Aaron Bialick
Aaron was the editor of Streetsblog San Francisco from January 2012 until October 2015. He joined Streetsblog in 2010 after studying rhetoric and political communication at SF State University and spending a semester in Denmark.
Recent Posts
SFMTA Engineering Hearing
| | No Comments
Agenda Includes bulb-outs on outer Mission Street, daylighting at Valencia Street and Duboce Avenue, and more.
Embarcadero Bikeway Hugely Popular, But Deliveries May Pose a Challenge
| | 24 Comments
At its first community meeting, a proposed protected bikeway on the Embarcadero seemed popular with just about everyone, though accommodating port deliveries could pose a challenge for its design. “The reception has been overwhelmingly positive,” said SFMTA project manager Patrick Golier. “We’ve had a number of conversations with a variety of stakeholders, all with different […]
Thanks to Sup. Farrell, It’s Finally Legal to Store Bikes in Your Garage
| | 12 Comments
In a trailblazing move that advances sustainable transportation policy in San Francisco, Supervisor Mark Farrell successfully changed an outdated and mostly unknown law that prohibited San Franciscans from using their residential garages to store anything besides automobiles. That’s right — until now, an archaic law in the city’s Housing Code required that garages be used […]
Court Applies Reckless Driving to Bikes. When Will Gascón Apply it to Cars?
| | 11 Comments
A California state appeals court ruled last week that “reckless driving” can be applied to people on bicycles who kill or injure others, just as it’s applied to people driving, as the SF Chronicle reported. No one, including bicycle advocates, seems to dispute that full accountability should be brought to anyone who commit acts of […]
SFMTA to Paint the Transit Lanes Red on Mid-Market This Weekend
| | 38 Comments
The SFMTA announced that red paint will be added this weekend to the transit- and taxi-only lanes on mid-Market Street, between Fifth and 12th Streets. The treatment, already rolled out recently on bus lanes on Third Street and the Geary-O’Farrell Street couplet, is intended to make it more obvious that private auto drivers shouldn’t be […]
Open House Tomorrow Examines Protected Bikeway Along the Embarcadero
| | 13 Comments
The SFMTA and other city agencies will hold an open house tomorrow to kick off planning for a protected bikeway on the Embarcadero. No specific proposals have been put forth yet, but a report [PDF] on the SFMTA website promises that the agency will “develop a conceptual design and cost estimate” for a “a bicycle […]
Watch: ABC 7 Talks With Officials, Advocates Supporting Vision Zero
| | 5 Comments
ABC 7 news anchor Cheryl Jennings talked to some of San Francisco’s key city officials and advocates about Vision Zero, the campaign to eliminate traffic deaths by 2024, on her show “Beyond the Headlines” Sunday. Pedestrian and bike safety was the theme of the half-hour show, during which Jennings interviewed SFMTA Director Ed Reiskin; the family of […]
Supes Approve Wiener’s Population-Based Transit Funding Measure for Ballot
| | 4 Comments
The Board of Supervisors voted 6-4 today to put on November’s ballot a charter amendment that would increase the share of general funds devoted to transportation, based on population growth. Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced the measure as a backup plan to generate transportation revenue — 75 percent of which would go to Muni, 25 percent […]
Dance Performance Celebrates Temporarily Car-Free Lombard Street
| | 3 Comments
Last week, cars once again took over SF’s crooked block of Lombard Street, following the last of a series of weekend trials that banned most cars from the street and opened it up to people instead. The Bay Area Flash Mob celebrated the last car-free day with a choreographed dance all the way down the winding road, […]
SPUR Forum: Transportation Planning at Ocean Beach
| | No Comments
From SPUR: Image courtesy of Flickr user jenkinson2455 How is the Ocean Beach Master Plan being implemented and what will it impact? In the second program in this three-part series, we’ll learn how a managed retreat at South Ocean Beach will impact circulation and access and how the recent Sunset Blueprint will bring additional transportation and […]
SFMTA Says Van Ness BRT Can’t Have High Platforms for Level Boarding
| | 42 Comments
The SFMTA says it’s impossible for stations on the coming Van Ness Bus Rapid Transit route to have one of the key recommended features of BRT: High platforms, at the same level as bus floors, that allow passengers to quickly step onto the bus. SFMTA planners say that complications with the design of Muni’s buses […]
Parking Shared Cars Instead of Private Cars Isn’t Exactly “Privatization”
| | 76 Comments
The SFMTA’s endeavor to reserve on-street car parking spaces for car-share vehicles has yielded complaints from some car owners who, ironically, decry the “privatization” of space currently used to store private cars. These folks don’t seem to acknowledge the extensive research showing that each car-share vehicle replaces, on average, nine to 13 privately-owned cars. They should […]