Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Communities

Using Software to Find Walkable Neighborhoods and Live Car Free

By Matthew Roth | Feb 27, 2009 | 4 Comments

The Bay Area’s public transportation circulatory system. Click for larger view Though David Brooks might argue in his New York Times column that Americans want to live in small towns and suburban dreamscapes, the fact is more and more of us live in metropolitan areas, and discussions about what we want should have to do […]

Paradise LOSt (Part III): California’s Revolutionary Plan to Overhaul Transportation Analysis

By Matthew Roth | Jan 28, 2009 | 3 Comments

Transportation consultants and planners associated with the San Francisco Transportation Authority’s (TA) ATG working group sent excited bursts of email to each other earlier this month about a new development coming from the state Office of Planning and Research (OPR), the body responsible for writing and amending the CEQA guidelines related to transportation and traffic. […]

Paradise LOSt (Part II): Turning Automobility on Its Head

By Matthew Roth | Jan 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

One of the unintended consequences of San Francisco’s bicycle injunction, which Rob Anderson and fellow NIMBYs will likely rue for some time to come, is the arduous thought and labor that advocates and professional planners have invested in doing away with LOS all together. Two arguments in the debate over LOS have emerged. One […]

Paradise LOSt (Part I): How Long Will the City Keep Us Stuck in Our Cars?

By Matthew Roth | Jan 26, 2009 | 34 Comments

The idea that the speed and free-flow of cars is the proxy that is being used across the state of California to measure whether a project is [environmentally] impactful is in the long run undermining the very quality of life [we] are working to protect.