Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Pavement to Parks

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City Moves Forward on a More Pedestrian-Friendly Castro Street

By Aaron Bialick | Dec 20, 2012 | 10 Comments

San Francisco’s world-famous commercial strip on Castro Street, which gained a popular pedestrian plaza in 2009, is poised to become a more inviting destination as the SF Planning Department develops plans to widen the sidewalks and install other improvements from 17th Street to 19th Street. The sidewalks on Castro, currently 12 feet wide, could reach widths up […]

In Park(ing) Day’s Seventh Year, Parklets Now a San Francisco Institution

By Aaron Bialick | Sep 20, 2012 | 5 Comments

When Park(ing) Day started in San Francisco seven years ago, setting up camp on a sliver of street space normally reserved for storing cars was a somewhat radical idea. But these days, evidence of the movement’s continuing success can be seen year-round with more than 35 (and counting) semi-permanent, city-sanctioned parklets around the city. Park(ing) […]

Will SF’s Leaders Turn Transport Policy Innovations Into Lasting Change?

By Aaron Bialick | Jan 27, 2012 | 82 Comments

San Francisco was one of two cities this week to receive the Institute for Transportation and Development’s prestigious 2012 Sustainable Transport Award. No doubt, the ITDP award was well-deserved for the SFMTA’s successful implementation of the groundbreaking SFPark program, as well as the SF Planning Department’s proliferation of parklets under its Pavement to Parks program. Those efforts […]

Great Streets Project Quantifies the Impacts of Parklets

By Aaron Bialick | Jan 5, 2012 | 3 Comments

Nearly two years after the first parklet arrived in San Francisco, a new study provides an empirical assessment of reclaiming parking spots for public space. The 2011 Parklet Impact Study [PDF], released yesterday by the SF Great Streets Project, measures changes in pedestrian volumes and activity at three new parklets built last year. The study, […]

Eyes on the Street: SFMTA Stripes the McCoppin Hub Bikeway

By Aaron Bialick | Nov 8, 2011 | 21 Comments

New markings are on the ground delineating the short two-way bikeway linking the Market and Octavia intersection to Valencia Street and the future site of the McCoppin Hub plaza. SFMTA crews made the improvements two weeks ago, according to the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. The pedestrian and bicycle shortcut has existed for years, but the new […]

Inner Sunset Residents Sign on to Vision for Public Plaza

By Aaron Bialick | Oct 19, 2011 | 36 Comments

In the midst of the bustling Inner Sunset Street Fair on Sunday, a canvas on the corner of 10th Avenue and Irving Street re-imagined the street as an inviting, car-free public plaza. This is just an idea — but it could happen if we wanted it to, read the text accompanying a photo-realistic rendering of a pedestrian […]

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