Anti-car in SF and Alameda

Letters to the editor in yesterday's SF Chronicle:

Keep JFK Drive open

Regarding “No need for cars” (Letters, June 5): How heartless to deny full accessibility in Golden Gate Park....permanently closing John F. Kennedy Drive and allowing accessibility to seniors via shuttle van only on weekends. 

In their later years, my mother and a friend, who were confined to a walker and transport chair, were ecstatic beyond belief when they were able to interact with the beauty of nature by visiting once to twice a month the Conservatory Valley, the Rhododendron Dell, the Redwood Grove and the Dahlia Garden, all located on JFK. 

John McLaren believed first and foremost that equal access to nature in an urban environment was for all San Franciscans, not just those who were healthy. 

With 220 public parks available, let those who can ride bicycles check out the other parks. JFK Drive needs to stay open for those who are physically impaired as well as for its elderly citizenry since their world is so isolated due to their health issues and let’s not forget, they also have been paying for decades for the maintenance and use of this city park. 

Permanently closing JFK Drive is taxation without representation.

Joan Vellutini

San Francisco

Slow Street is rarely used

I live one street over from one of Alameda’s Slow Streets, and I want to point out that these programs are not always beneficial. The Slow Street next to my own is rarely used as intended. 

We pedestrians don’t want to walk in the street; we prefer sidewalks, which are cooler and more pleasant due to proximity to street trees and other landscaping. 

A few cyclists ride down the Slow Street, but bikes rode there before it became a Slow Street, too. Bikes still have to watch for local cars and cross traffic at every intersection, so the program doesn’t provide much benefit for cyclists.

The losers are drivers and people who live on adjacent streets. The Slow Street next to mine is a through street, whereas mine is three blocks long. People who can’t turn on the Slow Street turn on mine. They are invariably irritated, so they speed down their alternate routes. 

If the right streets are selected, Slow Streets can be beneficial. But diverting cars onto streets not meant for through traffic doesn’t make sense, particularly when few people are using a Slow Street as intended.

Jill Staten

Alameda

See also "Don't shut us out" and Closing JFK to cars and the anti-car movement.