 percent of service on hold due to financial challenges, and congestion already reaching peak pre-COVID levels, Slow Streets and our bicycling network are key to supporting people getting where they need to go.

“In order to support further reopening of the economy, we need to make San Francisco more welcoming and accessible for people who want to travel on foot, bicycle, wheelchair, scooter, skateboard or other forms of micromobility,” said Jeffrey Tumlin, SFMTA Director of Transportation. “Slow Streets are critical infrastructure that attracts users of the full array of neighborhood demographics—including children, older adults, people with disabilities and people of color”...

So much bullshit packed into three paragraphs! The MTA can't simply make this announcement. They have to be "very excited to be moving forward," as opposed to moving backward, which wouldn't be very exciting.

Where exactly in SF are people using those "forms of micromobility" denied access to anything? Have any of the heedless punks on skateboards been discouraged from a death-defying trip downtown or anywhere else? 

What could Slow Streets possibly mean to people in wheelchairs, who of course now use city sidewalks and Muni to get around, not city streets. (But what about people on roller blades who aren't on the list? The Roller Blade Community has a right to feel neglected and discriminated against. I bet they're sick and tired of it!)

The "financial challenges," however, are real for the SFMTA after years of preying on people who drive those wicked motor vehicles that are cluttering up city streets. 

The city used to make more than $200 million a year on parking meters, parking tickets, and the 20 parking garages/lots it owns. The MTA had to find the money to support its bloated payroll of more than 7,000 employees, which made the despised motor vehicles (prey) a major income source for our transportation agency (predator).

A few years ago, the city's treasurer was so embarrassed about all the fees and fines the city levied on people he wrote an op-ed about it in the Chronicle: San Francisco has become a predatory government.

City Hall is now aggressively making it even harder to drive in San Francisco, even though motorists have always been exploited as a major source of revenue. 

What else can the city do, except, like the dumb high-speed rail project, wait for a bailout next year from the Biden Administration?