San Francisco

In San Francisco, the Pavement to Parks program has launched an initiative that may someday alter the way U.S. cities treat their commercial strips.

"The Wiggle" is one of San Francisco's most beloved bike routes, guiding riders between two nasty hills. It even has its own Wikipedia entry.

Editor's note: We linked to this story out of San Francisco in the headline stack this morning, and it's worth a very close look. Experts counsel that the first step in reforming parking policies that promote driving is to measure the parking supply. The number one recommendation in "Suburbanizing the City" [PDF], the 2008 report on New York City's traffic-inducing parking policies, is to "create a complete, public inventory of existing, permitted and planned off-street parking." In San Francisco, they're methodically assessing the parking supply so that planners can make more informed decisions. In New York, the Department of City Planning is still groping around in the dark.

When it comes to making a public commitment to taming lawless driving and making streets safe for biking, police departments in major west coast cities are starting to leave Ray Kelly's NYPD in their wake.

These are heady days for San Francisco cyclists. After three years that saw the addition of pretty much zero bike infrastructure, this week the city hailed the arrival of its first new bike lane since 2006 and its first-ever physically protected bikeway. Thanks to a partial dismantling of Rob Anderson's crowning achievement -- the legal injunction banning bike lanes under the guise of environmental review -- more projects are on the way. The atmosphere is fairly giddy.

If you're interested in the power of parking policy to reduce congestion and make streets more livable, the most exciting place to be right now is San Francisco. For the past year and a half, the city has pursued an innovative slate of policies designed to manage parking supply wisely and deftly, thanks in part to a federal grant from the Urban Partnership program -- the same pot of money that New York City could have accessed if Albany had passed congestion pricing last year.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has snagged some high-profile support for his nascent California gubernatorial bid, but he may have some trouble with the transit-riding, congestion-weary constituency. My colleagues Matthew Roth and Bryan Goebel have the story over at Streetsblog San Fran:

After covering PARK(ing) Day events since 2006, this year we took it down a notch. We figured it was about time we got to relax a little and enjoy the space and -- frankly -- not get dehydrated from bicycling about all day. So sit back and enjoy.

On August 7, George Gascón was sworn in as San Francisco's chief of police. Four weeks later, he sat down for an interview with Streetsblog San Francisco editor Bryan Goebel. In case you thought all police were incapable of discussing street safety and traffic enforcement substantively, have a listen: