businesstips
14 years ago
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Sunday, August 16, 2009
MARKETING
BIKE NOPA
All about bicycling and livability in San Francisco's North Panhandle neighborhood.
Please place in window facing street. See July 31 post to download.
Great Sites
Bikes and The City Bike Portland Streetsblog San Francisco San Francisco Bicycle Coalition North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association Dale's Scene Fix Masonic City CarShare - San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, Albany, Daly City, CA USA Livable City Followers
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Does the Renegade Bike Lane Striper Work for DPT?
Remember the unauthorized spate of common-sense, bike-safety messages stenciled on Fell at the ARCO Station ("KEEP CLEAR") and on Oak past Divis ("BIKES ONLY")? They remained a few days before MTA/DPT painted them over. Bikers buzzed: "Who are the renegade stripers? Where will they stripe next?"
Might they work for DPT itself? Consider the new striping on Grove, westbound between Divis and Scott. A little whimsy with that akew "A"? And what's with the big "K" pushing "E" up against the stripe? Not very nice. And do approach the top of the hill with an especially elongated STOP for safety.
Not to poke fun at re-paving and re-striping. That block of Grove was a rugged stretch to bike and the former stripes were mostly faded beyond recognition. And this is the only stretch of Grove to be even partly repaved anytime soon. Check these posts: pavement condition and repaving schedule for Grove and other NOPA streets.
The Grove westbound route just became a much more viable alternative to the Oak Street juggernaut for Easties. Hook up on Grove through NOPA, continue up to Alamo Square Park, and then cruise down Scott onto the Wiggle.
P.S. DPT must have its reasons for using tape instead of stencilled paint for pavement signage; cost savings, no doubt. But it does look just a tad, mmm, unprofessional.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 8:45 AM 2 comments
Labels: DPT, Grove Street, MTA, NOPA, renegade stenciler
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Love Your Bike Lanes: Golden Gate Avenue
Ten years ago Golden Gate Avenue carried three lanes of traffic: two travelling east and one west. Why did this residential street need three lanes? When the Central Freeway still hunkered over Market Street and helped blight Hayes Valley, Golden Gate served as a freeway feeder for motorists from the western and northern neighborhoods. But after the Loma Prieta earthquake and three ballot-box battles tamed the Central Freeway to its current drop-down, Golden Gate was relieved of its freeway duty.
NOPNA reps asked the Department of Parking and Traffic to remove one of the eastbound lanes after the freeway re-configuration. But DPT advised, "It seems like you've got a solution looking for a problem." Things do change (even if the same DPT official is now part of the Municipal Transportation Authority). A few years later, the city did indeed remove one of the eastbound lanes, and Mike Sallaberry, working for the MTA Bike Program, managed to get Golden Gate striped as a bike lane. (Tip of the cycling helmet to Mike who continues to work for bicycle improvements at MTA).
The bike lane on Golden Gate runs eastbound from from Parker Street amid the USF campus to Divisadero. The stretch from Broderick to Divis revs up some cyclists who wait at the top of the hill for the light to change on Divis and then power down with gravity doing the work to Divis and several blocks further. The risk averse opt out of the slalom run knowing red light runners (we're talking motorists) at Divis can make for a nasty collision at high bike speed. Eastbound, the GG lane begins at the juncture with the Baker Street bike lane and continues to Parker.
Savvy cyclists heading to the Richmond from the Civic Center or Mission take McAllister or the Wiggle to Baker, then right on Baker to Golden Gate for a westbound route with less of a climb around the Lone Mountain elevation to Parker, Turk, and then Cabrillo or Arguello.
Is Golden Gate the best east-bound route to the Civic Center and Market Street? Depends on your risk tolerance. It's a great ride to Broderick. If you're seeking a bit more cycling serenity, you'd do better taking a right to catch one of NOPA's other eastbound routes. See future post for the best of those (in the meantime, take McAllister).
Posted by MikeOnBike at 10:49 PM 0 comments
Labels: Central Freeway, Golden Gate Avenue, Mike Sallaberry, SFMTA Bike Program
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
How to Get from Here to There by Bike
One of the reasons potential cyclists resist taking that first ride is uncertainty about how to negotiate San Francisco streets and, always, the city's hills. But NOPA is a great location for getting to anywhere else in town. All anyone needs is a little direction and advice.
Bike maps are readily available. You can check the online (and downloadable) "San Francisco Bike Map"to find all the city's currrent bike routes, bike lanes, and bike sharrow (shared lane) routes. This ever-popular guide also color-codes blocks according to their elevation, so you can indeed avoid the hills. (Advisory: Once the onerous restriction on new bike lanes in the city is lifted -- any week now -- 45 miles of new bike routes, lanes, and sharrows will be added to the city's bike network. New maps will follow.)
Best of all join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and get this free folding bike map. Your'e sure to use it all the time. Other perks with SFBC membership ($35/year) are dozens of discounts at city bike shops, cafes, and Rainbow Grocery. The membership pays for itself in no time, and you're helping support better biking in the city.
Find out everything you need to know to travel by transit and bike throughout the Bay Area at 511.org . How to put your bike on the front of Muni buses, where to position them on BART, the scoop on the Caltrain bike car, and taking your bike on ferries. Once primed with the basics, talk with other cyclists for tips on the best routes.
If you ever need an icebreaker with another cyclist, simply ask "how do you get to work/school/downtown, etc." Cyclists love to talk about the best, quickest routes. Never seem to tire of it, in fact. Must be a bonding ritual.
Special for North Panhandle blog readers: post your query (How do I get there from NOPA?) in the comments and we'll zip you a few options for safe bike travel.
Note: In case you sometimes walk to get from here to there: don't overlook the San Francisco Bike and Walking Map, available here as a pdf. These maps are available in several stores for $2.50.
And, lastly: when will we get walk and bike "fab maps" now available for motorists: washable microfiber fabric that requies no folding, won't rip or tear, washable, and suitable for cleaning iphones, eyeglasses, and goggles!
Posted by MikeOnBike at 3:20 PM 1 comments
Labels: 551.org, fab maps, NOPA, san francisco bicycle coalition, san francisco bike map
NOPA Bike Hero: Pacific Primary School
The little orange and yellow and green school that could. We all know it's hard to bike in the city if there's nowhere to park. And who likes settling for trees, parking meters, and street poles for cabling or U-locking? NOPA has a few standard inverted-U bike racks, but none close enough to Pacific Primary at Baker and Grove Streets to benefit teachers, parents, and students who bike. Until now.
Any biker, ped, or motorist who travels Baker or Grove Streets, knows the bright splashes of color on the westside corners of the intersection. Not exactly Victorian and Edwardian hues to match the neighborhood's painted ladies, but that's the fun of having the orange, green, and yellow exteriors of Pac Primary in the center of NOPA. Now a parents group has accessorized the school exterior with bright new bike racks.
According to school administrator, Elizabeth Cacal, parents designated the funds from a school auction for purchase of the bike racks. Sarah June Barr Crocket, one of the parents, helped select the manufacturer, Dero Bike Racks, and complete the purchase (about $2,000 for three racks). Dero allows customers to customize their purchase, and Pac Primary added its goofy grin logo. (You have to love a school with a a graphic like that!)
In an earlier post, I spied Sarah's son's bike forlornly slung around a street pole, no rack anywhere to be seen. Today his little red ride proudly stood along the cool orange rack at the front door.
Another parent, Norman Rutherford, volunteered to install the racks. I caught up with him and his son, Rye Tewksbury, this afternoon before they headed home to the Mission. They do just fine on their 2 1/2 mile ride and especially appreciate the Wiggle for getting across town. Rye started out in a bike trailer pod at six months and now has a scoot bike. Next up is a Burly trailer cycle.
Norman's got the bike rack installation down, and he's willing to help other non-profits, schools, arts organizations install theirs as well. (Contact him at northerly@sbcglobal.net). He also said he thought parents and teachers at the school would be enthusiastic about an occasional designated bike or play block near the school. Several parents have told him they'd like to learn more about bike trailers as well as giving their kids practice time on a city street.
Pacific Primary is a pretty cool school all around. With its brand new building on the southwest corner, the 35 year old school now accomodates 154 students who range from 2 1/2 years to pre-K. The full-day program "celebrates diversity -- ethnic, racial, economic -- and all types of families including adoptive, gay and lesbian, and one or more parent families."
Posted by MikeOnBike at 9:00 AM 5 comments
Labels: "streetsblog san francisco", bike parking, bike racks, burly trailer cycle, dero bike racks, kids on bikes, Pacific Primary
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Freeway Signs for SF Neighborhoods
"Wondering why you're stuck in traffic? Looking for the best way to get to your destination?" When a program overview begins like that, you know they're not talking about cyclists or pedestrians. San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) has embarked on an ambitious and expensive "Integrated Transportation System" to "make your travels in and around the city a lot easier. ITS is a bit awkward; and besides, San Francisco already celebrates its legendary "IT's IT" ice cream bars. How about "SFgo" instead?
SFgo has its merits. MTA notes on its website that most city street signals are 50-60 years old and most signals are coordinated via old and deteriorating underground cables. "The system doesn't repond to actual traffic volumes or roadway conditions." The new system will do just that with traffic cameras and message signs. Perhaps there will be less congestion and a reduction in travel times with reduced levels of exhaust fouling the air we breathe. Of course, this also means that cars, Muni coaches, and peds on intersecting streets may have to wait even longer for a green signal if traffic on the "arterial" streets is particularly heavy.
But is SFgo appropriate for the neighborhoods? The most visible and jarring intrusions of SFgo's traffic-moving benevolence are the stark freeway-style sign posts erected on sidewalks (and extending over the roadway) last month on Oak and Fell Streets near Divisadero. The electronic display panels have yet to be installed, but soon they will provide digital displays of traffic advisories. Even if you haven't noticed these silver standards in NOPA and Alamo Square, you know what they look like from any freeway trips.
There's the rub: traffic management signs on freeways make sense. "Accident ahead; expect delays", "20 minutes to get to the next bottleneck", "Amber Alert," "Detour ahead," "You're already late for the family dinner." All these give drivers information they might use. But do the same signs belong in the neighborhoods? Traveling west on Fell, will drivers be alerted to heavy traffic on Masonic Ave. just five blocks away so they take side streets instead? Won't freeway signs on neighborhood streets provide visual cues to motorists: "looks like a freeway so drive like its a freeway"?
At what cost, do we benefit? SFgo already takes its traffic management to SOMA at a cost of approximately $6 million, according to MTA's site. The NOPA overhaul with "vehicle detection, cameras, and dynamic message signs" along the Fell/Oak corridors registers $1.2 million. (But that was the estimate in 2003; MTA is a bit overdue updating this segment of its website).
"SFgo is all about cooperation and partnership": perhaps, to a point. SFgo strives to collaborate with other city agencies. Good enough. But the lofty goal has included little neighborhood input from city residents who live along the streets that MTA wants to make more speedy and efficient for motorists. Michael Smithwick, longtime neighborhood activist and Transportation/Safety Chair for the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association (ASNA), recalls the limited community outreach undertaken by MTA.
"Several years ago the Department of Parking and Traffic conducted a focus group on this issue among community reps from across the city." (Note: DPT is now part of MTA). "The SFgo proposal was met with a huge thumbs down by residents concerned with the impact of the program on their neighborhood streets." After that one meeting, Smithwick recalls, DPT issued a glossy newsletter that claimed positive support. "Blatant misrepresentation," he charges. "Community representatives were not notified that the purchase decision had been made and were not even notified that the electronic signs were going up. So much for community involvement and transparency."
I spoke with a number of other NOPA and ASNA folks about the new signs looming over the roadways. Most were puzzled and dismayed that just as the city is about to undertake a mini-makeover of the Divisadero Corridor to make it more friendly and more neighborhood oriented, the MTA plants these freeway-style structures a 1/2 block away. The city -- that means us -- pays to replace cobra-head street lighting with more attractive poles with a softer lighting on Divisadero and then erects these ugly standards just around the corner. Where's the "cooperation and partnership" among city agencies? Beyond Divisadero, neighbors are concerned about the negative impacts on Fell and Oak, and they point out, with exasperation, that the two streets are traffic corridors, not freeway extensions.
MTA has enfolded SFgo in so much livablity prose that you have to wonder how much they recognize that the program will intrude on neighborhoods', uh, real livability. On the MTA website, SFgo is found under "Livable Streets" among the School Area Safety Program, the Pedestrian Program, and the Traffic Calming Program. MTA then asserts that SFgo complements SF's Transit First Policy "by helping to preserve and enhance the City's alternative modes of transportation." Everyone wants MUNI to operate better and on schedule, but it's not really clear, or proven, how notification of "delays ahead" will improve performance.
Bicyclists, you will benefit: "Bicyclists will have the use of calmer, safer roads. Informed drivers are more patient and sensitive to sharing the road with other travelers." MTA believes that motorists who are informed about why they are stuck in traffic ("accident ahead," "LGBT Pride parade blocking streets") will be more relaxed and not direct their frustrations at bicyclists, who just might be cooly passing them by. Maybe.
Pedestrians too: "Pedestrians will also benefit from calmer, safer roads. It will also be possible to adjust signal timing during special events to enhance pedestrian movement." Again, more information leads to less road rage. (I hope so). Signals can be changed for the AIDS Walk, the marathon, and the Bay to Breakers to sanction ped crossings through intersections. Fine, although SFPD manages that already at much less expense. But isn't it more likely that pedestrians will be kept waiting for longer periods to cross the streets once central-controlled traffic lights allow longer drive times to lighten congestion?
Sorry, neighorhood folks who live nearby: Although SFgo "helps everyone," there's no special nod to how ugly freeway signs, bright digital readouts at night, more speeding cars, greater noise, and increased street crossing times will make your life calmer and better.
SFgo has been approved and partly funded with implementation underway. What's to be done? For NOPA neighbors, attend the next NOPNA neighborhood meeting: Thursday, Sept. 17, at Cafe Neon, 1801 McAllister (at Baker). 7pm: Meet and Greet; 7:30 - 9pm: meeting. Representatives from SFgo will provide an update and answer questions. Alamo Square Neighborhood Association officers will participate. You can also direct concerns to the NOPNA Board of Directors and to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and to the MTA.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 11:56 AM 1 comments
Labels: "streetsblog san francisco", ASNA, district 5 san francisco, Divisadero Street, NOPNA, SFgo, SFMTA
Monday, August 10, 2009
Seen While Biking: War and Oil and Bikes
A comment to yesterday's post from booye in Iran set up the stark contrast between 1000s of San Franciscans' fun through the park and along the ocean yesterday:
"Here in Iran we have better ideas to have fun. For example, Wednesday we are preparing to protest in BAZAR (central market of Iran). They kick us, arrest us, kill us ... coming back home, you are (not) sure whether they have identified you or not. In home, you are waiting for a call asking you to introduce yourself to jail, to be raped by them...this is our great fun."
San Franciscans recently rallied to protest the injustice in Iran that erupted around the recent elections there. Yet booye's account reminds us of the pursuit of justice in the face of the worst consequences that so many people undertake.
The "Uppity Bike Commuters" who plastered a NOPA billboard (at Divisadero and Hayes) push their own take on wars and struggles in the Middle East, but "uppity" pales in comparison to life-and-death protests in Iran.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 7:57 AM 6 comments
Labels: Divisadero Street, iran election, protest in iran, sfist, uppity bike commuters
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Heard While Biking
I heard the surf, the waves, the Pacific Ocean while biking along the Great Highway today. My first time biking the western edge of San Francisco without cars for company. A good day to be a San Franciscan with temps in the 60s and 70s. For those of us who live and bike in NOPA: Just a few blocks to the park and then to the ocean: what better location?
San Francisco's Sunday Streets came to the Great Highway today and opened one long stretch of highway from JFK Drive to Sloat Blvd. (Motorists might say the highway was "closed" to cars. It's a matter of perspective). The highway has been blocked to traffic before, most frequently to clear misplaced sand dunes from the roadway and recently for the Tour de California cyclists, but I've never before been here amid bikers and peds only. This was special.
I heard -- and saw -- kids on bikes. On the highway. The Freedom from Training Wheels crew were out once again to help parents help their kids with biking skills. This is biking of the present and the future.
Just when the serenity of the ride lulled me, I was jolted by Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper at the Rock the Beach Bike Party. This otherwise lonely stretch of sand at the intersection of Noriega has never seen so much bike energy, literally. A line-up of bikers provided pedal power for Fossil Fool's band and mic -- although FF projected so much of his own energy he might not have needed them. What they say about themselves: "We're bike people. We're inventors and advocates working away in a sweet little workshop in Berkeley, California, pushing the limits of bike culture." Visit their site, check their tunes, get to their performances.
Sunday Streets in San Francisco has been so popular that planning is already underway for more street openings next year and more frequently. I loved the long open ride through Golden Gate Park to the ocean -- we don't "go to the shore" here -- but I'm looking forward to more Sunday Streets in city neighborhoods next year. But then, why wait? Why not open our blocks regularly on our own?
Posted by MikeOnBike at 3:36 PM 7 comments
Labels: fossil fool, freedom from training wheels, great highway, rock the bike, sunday streets
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Blog Archive
▼ 2009 (36)
▼ August (17)
Does the Renegade Bike Lane Striper Work for DPT?
Love Your Bike Lanes: Golden Gate Avenue
How to Get from Here to There by Bike
NOPA Bike Hero: Pacific Primary School
Freeway Signs for SF Neighborhoods
Seen While Biking: War and Oil and Bikes
Heard While Biking
D5 Clean Team Saturday Sweep
Bike in Flight
Blog of the Day! Whooeee
Panhandle Path and its Poor Relative
Doug Diboll: Tipping Toward the Positive in NOPA
Kids Bike to School, Sometimes with Parent Pedal P...
Lower McAllister MakeOver
Seen While Biking
No More Mattress-Filled Sinkhole
Montreal's Bixi Bike Share comes to SF
► July (15)
BIKE NOPA window sign now available
Freedom from Training Wheels
Seen While Biking #3
Seen While Biking #2
Share the Path, Love the Panhandle
Renegade Bike Striper Strikes Again
Pedaling Revolution
Bike Parking in NOPA
Before Concrete, Before Asphalt
No One Likes This
A Smoother McAllister
NOPA Play Blocks
Seen While Biking #1
NOPA's Bumpy Streets, Part One
► June (4)
A Bike Rack Here, Please
NOPA's Bumpy Streets, Part Two
Tube Times Takes Bike Pulse
Mapping NOPA Street Trees
About Me
Michael Helquist
NOPA resident since 1997, former president & board member, North Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA); member, SF Bicycle Coalition; writer and historian.
View my complete profile
All about bicycling and livability in San Francisco's North Panhandle neighborhood.
Please place in window facing street. See July 31 post to download.
Great Sites
Bikes and The City Bike Portland Streetsblog San Francisco San Francisco Bicycle Coalition North of Panhandle Neighborhood Association Dale's Scene Fix Masonic City CarShare - San Francisco, Berkeley, Oakland, El Cerrito, Albany, Daly City, CA USA Livable City Followers
Saturday, August 15, 2009
Does the Renegade Bike Lane Striper Work for DPT?
Remember the unauthorized spate of common-sense, bike-safety messages stenciled on Fell at the ARCO Station ("KEEP CLEAR") and on Oak past Divis ("BIKES ONLY")? They remained a few days before MTA/DPT painted them over. Bikers buzzed: "Who are the renegade stripers? Where will they stripe next?"
Might they work for DPT itself? Consider the new striping on Grove, westbound between Divis and Scott. A little whimsy with that akew "A"? And what's with the big "K" pushing "E" up against the stripe? Not very nice. And do approach the top of the hill with an especially elongated STOP for safety.
Not to poke fun at re-paving and re-striping. That block of Grove was a rugged stretch to bike and the former stripes were mostly faded beyond recognition. And this is the only stretch of Grove to be even partly repaved anytime soon. Check these posts: pavement condition and repaving schedule for Grove and other NOPA streets.
The Grove westbound route just became a much more viable alternative to the Oak Street juggernaut for Easties. Hook up on Grove through NOPA, continue up to Alamo Square Park, and then cruise down Scott onto the Wiggle.
P.S. DPT must have its reasons for using tape instead of stencilled paint for pavement signage; cost savings, no doubt. But it does look just a tad, mmm, unprofessional.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 8:45 AM 2 comments
Labels: DPT, Grove Street, MTA, NOPA, renegade stenciler
Thursday, August 13, 2009
Love Your Bike Lanes: Golden Gate Avenue
Ten years ago Golden Gate Avenue carried three lanes of traffic: two travelling east and one west. Why did this residential street need three lanes? When the Central Freeway still hunkered over Market Street and helped blight Hayes Valley, Golden Gate served as a freeway feeder for motorists from the western and northern neighborhoods. But after the Loma Prieta earthquake and three ballot-box battles tamed the Central Freeway to its current drop-down, Golden Gate was relieved of its freeway duty.
NOPNA reps asked the Department of Parking and Traffic to remove one of the eastbound lanes after the freeway re-configuration. But DPT advised, "It seems like you've got a solution looking for a problem." Things do change (even if the same DPT official is now part of the Municipal Transportation Authority). A few years later, the city did indeed remove one of the eastbound lanes, and Mike Sallaberry, working for the MTA Bike Program, managed to get Golden Gate striped as a bike lane. (Tip of the cycling helmet to Mike who continues to work for bicycle improvements at MTA).
The bike lane on Golden Gate runs eastbound from from Parker Street amid the USF campus to Divisadero. The stretch from Broderick to Divis revs up some cyclists who wait at the top of the hill for the light to change on Divis and then power down with gravity doing the work to Divis and several blocks further. The risk averse opt out of the slalom run knowing red light runners (we're talking motorists) at Divis can make for a nasty collision at high bike speed. Eastbound, the GG lane begins at the juncture with the Baker Street bike lane and continues to Parker.
Savvy cyclists heading to the Richmond from the Civic Center or Mission take McAllister or the Wiggle to Baker, then right on Baker to Golden Gate for a westbound route with less of a climb around the Lone Mountain elevation to Parker, Turk, and then Cabrillo or Arguello.
Is Golden Gate the best east-bound route to the Civic Center and Market Street? Depends on your risk tolerance. It's a great ride to Broderick. If you're seeking a bit more cycling serenity, you'd do better taking a right to catch one of NOPA's other eastbound routes. See future post for the best of those (in the meantime, take McAllister).
Posted by MikeOnBike at 10:49 PM 0 comments
Labels: Central Freeway, Golden Gate Avenue, Mike Sallaberry, SFMTA Bike Program
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
How to Get from Here to There by Bike
One of the reasons potential cyclists resist taking that first ride is uncertainty about how to negotiate San Francisco streets and, always, the city's hills. But NOPA is a great location for getting to anywhere else in town. All anyone needs is a little direction and advice.
Bike maps are readily available. You can check the online (and downloadable) "San Francisco Bike Map"to find all the city's currrent bike routes, bike lanes, and bike sharrow (shared lane) routes. This ever-popular guide also color-codes blocks according to their elevation, so you can indeed avoid the hills. (Advisory: Once the onerous restriction on new bike lanes in the city is lifted -- any week now -- 45 miles of new bike routes, lanes, and sharrows will be added to the city's bike network. New maps will follow.)
Best of all join the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and get this free folding bike map. Your'e sure to use it all the time. Other perks with SFBC membership ($35/year) are dozens of discounts at city bike shops, cafes, and Rainbow Grocery. The membership pays for itself in no time, and you're helping support better biking in the city.
Find out everything you need to know to travel by transit and bike throughout the Bay Area at 511.org . How to put your bike on the front of Muni buses, where to position them on BART, the scoop on the Caltrain bike car, and taking your bike on ferries. Once primed with the basics, talk with other cyclists for tips on the best routes.
If you ever need an icebreaker with another cyclist, simply ask "how do you get to work/school/downtown, etc." Cyclists love to talk about the best, quickest routes. Never seem to tire of it, in fact. Must be a bonding ritual.
Special for North Panhandle blog readers: post your query (How do I get there from NOPA?) in the comments and we'll zip you a few options for safe bike travel.
Note: In case you sometimes walk to get from here to there: don't overlook the San Francisco Bike and Walking Map, available here as a pdf. These maps are available in several stores for $2.50.
And, lastly: when will we get walk and bike "fab maps" now available for motorists: washable microfiber fabric that requies no folding, won't rip or tear, washable, and suitable for cleaning iphones, eyeglasses, and goggles!
Posted by MikeOnBike at 3:20 PM 1 comments
Labels: 551.org, fab maps, NOPA, san francisco bicycle coalition, san francisco bike map
NOPA Bike Hero: Pacific Primary School
The little orange and yellow and green school that could. We all know it's hard to bike in the city if there's nowhere to park. And who likes settling for trees, parking meters, and street poles for cabling or U-locking? NOPA has a few standard inverted-U bike racks, but none close enough to Pacific Primary at Baker and Grove Streets to benefit teachers, parents, and students who bike. Until now.
Any biker, ped, or motorist who travels Baker or Grove Streets, knows the bright splashes of color on the westside corners of the intersection. Not exactly Victorian and Edwardian hues to match the neighborhood's painted ladies, but that's the fun of having the orange, green, and yellow exteriors of Pac Primary in the center of NOPA. Now a parents group has accessorized the school exterior with bright new bike racks.
According to school administrator, Elizabeth Cacal, parents designated the funds from a school auction for purchase of the bike racks. Sarah June Barr Crocket, one of the parents, helped select the manufacturer, Dero Bike Racks, and complete the purchase (about $2,000 for three racks). Dero allows customers to customize their purchase, and Pac Primary added its goofy grin logo. (You have to love a school with a a graphic like that!)
In an earlier post, I spied Sarah's son's bike forlornly slung around a street pole, no rack anywhere to be seen. Today his little red ride proudly stood along the cool orange rack at the front door.
Another parent, Norman Rutherford, volunteered to install the racks. I caught up with him and his son, Rye Tewksbury, this afternoon before they headed home to the Mission. They do just fine on their 2 1/2 mile ride and especially appreciate the Wiggle for getting across town. Rye started out in a bike trailer pod at six months and now has a scoot bike. Next up is a Burly trailer cycle.
Norman's got the bike rack installation down, and he's willing to help other non-profits, schools, arts organizations install theirs as well. (Contact him at northerly@sbcglobal.net). He also said he thought parents and teachers at the school would be enthusiastic about an occasional designated bike or play block near the school. Several parents have told him they'd like to learn more about bike trailers as well as giving their kids practice time on a city street.
Pacific Primary is a pretty cool school all around. With its brand new building on the southwest corner, the 35 year old school now accomodates 154 students who range from 2 1/2 years to pre-K. The full-day program "celebrates diversity -- ethnic, racial, economic -- and all types of families including adoptive, gay and lesbian, and one or more parent families."
Posted by MikeOnBike at 9:00 AM 5 comments
Labels: "streetsblog san francisco", bike parking, bike racks, burly trailer cycle, dero bike racks, kids on bikes, Pacific Primary
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Freeway Signs for SF Neighborhoods
"Wondering why you're stuck in traffic? Looking for the best way to get to your destination?" When a program overview begins like that, you know they're not talking about cyclists or pedestrians. San Francisco's Municipal Transportation Agency (MTA) has embarked on an ambitious and expensive "Integrated Transportation System" to "make your travels in and around the city a lot easier. ITS is a bit awkward; and besides, San Francisco already celebrates its legendary "IT's IT" ice cream bars. How about "SFgo" instead?
SFgo has its merits. MTA notes on its website that most city street signals are 50-60 years old and most signals are coordinated via old and deteriorating underground cables. "The system doesn't repond to actual traffic volumes or roadway conditions." The new system will do just that with traffic cameras and message signs. Perhaps there will be less congestion and a reduction in travel times with reduced levels of exhaust fouling the air we breathe. Of course, this also means that cars, Muni coaches, and peds on intersecting streets may have to wait even longer for a green signal if traffic on the "arterial" streets is particularly heavy.
But is SFgo appropriate for the neighborhoods? The most visible and jarring intrusions of SFgo's traffic-moving benevolence are the stark freeway-style sign posts erected on sidewalks (and extending over the roadway) last month on Oak and Fell Streets near Divisadero. The electronic display panels have yet to be installed, but soon they will provide digital displays of traffic advisories. Even if you haven't noticed these silver standards in NOPA and Alamo Square, you know what they look like from any freeway trips.
There's the rub: traffic management signs on freeways make sense. "Accident ahead; expect delays", "20 minutes to get to the next bottleneck", "Amber Alert," "Detour ahead," "You're already late for the family dinner." All these give drivers information they might use. But do the same signs belong in the neighborhoods? Traveling west on Fell, will drivers be alerted to heavy traffic on Masonic Ave. just five blocks away so they take side streets instead? Won't freeway signs on neighborhood streets provide visual cues to motorists: "looks like a freeway so drive like its a freeway"?
At what cost, do we benefit? SFgo already takes its traffic management to SOMA at a cost of approximately $6 million, according to MTA's site. The NOPA overhaul with "vehicle detection, cameras, and dynamic message signs" along the Fell/Oak corridors registers $1.2 million. (But that was the estimate in 2003; MTA is a bit overdue updating this segment of its website).
"SFgo is all about cooperation and partnership": perhaps, to a point. SFgo strives to collaborate with other city agencies. Good enough. But the lofty goal has included little neighborhood input from city residents who live along the streets that MTA wants to make more speedy and efficient for motorists. Michael Smithwick, longtime neighborhood activist and Transportation/Safety Chair for the Alamo Square Neighborhood Association (ASNA), recalls the limited community outreach undertaken by MTA.
"Several years ago the Department of Parking and Traffic conducted a focus group on this issue among community reps from across the city." (Note: DPT is now part of MTA). "The SFgo proposal was met with a huge thumbs down by residents concerned with the impact of the program on their neighborhood streets." After that one meeting, Smithwick recalls, DPT issued a glossy newsletter that claimed positive support. "Blatant misrepresentation," he charges. "Community representatives were not notified that the purchase decision had been made and were not even notified that the electronic signs were going up. So much for community involvement and transparency."
I spoke with a number of other NOPA and ASNA folks about the new signs looming over the roadways. Most were puzzled and dismayed that just as the city is about to undertake a mini-makeover of the Divisadero Corridor to make it more friendly and more neighborhood oriented, the MTA plants these freeway-style structures a 1/2 block away. The city -- that means us -- pays to replace cobra-head street lighting with more attractive poles with a softer lighting on Divisadero and then erects these ugly standards just around the corner. Where's the "cooperation and partnership" among city agencies? Beyond Divisadero, neighbors are concerned about the negative impacts on Fell and Oak, and they point out, with exasperation, that the two streets are traffic corridors, not freeway extensions.
MTA has enfolded SFgo in so much livablity prose that you have to wonder how much they recognize that the program will intrude on neighborhoods', uh, real livability. On the MTA website, SFgo is found under "Livable Streets" among the School Area Safety Program, the Pedestrian Program, and the Traffic Calming Program. MTA then asserts that SFgo complements SF's Transit First Policy "by helping to preserve and enhance the City's alternative modes of transportation." Everyone wants MUNI to operate better and on schedule, but it's not really clear, or proven, how notification of "delays ahead" will improve performance.
Bicyclists, you will benefit: "Bicyclists will have the use of calmer, safer roads. Informed drivers are more patient and sensitive to sharing the road with other travelers." MTA believes that motorists who are informed about why they are stuck in traffic ("accident ahead," "LGBT Pride parade blocking streets") will be more relaxed and not direct their frustrations at bicyclists, who just might be cooly passing them by. Maybe.
Pedestrians too: "Pedestrians will also benefit from calmer, safer roads. It will also be possible to adjust signal timing during special events to enhance pedestrian movement." Again, more information leads to less road rage. (I hope so). Signals can be changed for the AIDS Walk, the marathon, and the Bay to Breakers to sanction ped crossings through intersections. Fine, although SFPD manages that already at much less expense. But isn't it more likely that pedestrians will be kept waiting for longer periods to cross the streets once central-controlled traffic lights allow longer drive times to lighten congestion?
Sorry, neighorhood folks who live nearby: Although SFgo "helps everyone," there's no special nod to how ugly freeway signs, bright digital readouts at night, more speeding cars, greater noise, and increased street crossing times will make your life calmer and better.
SFgo has been approved and partly funded with implementation underway. What's to be done? For NOPA neighbors, attend the next NOPNA neighborhood meeting: Thursday, Sept. 17, at Cafe Neon, 1801 McAllister (at Baker). 7pm: Meet and Greet; 7:30 - 9pm: meeting. Representatives from SFgo will provide an update and answer questions. Alamo Square Neighborhood Association officers will participate. You can also direct concerns to the NOPNA Board of Directors and to Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and to the MTA.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 11:56 AM 1 comments
Labels: "streetsblog san francisco", ASNA, district 5 san francisco, Divisadero Street, NOPNA, SFgo, SFMTA
Monday, August 10, 2009
Seen While Biking: War and Oil and Bikes
A comment to yesterday's post from booye in Iran set up the stark contrast between 1000s of San Franciscans' fun through the park and along the ocean yesterday:
"Here in Iran we have better ideas to have fun. For example, Wednesday we are preparing to protest in BAZAR (central market of Iran). They kick us, arrest us, kill us ... coming back home, you are (not) sure whether they have identified you or not. In home, you are waiting for a call asking you to introduce yourself to jail, to be raped by them...this is our great fun."
San Franciscans recently rallied to protest the injustice in Iran that erupted around the recent elections there. Yet booye's account reminds us of the pursuit of justice in the face of the worst consequences that so many people undertake.
The "Uppity Bike Commuters" who plastered a NOPA billboard (at Divisadero and Hayes) push their own take on wars and struggles in the Middle East, but "uppity" pales in comparison to life-and-death protests in Iran.
Posted by MikeOnBike at 7:57 AM 6 comments
Labels: Divisadero Street, iran election, protest in iran, sfist, uppity bike commuters
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Heard While Biking
I heard the surf, the waves, the Pacific Ocean while biking along the Great Highway today. My first time biking the western edge of San Francisco without cars for company. A good day to be a San Franciscan with temps in the 60s and 70s. For those of us who live and bike in NOPA: Just a few blocks to the park and then to the ocean: what better location?
San Francisco's Sunday Streets came to the Great Highway today and opened one long stretch of highway from JFK Drive to Sloat Blvd. (Motorists might say the highway was "closed" to cars. It's a matter of perspective). The highway has been blocked to traffic before, most frequently to clear misplaced sand dunes from the roadway and recently for the Tour de California cyclists, but I've never before been here amid bikers and peds only. This was special.
I heard -- and saw -- kids on bikes. On the highway. The Freedom from Training Wheels crew were out once again to help parents help their kids with biking skills. This is biking of the present and the future.
Just when the serenity of the ride lulled me, I was jolted by Fossil Fool, the Bike Rapper at the Rock the Beach Bike Party. This otherwise lonely stretch of sand at the intersection of Noriega has never seen so much bike energy, literally. A line-up of bikers provided pedal power for Fossil Fool's band and mic -- although FF projected so much of his own energy he might not have needed them. What they say about themselves: "We're bike people. We're inventors and advocates working away in a sweet little workshop in Berkeley, California, pushing the limits of bike culture." Visit their site, check their tunes, get to their performances.
Sunday Streets in San Francisco has been so popular that planning is already underway for more street openings next year and more frequently. I loved the long open ride through Golden Gate Park to the ocean -- we don't "go to the shore" here -- but I'm looking forward to more Sunday Streets in city neighborhoods next year. But then, why wait? Why not open our blocks regularly on our own?
Posted by MikeOnBike at 3:36 PM 7 comments
Labels: fossil fool, freedom from training wheels, great highway, rock the bike, sunday streets
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Blog Archive
▼ 2009 (36)
▼ August (17)
Does the Renegade Bike Lane Striper Work for DPT?
Love Your Bike Lanes: Golden Gate Avenue
How to Get from Here to There by Bike
NOPA Bike Hero: Pacific Primary School
Freeway Signs for SF Neighborhoods
Seen While Biking: War and Oil and Bikes
Heard While Biking
D5 Clean Team Saturday Sweep
Bike in Flight
Blog of the Day! Whooeee
Panhandle Path and its Poor Relative
Doug Diboll: Tipping Toward the Positive in NOPA
Kids Bike to School, Sometimes with Parent Pedal P...
Lower McAllister MakeOver
Seen While Biking
No More Mattress-Filled Sinkhole
Montreal's Bixi Bike Share comes to SF
► July (15)
BIKE NOPA window sign now available
Freedom from Training Wheels
Seen While Biking #3
Seen While Biking #2
Share the Path, Love the Panhandle
Renegade Bike Striper Strikes Again
Pedaling Revolution
Bike Parking in NOPA
Before Concrete, Before Asphalt
No One Likes This
A Smoother McAllister
NOPA Play Blocks
Seen While Biking #1
NOPA's Bumpy Streets, Part One
► June (4)
A Bike Rack Here, Please
NOPA's Bumpy Streets, Part Two
Tube Times Takes Bike Pulse
Mapping NOPA Street Trees
About Me
Michael Helquist
NOPA resident since 1997, former president & board member, North Panhandle Neighborhood Association (NOPNA); member, SF Bicycle Coalition; writer and historian.
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