[SFGP Action] Come to a Planning Commission Meeting Tomorrow July 12

[ErikaSF at aol.com]

How can removing auto lanes for bicycle lanes threaten the environment?
Why do you have to cross the street three times in SOMA just to get to the
other side?  LOS, that's why.

WHAT: An important hearing at the SF Planning Commission
WHERE: City Hall, Room 400
WHEN: TOMORROW, Thursday, July 12, 10AM
WHY: Pedestrians and Cyclists are as important as Autos

The hearing will consider changing the environmental review standards on
which street configuration decisions are made from supporting the
incumbency of the automobile by privileging automobile Level of Service
(LOS) towards standards which value safe and efficient movement of
pedestrians and cyclists as well.

City Traffic engineers must seek an expensive and time consuming
environmental impact report any time a change to the streets would cause
traffic to slow to certain levels because standards written in the 1970s,
when autos belched leaded fuel emissions at rates 8 times of today's
cleaner vehicles, are still applied.  San Francisco has not seen auto
related emissions "hot spots" for 30 years, yet bike lanes and safer
traffic treatments are assumed to cause air quality impacts if autos are
slowed.

This is an obscure technical issue which Greens such as Supervisor Ross
Mirkarimi and Planning Commissioner Christina Olague have taken a
leadership role in order to conform environmental practice to San
Francisco's Transit First policies and which impacts on street livability
citywide.

For more information on auto LOS, CEQA, and transportation planning, see
information from the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (SFBC) at
http://sfbike.org/los.



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