Recent Streetsblog SF posts about Urban Planning

A Livable Street in the Making: 17th Street Ped Plaza Nearly Complete

By Bryan Goebel | May 12, 2009 | 7 Comments

DPW worker painting around an unused track in the plaza. Bollards in the background on the right and left will be filled with gravel and soil and will have plants growing out of them. Photo: Matthew Roth In less than 24 hours, city officials, including Mayor Gavin Newsom, will be standing in a new pedestrian […]

Of Teamsters and Turtles, Plumbers and Progressives

By Chris Carlsson | May 4, 2009 | 17 Comments

Cultures meet over real work at Heart of the City Farmers’ Market Ever since the much-promoted alliance between “teamsters and turtles” at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, there’s been a renewed hope that the decades-long opposition between organized labor and environmentalists might be resolvable. The original Teamsters and turtles weren’t really in much […]

Great Streets Project Hires Director, Hits the Streets Running

By Matthew Roth | Apr 24, 2009 | 3 Comments

Flickr photo: JaimeAndreu Yesterday marked an important day for livable streets in San Francisco. In coordination with the Castro Street CBD, Supervisor Bevan Dufty, and the Mayor’s Office of Greening, the nascent Great Streets Project (GSP) co-hosted a roundtable discussion about how to start and manage successful public spaces, with particular emphasis on the proposed […]

California Could Start Requiring Drivers to Report VMT

By Matthew Roth | Mar 30, 2009 | 23 Comments

When USDOT Secretary Ray LaHood last month suggested that the country should consider replacing the gas tax with a tax on vehicle miles traveled (VMT) to compensate for the dwindling Highway Trust Fund, which is primarily supported from gas taxes, the White House immediately rebuffed him, assuring the public and angry editorial boards that Obama […]

Back to the Grid: John Norquist on How to Fix National Transpo Policy

By Ben Fried | Mar 26, 2009 | 2 Comments

How can federal policy encourage walkable street networks instead of highways and sprawl? Image: CNU The news coming out of Washington last week jacked up expectations for national transportation policy to new heights. Cabinet members Ray LaHood and Shaun Donovan announced a partnership to connect transportation and housing policy, branded as the "Sustainable Communities Initiative." […]

Streetfilms: L.A.’s Orange Line Bus Rapid Transit (plus bike path!)

By Clarence Eckerson Jr. | Mar 23, 2009 | 18 Comments

Who would have thought that one of the best Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) systems in the U.S. would be in its most crowded, congested, sprawling city? Well check this out. It’s really fabulous. In October 2005, the Los Angeles County Metro Authority (or Metro) debuted a new 14-mile BRT system in the San Fernando Valley […]

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