At the Transportation Working Group event on Wednesday night (screening of The End of Suburbia, followed by a panel discussion), Leah Shahum said something about wanting to do something on World Environment Day that would expose San Francisco for what it really is when it comes to the environment. She mentioned Gavin Newsom's anti-littering campaign, and Ross noted that the Chronicle gave Newsom front-page, above-the-fold coverage with headlines that rivalled those when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. A proposal to close Market Street for a day -- with all the resistance it will probably generate, might accomplish that. Sue On Wed, 27 Apr 2005 09:09:23 -0700 marc <marc@cybre.net> writes:

If Market Street were closed to auto traffic, then there would be no

need to spend the many (tens of) millions of dollars to build bike lanes from 8th to Embarcadero that the deficient Transportation Authority

Market Street Study called for. The TA report, obviously not written by engineers, is disappointing because it declines to make several simplifying assumptions that would have produced a more elegant system and cost far less money.

Market Street is at its widest from 8th to Octavia, and the resolution passed yesterday to implement bike lanes there represents some of the lowest hanging bike lane fruit in the City which could have been done easily 15 years ago.

Mayor Willie L. Brown Jr., upon his inauguration at Yerba Buena Park in 1996, promised that he would close Market Street to private automobiles. I believe that SFGTV has archived video of that. That was right before he promised to fix MUNI in 100 days.

If Market Street were closed to private auto traffic for one weekend

day, as it is closed to traffic for any big parade, then the impacts

would be minimal and would highlight the gap between San Francisco's

perception of itself as an environmental leader and the lackluster reality of our current position.

The reality is that when MUNI does not have to compete with private

autos, those efficiencies translate directly as social justice for MUNI riders, most of whom are not rich. When peds don't have to compete with private autos, that saves lives on the most dangerous transit corridor for peds in the City. When private autos don't block the pinch points on Market, at the boarding islands, then the need for explicit bike

lanes to mediate that competition is mitigated as bikes can travel at speed more distance.

-marc Dave Snyder wrote:

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There will be new bike lanes on Market Street between 8th and Van Ness by World Environment Day, but no action on bike lanes east of 8th.

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That could be our demand.

Dave

At 9:03 PM -0400 4/25/05, MrPlutocrat@aol.com wrote:

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Actually, if we close Market St., it would make Critical Mayors bike ride really easy. We should do both!

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In a message dated 4/25/2005 5:53:55 P.M. Pacific Standard Time,

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funking@mindspring.com writes:

Critical Mayors bike ride is a cute idea that might get strong support with a low turn out. Closing Market St to cars for the whole day is far more radical- and I think we should persue it.

We could showcase our main street, transit service and popularity of bikes and make a statement about cars being central to many of our environmental problems. We would keep the other major streets downtown open, so there would still be plenty of automobile access, esp. since most commuters use Howard, Folsom and the other one-way streets to traverse downtown anyways.

I am starting to talk about this idea to several groups. So far, response has been positive and encouraging. I would like to be sure that if this idea does go forward, it has the Green party's name on it.

peace,

susan