Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Traffic

The Sinister Logic of Old-School Traffic Engineering, in XtraNormal

By Matthew Roth | Dec 8, 2010 | 3 Comments

There is a strange world where up is down, in is out, right is wrong, and black is white. I’m not just talking about the San Francisco Planning Department’s indefensible trip-generation analysis for new parking spaces. No, I mean the world of old-school traffic engineers, where improving safety on the streets means reducing conflicts with […]

New Study Analyzes Traffic Around Former Central Freeway

By Matthew Roth | Sep 29, 2010 | 21 Comments

The Central Freeway sections damaged by the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 have been replaced by such a distinctive Octavia Boulevard, for many San Franciscans the double-decked behemoth that used to dominate the neighborhood has become a distant memory. Most of the traffic the freeway carried, however, has not disappeared and now city planners are […]

Advocates: CityPlace EIR Highlights Need for Level of Service Reform

By Bryan Goebel | Sep 16, 2010 | 25 Comments

At the heart of the San Francisco Planning Department’s 328-page Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR) for CityPlace, sustainable transportation advocates have pinpointed one glaring flaw. In assessing the impacts of new off-street retail parking, the environmental analysis [pdf] concludes that building a 167-space garage will have the same effect on traffic as building no garage […]

Advocates Call on SFMTA to Take Immediate Steps to Fix Masonic Avenue

By Bryan Goebel | Aug 20, 2010 | 10 Comments

A ghost bike at Masonic and Turk in memory 21-year-old Nils Linke, who was killed by a drunk driver one week ago. Photo: Michael Helquist of BIKE NOPA. A week after a 21-year-old German tourist on a bicycle was killed by a hit-and-run drunk driver on Masonic Avenue, the first death of a bicyclist in […]

Jack Fleck on Market Street, Muni, Global Warming and Traffic

By Bryan Goebel | Jul 8, 2010 | 13 Comments

Photo: Bryan Goebel. What does San Francisco’s retired top traffic engineer think about Market Street, Muni and global warming? We sat down with Jack Fleck recently for an extended interview. The 62-year-old retired last week after more than 25 years with the former Department of Parking and Traffic and the current San Francisco Municipal Transportation […]

Traffic Engineer Jack Fleck Looks Back at 25 Years of Shaping SF Streets

By Bryan Goebel | Jul 1, 2010 | 18 Comments

Jack Fleck, who retired yesterday after 25 years with the SFMTA, has been pondering the city’s streets from his 7th floor office above Van Ness and Market Streets. Photos by Bryan Goebel. Editor’s note: This is the first of a three-part series on the past, present and future of traffic engineering in San Francisco. Jack […]

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