I’ll tell you, what I notice is not the attractiva on the orange, fully-loaded Public Bike from Public Bikes, but the illegally-parked, aging BMW 3-series convertible.
Click to expand
But that’s just me.
Hey, who do you think the SFMTA outreached when they wanted to focus-group the plan to put in more unnecessary trees on Masonic for $20,000,000 from Uncle Sucker and/or the taxpayers of the State of California? Do you think it was the users of Masonic Street or the people, like the BMW owner, who live next to it? That’s right, the SFMTA only focus-grouped the nearby residents of Masonic Avenue.
Is that the correct way to do things, SFMTA?
I don’t think it is.
Oh well.
Anyway, cyclists should continue to feel free to use the excessively-wide sidewalks of Masonic, depending on conditions, despite any peer pressure they might feel from governmentally-produced garbage such as this.
Tags: 2012, bay area, bicycles, bike, bikes, bmw, california, citation, cyclist, cyclists, DPT, driveway, garage, masonic, mta, orange, parked, San Francisco, SFMTA, sidwalk, ticket, trees
sidewalks bad.
trees bad.
riding on sidewalks good.
that right?
Incredibly wide sidewalks the likes of which you’ll find on Masonic are bad, yes.
The trees on Masonic are bad as well – they’ve played a role in killing people.
Riding on this sidewalk isn’t bad, depending on conditions.
That’s right.
I don’t disagree, but what happens when a driver makes a right turn and runs over a cyclist going straight? Or are cyclists expected to stop at every intersection, even when they have a green light?
Well, if I were going down Masonic on a sidewalk on the wrong side of the road, I’d stop at every intersection even if I had a green light.
what is bad about a wide sidewalk?
Should we be making bigger front yards?
They’re not needed. They were put in to impress people, originally.
No, not bigger front yards, but smaller sidewalks so residents won’t be tempted to park on them illegally.
It would be nice to have the flexibility to get rid of the trees as well, but I don’t know that that’s possible owing to the City’s policy of not getting rid of trees. Anyway, without the ridiculous sidewalks there’d be room for other things.
Hey, Strava’s getting sued. You might want to tell your lawyer buddy about that. Hey, didn’t he write something emotional about a Strava-related(?) collision that turned out to have a bunch of errors? I think so.
If I had my druthers, I’d have a narrower street and bigger backyards (or bigger houses, if they prefer, for that matter). Of course that’s practically impossible to implement. Maybe have the city sell the land/change the zoning, and allow people to build out over time.
Something which I began to notice a few years ago: SF streets are extremely wide. Not just Masonic, but every single Avenue and residential street. Way too wide for the amount of traffic they have, making it significantly more unpleasant for pedestrians while providing negligible benefits, such as making it easier to speed.
I think it was a status thing, to have Avenues…
I don’t think Divis is too wide tho. Especially now.