Building on San Francisco’s Better Streets Plan, the Planning Department’s WalkFirst Project “will identify key walking streets throughout San Francisco and establish criteria to prioritize pedestrian improvements in order to improve pedestrian safety and walking conditions, encourage walking, and enhance pedestrian connections to key destinations.”
The project will run through the end of September, 2011 and yield criteria, case studies and concept designs for prioritizing pedestrian improvements in key pedestrian streets and zones throughout San Francisco.
∙ Better Streets San Francisco: Neighborhood Meetings [SocketSite]
∙ WalkFirst Project [sf-planning.org]
“encourage walking”
Great initiative. We’ll see how this plays out once the conclusion becomes “discourage driving” through decreases of traffic fluidity. A lot of nice cars-vs-bikes-vs-pedestrians debates!
Unfortunately there’s some real truth to your assertion lol. In many aspects of street design there’s a direct conflict between pedestrian safety and automobile speed. That shouldn’t be too much of a surprise.
A classic example is the curvature of a street corner, otherwise known as the radius. Larger radii result in larger more sweeping curves which allow traffic to make right turns at faster speeds. Not only do faster speeds increase the chance of death in a collision but they also reduce sighting and reaction times that would help avoid the collision.
These issues usually come down to safety versus convenience.
I’m sure this will be a fun-filled debate, frisco style, with well organized (sic) bike nazis vs. suv soccer moms shopping at whole foods vs. poor transients in sro’s represented by oodles of non profits. I wonder if Joe average walker will get a word in edgewise???
How about we start with cleaning the up sidewalks and the homeless problem?
^ Sit/lie law as a start? Will cops enforce it or sit on their asses?
Can’t we just move all streets underground, with stairways at each corner for drivers to come up? Now that’s planning!
“frisco style, with well organized (sic) bike nazis vs. suv soccer moms shopping at whole foods vs. poor transients in sro’s represented by oodles of non profits”
Good way to sum up several categories of useless NIMBYs in this town! Shouldn’t you be 46 by now? 🙂