Posts Tagged ‘traffic’
Thursday, May 9th, 2013
These were the final two I saw after just passing three others ALL walking/jogging west to get to Trader Joe’s. This is my personal best, after all those years.
Oh yeah, I know all about the history of jaywalking and about Who Framed Roger Rabbit and the Red Car and so forth. So what. How does that kind of stuff help us here? Answer: It doesn’t.
Moving on….
Click to expand
Here’s what I said about Trader Joes #100, a half-decade ago, on the old blog:
“Of course, everybody needs to be on the lookout for all the Frogger-like jaywalkers carrying their groceries across six lanes of parked and moving cars. (Somebody is going to get hit one of these days.)”
Now that got a bit of attention from TJ’s Corporate. (I know because I saw the logs indicating such.)
So what the reaction? Nothing, basically.
Stuff like this is what the TJ’s people spent their time on instead, it would appear.
Now this is what occurred last year. Actually, it’s the one-year anniversary of the death of 25-year-old Suzanne Monaco.*
Did the San Francisco Planning Department plan things well? No, obviously.
Is the SFMTA doing anything about this particular block? No. They have plans to put a whole lot of useless trees and a useless median south of Geary but they don’t seem to care about where TJ’s parkers park and where they walk.
Yes these jaywalkers are illegally crossing the street and yes they are 100% responsible for their deaths when they get killed but what can be done to prevent future deaths right here in this one location?
I don’t know, a parking garage, an enforcement action, a ban on parking on the east side of Masonic on that particular block of Masonic, a traffic signal and crosswalk, opening up Emerson Alley to allow shopper parking on the roof, you know, just throwing things out there.
This situation is one giant FAIL for SFGov.
You should all be ashamed, SFGov.
Srsly.
Leaving you with one reaction, from Jessica Levin:
“I saw the flower memorial outside Trader Joe’s, and if that is the spot where she crossed, then she must have had a death wish. That’s a busy high speed corridor in both directions and she crossed near a blind crest. She didn’t deserve to die, but if anyone gets the blame, unfortunately it is the pedestrian. I parked across Masonic exactly once (and I did jaywalk to get back to my car) but I was careful to cross at the crest where I could see traffic coming from quite a distance, and even then I was extremely nervous. That was two years ago, and I have never done it again.”
*Was she really carrying “an armful of groceries” while heading “west” back to the store? Probably not.
Tags: 2012, 2013, bags, bay area, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 1 Comment »
Wednesday, May 1st, 2013
You know what the architect of excessively-wide Octavia Boulevard says about it now? She says we built it too wide.
Anyway, at the time, former District Five Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi warned about the unintended effects of this brainchild of property-owning Hayes Valley millionaires.
One of the effects of gridlock on and around Octavia Boulevard is that it now makes sense for drivers to avoid Oak in the AM.
Thusly:
Click to expand
Is this a good thing?
I think not.
Tags: 2013, bay area, blvd., california, cars, fulton, hayes valley, octavia, octavia boulevard, San Francisco, SFMTA, street, traffic, western addition, wide
Posted in cars | 10 Comments »
Tuesday, April 16th, 2013
All right, camera right shows a light-colored Chevy properly waiting at the red arrow light to turn from westbound Fell onto southbound Masonic. The confused driver is in the blue two-door Honda – she wants to make the same turn to get from NoPA to SoPA but she’s in the wrong lane.
Click to expand
Of course back in the day, the Honda driver would have been driving properly but things changed at this intersection about a half-decade back. Check it. Anywho, she sat there waiting to turn left even though she had a green to proceed straight on Fell Street.
That pissed off the driver of the car behind her, so then its driver is all “hoooooooooonk!” You know, at the Blue Honda Chick.
She doesn’t budge ’cause she knows she wants to turn left, you know, from the wrong lane.
Oh, here she goes, around the Chevy:
Now all that honking attracted the attention of the Park Station police, who also made an illegal left from the wrong lane in order to follow the blue Honda driver onto southbound Masonic. Here they are near Oak:
The moral of this story is that drivers will never get used to this unique intersection set-up. The reason being is that the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition overruled the traffic engineers who originally had cars on Fell turning left at the beginning of the green light phase for Fell Street. But you see, that had car drivers “going first.”
Oh well.
On It Goes…
And oh, what you’re supposed to do when you mistake driving is to just go with it, go with the flow. You know, respond to stimuli. So like if you’re in the westbound lane and you have a green to go straight then you should go straight for a while EVEN THOUGH THAT”S NOT WHAT YOU WANT TO DO RIGHT NOW. Obliviously, you can’t just make up your own traffic rules…
Tags: 2013, bay area, bicycle coalition, bicycles, bike, california, citation, cops, cyclists, dept., fell, golden gate park, illegal, intersection, lane, left turn, liight, msonic, NOPA, officers, panhandle, Park station, peds pedestrians, police, San Francisco, san francisco bicycle coalition, sfbc, signal, street, ticket, traffic
Posted in bikes, cars | 6 Comments »
Friday, March 29th, 2013
This is the scene down at 4th and Market, where the Big Dig West Coast Central Subway project is, well, digging big these days.
San Francisco’s horrible pedestrians want to get across the northern side of the intersection and it’s this person’s job to stop them from doing so.
It’s not working. Check it out sometime.
But don’t laugh at sad sack Charlie Brown here – the Theory of Prevailing Wages ensures that he makes more moolah than you:
Click to expand
In closing, San Francisco pedestrians are the worst in the world just saying.
Tags: 2013, bay area, big dig, Boondoggle, california, cars, central subway, construction, corrupt central subway, crosswalk, DPT, guard, hand, hel, held, holding, Monitor, orange, pedestrian, pedestrian monitor, San Francisco, SFMTA, sign, stop, stop sign, subway, Subway to Nowhere, traffic, vest, west coast, worker
Posted in crime | 1 Comment »
Tuesday, January 29th, 2013
Hey, it’s the Masonic Avenue Street Design Study:
“About the Project – The primary goal of the Masonic Avenue Street Design Study is to identify how Masonic Avenue between Geary Boulevard and Fell Street can safely and efficiently accommodate the needs of all roadway users, including but not limited to … motorists.”
ALL RIGHT, EXACTLY HOW DOES THIS PROJECT “ACCOMMODATE THE NEEDS” OF “MOTORISTS?” OH, NOT AT ALL? THOUGHT SO. MOVING ON.
Objectives:
1. Engage representatives of all constituencies within the community who would be impacted by changes to Masonic Avenue…
ALL RIGHT, WHICH REPRESENTATIVES OF THE “MOTORIST” “CONSTITUENCY” WERE “ENGAGED?” ANY AT ALL? YOU KNOW, THE OCTAVIA BOULEVARD PEOPLE “ENGAGED” MOTORISTS AS FAR AWAY AS MONTEREY BOULEVARD, OUT THERE WITH CLIPBOARDS AND EVERYTHING. DID THE MASONIC AVENUE PEOPLE DO ANYTHING LIKE THAT? OH NO.
2. Improve transit operation.
THIS PROJECT WILL UNIMPROVE TRANSIT OPERATION ON AND AROUND MASONIC – THERE’S NO QUESTION ABOUT THAT. IT’S GOING TO SLOW DOWN THE BUSES THAT USE MASONIC, INCLUDING THE OCCASIONAL #5 FULTON AND #21 HAYES.
3. Improve pedestrian and non-motorized access to transit.
SO TRANSIT USERS WILL HAVE “BETTER ACCESS” TO REDUCED BUS SERVICE? I DON’T GET THE BETTER ACCESS PART – YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT A BUS STOP? ALSO, WHAT’S “MOTORIZED ACCESS TO TRANSIT?”
4. Increase the safety of pedestrian crossings.
YOU KNOW, THE PRIOR PROJECT MANAGER IS ON THE RECORD AS STATING THAT THIS KIND OF THING IS BAD TO DO LIKE NOW BECAUSE IT WOULD HURT THE CAUSE OF PUSHING THE ENTIRE PROJECT THROUGH. KIND OF SAD, REALLY.
5. Increase motorist compliance with traffic rules and regulations.
UH, WHAT, WITH TREES? IF I WANTED TO INCREASE COMPLIANCE WITH TRAFFIC LAWS, I’D JACK THE SPEED LIMIT UP TO 40 MPH. NOW, THAT WOULD HAVE SOME SIDE EFFECTS, BUT IT CERTAINLY WOULD REDUCE THE INCIDENCE OF SPEEDING, RIGHT? OR, HAVING HOURS-LONG TRAFFIC JAM UPS DURING THE MORNING AND EVENING DRIVES WOULD REDUCE SPEEDING, IS THAT WHAT YOU’RE GETTING AT?
6. Reduce the number of vehicular collisions, especially those involving pedestrians and bicyclists.
HOW? BY PLANTING TREES? WE’LL SEE. HEY DIDN’T THE RECENT OCTAVIA BOULEVARD / MEDIAN PROJECT INCREASE THE NUMBER OF VEHICULAR COLLISIONS ON OCTAVIA? YES IT DID. HOW WOULD YOU EXPLAIN THAT?
7. Support neighborhood vitality by creating a more inviting and accommodating public realm.
BY PUTTING IN A MEDIAN AND PLANTING TREES? SO, LET’S TAX AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, AND SAN FRANCISCO TO CREATE A “REALM” ON 3000 FEET WORTH OF STREET PRIMARILY FOR THE BENEFIT OF THE WEALTHY PROPERTY OWNERS AND PRIVATE SCHOOL(S) WHAT ARE ON THE STREET? ALL RIGHT.
Tags: 2010, 350 Masonic, accidents, Allan, Allan Jacobs, Allan B. Jacobs, architecture, avenue, award, bay area, Berkeley, boulevard, Boulevard Book, Boulevards, california, central, community, community workshop, day, department of public works, design, Design of Multiway Boulevards, dpw, dr. masonic, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Macdonald, evolution, freeway, fucking trees, History, Jacobs, Macdonald, market, masonc avenue, masonic, Masonic Avenue Street, Masonic Avenue Street Design Community Workshop, masonic boulevard, movement, mta, Multiway, octavia, octavia boulevard, offramp, onramp, phd, Rofé, San Francisco, San Francisco Day School, school, SFMTA, silver, street, street design study, students, The Boulevard Book: History, traffic, trees, UC, university, university of california, workshop, Yodan, Yodan Rofé
Posted in cars | 2 Comments »
Thursday, January 3rd, 2013
Is this illegal? (You know, aside from jumping the red light / intruding into the crosswalk.)
At first I thought so, but now I don’t know.
They can’t go on the sidewalk, at least not in the 415.
Remember when Steve Jobs said that the Segway revolution would be “bigger than the PC?”
Click to expand
He didn’t but I do….
Tags: 2012, bay area, california, district, financial, illegal, jam, legal, Montgomery, Montgomery Street, San Francisco, seway, strret, traffic
Posted in transit | No Comments »
Monday, December 31st, 2012
To the right of this accident scene is Octavia Boulevard.
And to the left, a block away, is Octavia Street.
And in the middle, you’ll see NIMBY Green with a newish Mercedes Benz CLS sitting on top.
Via ciprofloxacin – click to expand
You see, Octavia used to be a regular old street until Redevelopment (a bad idea from the 20th century) and the failed Octavia “Boulevard” experiment (a bad idea from the 21st century) came along.
Anyway. this is what results when “activists” are valued more than traffic engineers…
Tags: 2010, 2011, accident, accidents, Allan, Allan Jacobs, Allan B. Jacobs, architecture, avenue, award, bay area, Berkeley, boulevard, Boulevard Book, Boulevards, bus, california, cameras, car carrier, central, collision, community, community workshop, crash, department of public works, design, Design of Multiway Boulevards, doctor, dpw, Elizabeth, Elizabeth Macdonald, evolution, Fork-Tailed Doctor Killer, freeway, fucking trees, hayes, hayes valley, History, Jacobs, Macdonald, market, mercedes benz, mopm, mother, movement, mta, Multiway, Neighborhood Association, nimby, nimby green, octavia, octavia boulevard, offramp, onramp, patricia walkup, patricia's green, phd, RED LIGHT, Rofé, San Francisco, school, SFMTA, shuttle, signals, silver, street, street design study, students, The Boulevard Book: History, traffic, trees, UC, ucsf, university, university of california, van, workshop, Yodan, Yodan Rofé
Posted in cars | 2 Comments »
Monday, September 24th, 2012
Well, today’s the start of San Francisco Critical Mass Week 2012.
Michael Krasny of KQED Forum will kick things off with a one-hour show on the history of Critical Mass.
And then festivities will end, of course, this Friday with the big 20th Anniversary Ride the evening of September 28th, 2012. (Not that you’d know it from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition website’s ”Chain of Events” section, where all info about CM* is now censored.)
Suddenly surrounded by bicycles:
All the deets:
“It started with a bike ride in San Francisco on Sept. 25, 1992. About 50 people cycled in a pack along Market Street, hoping to earn some respect from drivers who sometimes ignored them or edged them off the road. They called it the “Commute Clot.” Today it’s known as Critical Mass, a movement that’s spread worldwide. Supporters say it promotes cycling and the rights of bicyclists. But critics say it is illegal, clogs traffic and antagonizes drivers. We talk about Critical Mass’ 20th anniversary, and its effects on the city.
Host: Michael Krasny
Guests:
Chris Carlsson, co-founder of Critical Mass who was part of the first ride on Sept. 25, 1992, and has since participated in Critical Mass rides in Milan, Vancouver and Porto Alegre, Brazil
Hugh D’Andrade, founder of SFCriticalMass.org
Rob Anderson, blogger on transportation issues and author of the blog District 5 Diary“
Tune in at 10:00 on your radio or on your device, Listen Live.
*The SFBC raises money through fees but it also gets mucho dinero directly from SFGov. So that’s why it endorsed Ed Lee for Mayor even though SFBC’s members generally did not and still do not like Ed Lee. Similarly, Chrstina Olague, Mayor Ed Lee’s hand-picked recruit for District 5 Supervisor, gets endorsed over Julian Davis even though SFBC members actually favor JD. The SFBC is basically a quasi-government agency now, so it’s very afraid of seeming to say something negative about certain members of the City Family. It’s also afraid of hurting the chances of its officers someday getting jobs / health care directly with SFGov / SFMTA. Anyway, that’s why the SFBC is basically a SFGov kiss-ass these days. It will lobby San Francisco government, certainly, but that’s about as far as it wants to go. (Think about it – who would the SFMTA endorse for Mayor?)
Tags: 1992, 2012, 20th, anniversary, bay area, bicycle coalition, bicycles, bikes, blogger, brazil, brown, bus, buses, california, cars, Chris Carlson, Chris Carlsson, Chrstina Olague, co-founder, commute clot, commuters, cops, critical mass, cyclists, Diary, district 5, district 5 diary, DPT, drivers, election, foot, founder, gavin newsom, Hugh D'Andrade, illegal, injunction, julian davis, Justin Herman Plaza, market, Michael Krasny, milan, mta, police, Porto Alegre, ride, rob anderson, San Francisco, san francisco bicycle coalition, Sept. 25, September 28, sfbc, SFCriticalMass.org, SFMTA, SFPD, street, Supervisor, traffic, Vancouver, willie
Posted in bikes | 3 Comments »
Wednesday, September 19th, 2012
I don’t know, if I wanted to create gridlock in SoMA / Financial / Union Square, I think I’d hire some jackasses to drive “mobile billboards” around the block and around the block all day long.
“Blocking the box” yesterday with a mobile billboard truck in the middle of the intersection of 3rd Street and Market:
“Hey everybody! Stop everything and look at me!”
Reverse angle – now the driver is only blocking one lane of 3rd Street:
Note the Washington state license plates.
And here’s the result of the advertising trucks. Gridlock:
Oh well.
“Blocking the box” is illegal these days, but the SFPD doesn’t really hand out tickets for that, so have at it.
Now I’ll tell you, Lyft taxi, a service that you just might like, isn’t legal, but mobile billboards, a “service” that you don’t like, are legal, more or less.
Isn’t it ironic?
Don’t cha think?
I’m just sayin’
Tags: ads, advertising, billboard, billboards, block the box, blocking the box, bus, citation, DPT, drivers, egnyte, gridlock, illegal, legal, license, lyft, Mobile Billboard, mobile billboards, Muni, plate, plates, rolling, service, SFMTA, SFPD, state, taxi, ticket, traffic, truck, trucks, Washington
Posted in advertising | No Comments »
Friday, September 7th, 2012
You see, area NIMBY’s didn’t want the Masonic Trader Joes (Store #100) to have a proper parking lot, so this is the result:
Click to expand
Bad pedestrian behavior on this block has led to the death of one TJ’s shopper this year so far.
The question is why do peds act this way at this particular location.
The other question is what can be done about this.
San Francisco: The City That DOESN’T Know How.
Tags: 2012, bags, bay area, bro, california, cars, crosswalk, dead, died, emerson, Emerson Street, gavin newsom, geary, grocery, hit, idling, illegal, jaywalk, jaywalking, Laurel Heights, lights, lot, masonic, Mayor, nimby, park, parking, ped, pedestrian, pedestrians, Planning, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Ralph Waldo Emerson Street, roof, San Francisco, SFPD, store, street, Suzanne Monaco, Traders Joe's, traffic, wOMAN
Posted in cars | 3 Comments »
