By Noah Baustin : metermadness – excerpt
San Francisco city leaders broke ground Monday on a nearly decade-in-the-making street redesign that will transform one of the city’s main arteries that carries vehicles to downtown.
The Folsom Street streetscape project will remake the bustling thoroughfare across the entire SoMa neighborhood, from 11th Street to Second Street. While drivers are currently able to travel in three, and sometimes four, lanes on Folsom Street, the project will permanently funnel vehicle traffic into two lanes. Meanwhile, builders will add a transit-only lane on the 1.3-mile strip and install a two-way bikeway protected from vehicles by concrete islands...
Construction is set to begin in earnest by the end of May, and workers will be on the street from roughly 7 a.m. to 3 p.m. for about the next three years, according to Public Works Project Manager Carol Huang. The project will happen in phases, beginning on Folsom Street between 11th and Eighth streets, then from Eighth to Fifth streets and ending with Fifth to Second streets. The goal is to wrap construction by the end of 2026. Then, in the summer of 2027, the city is slated to launch a companion project remaking nearby Howard Street…
Workers will close traffic lanes as the project progresses, though at least two vehicle lanes and the sidewalk will remain open at all times. Contractor Mitchell Engineering will be doing the construction. In total, the project will cost about $45 million, according to Public Works spokesperson Rachel Gordon…..(more)
Meter Madness 
SUCH a Bad Idea. Building costly Boutique Streets that paralyze the movement of traffic. 8% of the population rides Bikes. Yet, now we’re ALL supposed to ride them. Or get on the deficient underfunded MUNI Bus to nowhere. Nowhere because we don’t have the Routes or the Drivers to get to somewhere! Meanwhile car Parking is Removed, Lanes for cars are Removed, Provision for cars is Removed! … What is Not Understood is we are Still Dependent on the Automobile. There are Half a Million Cars registered in SF, and Not just because we enjoy Paying for Them! … The SFMTA policies create vast pressure on car drivers, as the space to park is Removed everywhere. And as lanes for cars are removed. … As I require a car to Work, this is an Existential Threat. It’s also a Threat to the many Businesses in areas like Valencia Street that require and need Parking, or risk Going Under! … The Bottom Line is these Policies are Damaging SF. With the huge losses of the Pandemic, we Can Not Afford policies that Further Decimate the Businesses that remain! … The Only Solution to change the course of the out-of-touch Imperial SFMTA is to FIRE TUMLIN! And this means getting rid of Breed, his backer and supporter!
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As the City redesigns Folsom to accommodate more bikes and buses, is it also increasing transit? Unless SFMTA adds more buses, this redesign could be a traffic nightmare in the making.
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Argument “12 percent of city streets that account for 70 percent of the San Francisco’s severe and fatal traffic crashes.” Their numbers mentioned in this article 2 people in 2018 died. Make any sense?
36 million project. $28 million from “affordable housing”” the remaining cost coming from supposed “Covid relief” Biden had passed, as well as grants provided from funding measures voted on by the public to save the bay, clean the beaches, save your life, schools and things like that. With a little research you will find these funding sources including “future potential funding sources” provided by more dumb ballot measures sales tax, to save your life, clean up homeless, police and crime. Pretty much using anything you’re upset about or after aid of today as a selling point.
Folsom is first, then Howard, then all the streets that cross them 11th street down to the Embarcadero you have the Embarcadero coming up soon with a car ban, duboce/division/13th street highway will be coming down made to look like Cesar Chavez and so on. All in phases from now into the future. Some major projects will be happening over the next 3 years.
it is a complete waste of time blaming breed or Tumlin or anybody in city government for that matter. Put blame on the citizens of San Francisco for voting for these idiots in the first place including voting blindly on ballot measures believing the city on what the money would actually be spent on. In the end there won’t be any small businesses left or anybody living here. A bankrupt garbage can.
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