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. ************************************** Get a sneak peak of the all-new AOL at http://discover.aol.com/memed/aolcom30tour