The Drawing Board: a Map to Make SF a Bike and Pedestrian Utopia 13 Steps to Becoming a Car-Free City by Peter Hartlaub | July , : PM
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GUIDE THROUGHLINE Back to the drawing board: A map to make SF a bike and pedestrian utopia 13 steps to becoming a car-free city By Peter Hartlaub | July , : PM “Give me a tunnel-boring machine, and I’ll solve a lot of problems in this city.” The first time I saw Twitter personality Burrito Justice type this on the social media platform, way back in 2012, I thought it was science fiction. The pro-bicycle, pro- transit advocate, real name John Oram, once mapped out a system of gondolas connecting the hills of San Francisco. It was an entertaining distraction to stoke our imaginations, while real life featured glacial changes toward a pedestrian-friendly, bike- friendly city. Leap forward to 2020, and we’re in the middle of a pandemic that looks to be the largest single city-reshaping event since the 1906 earthquake and fires; San Francisco is becoming bikeable and walkable by necessity, adapting and improvising at incredible speeds — with bureaucracy no longer an insurmountable roadblock to change. READ MORE JFK Drive and The Great Highway Failing to enshrine this change means Biketopia S.F. is over before it started evious •1 •2 DIFFICULTY Jay Beaman was a wine director and manager at Easy Firefly before the pandemic, and he hopes to return IMPACT to that life in the years to come. Considerable Right now, he’s using his unemployment to build a pro-bike army, establishing Scenic Routes Community Bicycle Center, filling his Western Addition living room with parts and tools, and fixing bikes for free. He’s put 25 friends and strangers back on the road, some on bikes that hadn’t been ridden in more than a decade. “It just kind of felt cool to think, ‘OK, this is what I do now. I fix bikes,’” he said. The first test of the army’s strength will be enshrining car-free JFK Drive and the use of the Great Highway for pedestrians and bikers. The debate to keep JFK Drive car-free permanently has been going on for a half century, with a motley crew of advocates fighting against well-moneyed museum boosters and other old-guard San Franciscans. The Great Highway seemingly came out of nowhere. Both changes have proven that their utility trumps any inconvenience. If the car-embracing forces win on these two points, then we’re clearly not in a revolution. Biketopia S.F. is over before it started. Twin Peaks Going car-free would make it akin to a local Mount Everest for bikers, walkers and runners DIFFICULTY When columnist Heather Knight and I rebooted the Easy/Challenging outdated 49 Mile Scenic Drive as a more walk- IMPACT friendly, bike-friendly route, we both wanted to Limited remove Twin Peaks from the map. In a social media mutiny, Chronicle readers overruled us, claiming the landmark’s vistas. We saw an overrated tourist spot, and a haven for smash-and-grab robbers. They saw the centerpiece vista point in San Francisco, with views that overcome its poor pedestrian and bike access. Now it’s the best of all worlds, closed to cars and a sort of Mount Everest for bikers, walkers and runners seeking the best combination of exercise and beauty in the city. Twin Peaks will test the creativity of city leaders, who must ensure that when the pandemic is over, everyone has access to the view. Whether it’s a system of shuttles, disabled parking at Christmas Tree Point or something more inventive (a tourist-friendly weekend Muni line like the 76x Marin Headlands?), the future of Twin Peaks should take personal vehicles out of the pole position. Presidio Golf Course Strike one for the proletariat and turn the course into a park for the people DIFFICULTY For a few lovely weeks this spring, the Presidio Trust Easy/Challenging opened up the publicly owned 150-acre Presidio Golf IMPACT Course to the proletariat, and a green space used by a Limited small fraction of the population was enjoyed by the masses, who exercised safely and fell in love with the Presidio all over again. The Presidio Trust is weathering tough times, and the revenue they receive annually from the golf course (about $9 million) is one of the few stable parts of their budget. So let’s start small, dedicating one Sunday a month for the people, with hopes of expanding Presidio People’s Park to every Sunday when times are better. And consider the six other city-owned golf courses (one is in Pacifica) when thinking about expanding access to public spaces. Slow Streets city-wide Expand and make permanent the program's traffic changes DIFFICULTY Cyril Magnin and Marvin Lewis, two 20th century Challenging city leaders who helped shape San Francisco, used to IMPACT take a daily morning walk together from their Sea Considerable Cliff homes to their Financial District offices. Salesforce co-founder Marc Benioff (Lewis’ grandson) tells this story, espousing the need for business leaders, especially the wealthiest ones, being in touch with their stakeholders. Lewis is the father of BART. Magnin’s philanthropy changed the city’s art scene. How many of their best ideas came walking and talking as they crossed the city, running into fellow citizens, and allowing themselves to fall in love with San Francisco a little more every day? During the coronavirus, the SFMTA-supported Slow Streets program has limited car access on 30-plus miles of residential roads, creating a safe network for exercise and families to play. SFMTA director Jeffrey Tumlin recently reported that the Slow Streets are receiving 95% support. (“The complaints are about, ‘Why haven’t you done this in my neighborhood yet?’ ”) Paris, Milan and Seattle have all committed to making many of their pandemic traffic changes permanent. San Francisco leaders should keep experimenting, making some forever Slow Streets and building a network, until San Francisco becomes a city where a pedestrian can safely walk down the middle of the street from one end to the other. Daylighting, raised crosswalks and no right turns on red Vanilla? Maybe. But these safety measures could make areas like the Tenderloin safer evious •1 •2 DIFFICULTY Imagine a tragedy that happened every year at the Very Challenging Fillmore Auditorium. Every fan was injured, every IMPACT band member died and every employee at the Considerable Fillmore that night was critically injured. If it was preventable, wouldn’t the city move mountains to stop this annual crisis? That’s the situation in San Francisco, where, four years after Vision Zero SF was adopted to eliminate traffic fatalities, more than 3,000 people were injured and 29 died in motor vehicle incidents last year. The safety measures listed here are not very sexy, but could collectively make a huge difference. Daylighting, already approved by the city but not completed, opens up parking spaces near intersections, so drivers and pedestrians have better visibility. Banning right turns on red lights and raising crosswalks with visible painting will also make intersections safer. Walk SF executive director Jodie Medeiros points out that the Tenderloin, home to some of the most dangerous streets in San Francisco and the city’s most vulnerable populations, continues to prioritize fast lanes for commuters traveling from the western neighborhoods to the Financial District. “Long term, we can’t forget that every single street on the Tenderloin is part of the high-injury network,” Medeiros said. “We cannot forget that 30 people die a year in traffic violence.” 13 mph timed traffic lights Timing traffic lights to bike-friendly speeds helps cars and bikes to co-exist DIFFICULTY I remember the first time I biked down the Folsom Challenging “Green Wave.” It was the moment I turned from being IMPACT “someone who bikes” to viewing biking as a Considerable permanent lifestyle. Having traffic lights timed to a bike-friendly 11, 12 or 13 mph on main thoroughfares through residential districts helps to give cars and bikes a more peaceful relationship; less like predator and prey, and more like a dolphin and whale, using the same current to get where they need to go. Portland has timed traffic lights, slowing cars to speeds that limit fatalities, and it’s less stressful for everyone. Instead of fits and starts, you get to your destination at a steady cruise. Tenderloin streets, including Eddy and Ellis, should be added to the Green Wave as a matter of life and death. The use of 13 mph limits should be prioritized wherever bikes and cars share the road. 20 mph city speed limit Dropping the speed limit to miles per hour would increase the survival rate for those struck by cars to % DIFFICULTY Don’t blame San Francisco city leaders for their Very Challenging inability to change their own speed limits. They’ve IMPACT been trying. Significant Speed limits are set by the State of California, using outdated rules created to stop small-town “Dukes of Hazzard”-type police forces from setting up speed traps. Speed limits are based on average speeds in the area, which mandates that if 85 percent of people drive at one speed, that should be the speed limit. (And if it’s close, round up.) Studies show the survival rate for human hit by a car at 40 miles per hour is about 35%. Drop the speed limit to 20 miles per hour and that rate rises to 90%. The last attempt in 2018 to give locals more authority over speed limits died before it started, with opposition from the CHP, Teamsters and trucking industry reps. The pandemic has proven that most voters are eager to prioritize lives over money.