I went to the website suggested by Erika (thanks!) and found that Friday, June 3 is focused on transportation. I propose that we ask for June 3rd to be the day we ask that Market St. be closed to cars. here's my proposal: Close Market St from 8th to the foot of Market from 6 am to 6 pm on June 3rd. Cross traffic will be allowed. People will still be able to drive on all other roadways in the downtown areas, including the major freeway arteries and one-way streets that lead into and out of downtown. Taxis will also be prohibited on this roadway, we can ask that the Pedicabs from Fisherman's Wharf relocate this one day to provide Taxi service instead. We will need to work with the Taxi companies to get buy in, and help establish taxi stands off Market so they can still operate. Muni will run it's regular schedule, with regular fares- I oppose reducing fares in light of Muni's financial crisis, plus most folks coming downtown on weekdays are either going to work or going to shop. Asking them to spend $1.25 is not unreasonable. Get organizations to endorse this action: SF League of Conservation Voters signed on; I will seek support from other organizations, we need everyone to help with this. Orgs that we really need are: SF Bicycle Coalition, Walk SF, Senior Action Network, Sierra Club, SF Tomorrow and other transportation/environmental organizations. Ask Ross to introduce this at the Board of Supervisors, and help us get the support from city agencies who will be involved in making this happen. Run a public information campaign to let drivers know about this event so they can make arrangements to either take other streets or, ideally, use another form of transportation on June 3. Main points are: please add, edit, and improve For drivers: We should emphasis that this is a reasonable request, since we are only asking for one section of one road for one half of one day. We should let drivers know that they can still cross Market St. and drive on other roads. Focus should be on encouraging people to NOT drive, but we are not preventing them from doing so. Environmental connection: focus on the fact that cars and driving is the source of many of our major environmental issues- global warming, reduced air quality, loss of open space, human health issues related to breathing and obesity, oil exploration that destroys our natural environment, (and those pesky wars for oil if we want to make this connection). SF connection: regardless of fuel efficiency, accommodations for cars come at the expense of open space, housing, efficient transit, safe streets for cyclists and pedestrians. Showcase Market St.'s potential without private automobiles. This is an opportunity to see how transit, cyclists and pedestrians' experience on Market St is enhanced by the removal of private cars. Facts: I need some help assembling some information: 1. Market St. represents a very small % of SF's roadways, how many miles of roads are there in SF? We need to make the case that we are not asking for a lot, just the closure of one piece of one road for half of a day. 2. How many people drive downtown on weekdays? How many bicycle, walk or take transit? 3. How much pollution is caused by one driver, driving to work everyday, and how much do we estimate this being reduced if folks who drive to SF took transit (or other mode) just one day per year? Thanks for reading From: chkalish@ix.netcom.com Reply-To: chkalish@ix.netcom.com Date: Mon, 25 Apr 2005 23:48:18 -0700 (PDT) To: MrPlutocrat@aol.com, funking@mindspring.com, rmirk@msn.com Cc: grns-sf-staff@greens.org Subject: Re:ClosingMarket st to cars/Critical Mayors Great, Susan. Keep us updated. Any other ideas? Charles -----Original Message----- From: MrPlutocrat@aol.com Sent: Apr 25, 2005 6:03 PM To: funking@mindspring.com, rmirk@msn.com Cc: grns-sf-staff@greens.org Subject: Re:ClosingMarket st to cars/Critical Mayors Actually, if we close Market St., it would make Critical Mayors bike ride really easy. We should do both! In a message dated 4/25/2005 5:53:55 P.M. Pacific Standard Time, 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