Marina Bike/Ped Path Project: "Is The Safety of Thousands of People Every Day Worth Removing 51 Underused Parking Spots?"

Remove underused parking that will undoubtedly lead to some sort of tragedy in the future?  Decisions, decisions...
Photo: SFDPW

The group deciding the future of the Marina bike path project have a difficult decision on their hands. Should they eliminate a scant amount of parking to dramatically increase safety and comfort for the 98% of non-motorized users who use the path every day?  It's certainly not an easy answer if you're contending with a bunch of rich angry yacht owners screaming for free parking.

The only part of the 500 mile trail that has cars weaving around peds, cyclists, children, and the elderly.
image found here

If they remove these 91 parking spots, they only have parking everywhere else. There's nearby parking in four separate lots (the Marina Green lot, the Yacht Club East lot, the St. Francis Yacht Club lot, and the Yacht Club West lot) as well as parallel parking on Yacht Road and other proximate surface streets. 

Cars use the space 2% of the time but get nearly 50% of the space.  The decision to remove parking is difficult indeed.
image found here.

The one year project has been looking for other sensible solutions like somehow teleporting cyclists and pedestrians through the area where 2000 pound machines lumber around and sleep.  They've also looked to putting parking on the arterial street but found cars would face a "dooring hazard".  This is an issue that cyclists and pedestrians currently have on the path, which is perfectly acceptable.  

Some options, like putting car parking on arterial streets (like they do everywhere else in the city) are not suggested.  They put drivers who park their cars in risk of "dooring hazards", a problem that only cyclists are allowed to endure.
image found here.

Tuesday’s meeting of mostly angry rich yacht owners who want free parking handouts will start at 6 p.m. at Moscone Recreation Center at 1800 Chestnut Street, San Francisco.  Stop on by if you somehow think a 500 mile ped/bike path is better if it's unimpeded by car parking.

Comments can also be sent to Mary Hobson and Sarah Ballard of Rec and Parks. The SFBC has posted a template for letters of support for the parking removal on its website.

Stay strong and avoid reason at the meeting, rich yacht owners!  You're more important than the safety of thousands!
Photo: Aaron Bialick

Backers of Prop L Look to Connect to Transit Riders, Pedestrians and Cyclists

Now that the people of "Restore Car Dominated Balance" have Proposition L on the ballot, they're looking for support from the people they are trying to marginalize.  Paul Aster, backer of Prop L said, "when we looked at the demographics we realized that the amount of people who solely drive isn't large enough to pass this through.  We need to connect to the other half of the city that doesn't drive a personal vehicle.  We want to relate to them and show that our wants and needs really aren't all that different."

"See, our concerns are not all that different"

Proposition L supporters want to make sure citizens understand how difficult it can be to sit in a vehicle and drive from point A to B in the least amount of time possible.  "We want to make sure someone in a bus realized that we're only parked in their bus stop because of bad city policy, somehow.  We want pedestrians to think twice when the crosswalk is blocked or we blew through a red light. Maybe it was due to a newly added bike lane, or some pedestrian safety initiative?  It certainly wasn't OUR fault."  Prop L supporters want everyone to put themselves in the lead shoes of drivers and contemplate the sheer horror of being unable to find a super convenient free parking space out of the 441,541 spaces available in SF.

Save these "Car Buffets" (Van Ness - Left, Masonic - Right) are perfect examples of balanced street-freeways 

Proposition L supporters also want to highlight some of San Francisco's wonderful "Car Buffets" that work amazingly well for drivers who can't handle excruciatingly slow speeds of 25 miles an hour.  Paul said, "These 'Car Buffets' are perfectly safe when pedestrians are in constant fear of bodily injury."  And while it's pretty clear that speeding doesn't save much time at all, Paul says that doesn't mean drivers shouldn't feel the satisfaction of getting somewhere faster.  "Some people feel the satisfaction of cycling to and from work, or carrying a load of groceries home from the store.  Drivers only feel this satisfaction when they're ripping through a neighborhood to get home just in time before The Big Bang Theory starts."

Prop L to make "San Francisco's streets safe and inclusive for EVERYONE".
Photo: Bryan Goebel

Paul concluded, "Once public transit riders, cyclists and pedestrians see that we're just another sharp, wildly spinning cog in the SF transportation machine, they'll be more receptive to this car dominated balance proposition."

Crisis in San Francisco - "There's Only Parking, Everywhere"

There's a real crisis in San Francisco and you see it every day.  There's only parking, everywhere.  Look around and you'll see people's home/apartment garages, private garages, city owned parking garages, street parking and once and a while, metered parking.  While it may appear that there's parking on virtually every street in San Francisco and in every dwelling in upwards of a million spaces, the city desperately needs more.

Crisis at Polk Street where there's only parking on each side of the street, and in parking garages, and all the side streets.
Image found here

While some will argue that parking is a net loss for a city, Dearest District 5 knows better than those fools, even if I don't have any relevant degree or training in urban planning.  San Francisco's 40% vehicle infrastructure simply isn't enough!  And the disgustingly small amount of parking (1.5 square miles of San Francisco's 7 square miles of land).  Parking, as everyone knows, is a renewable resource and needs to continue to grow in a city that is not expanding.

There's only THIS much space devoted to parking in San Francisco, and at some point, there could be less!
Picture found here.  

The SFMTA has been relentless in it's assault on parking, and instead of installing MORE parking spaces, they try to manage supply and demands with metered parking!  Everyone knows it's our god-given right to only pay for where we live, eat, purchase goods, be entertained, but NOT to park on the streets!  And even while prices increase on virtually everything in the city, an annual fee of 100 dollars for a parking permit seems like a sensible approach to mitigating a god given right to store a car in a city.

This is it?!? More More More!!!
picture found here.

Randy McNitty cried, "I heard the MTA is considering spaces on the streets that don't have car parking, and that's absolutely insane!  Where am I going to find the space to park my two cars for free?  If you think I'm going to start biking, taking MUNI, or paying 80,000 dollars for the value of a parking spot, you're sadly mistaken."  Ed Baskly exclaimed, "we really need to fight these idiots in city hall and let the people of this city know that we're not giving away our subsidized parking without a fight.  You're paying to house my idled car if you like it or not and the hell with using it to move traffic or allow anyone else to enjoy this space!"  Neighbors are nervous, because .000000001 percent of the streets right now don't have parking, and that could go even higher.   It's only a matter of time until there isn't parking, everywhere.

Amsterdamned by Bikes

Recently the New York Times came out with a 100% true hyperbole that Amsterdam has been completely destroyed by bicycles.  Over 30% of all trips are taken by those wretched non-motorized jack-wagons.  Of course, Streetfilms has tried to deny this absolute fact made up by the New York Times.

Minutes later, Anita died of bike poisoning.
(Image courtesy of The New York Times)

Unfortunately the city caved into "special interest" bike fanatics long ago by giving them a third of the space that would justifiably go to uncloggable car infrastructure.  They even ENCOURAGED bicycle transit and let this bicycle plague get out of hand!  Now everywhere from the Red Light District to Centraal Station is littered with bicycles. The problem has gotten so out of control that tourists can't even recognize public landmarks anymore.

The Anne Frank Museum.
(image found here)

What's left of the Van Gogh museum after bikes reached critical mass
(Image found here)

Citizens pine for the good old days when cars took over the city and magically disappeared when they weren't needed.
 (Image found here)

Citizens in Amsterdam are asking themselves where they went wrong when they decided to start removing the cars from the streets in the 50s and 60s.  Satellite images through google maps show a sea of metal, spokes and rubber.  Directions are confusing because they'll instruct you to "turn at the cluster of pink, blue and orange bikes".  8000 tourists went missing last year alone.

Amsterdamians are fed up.  Local police chief Edmund explained, "We were all such fools to believe this was the right decision to encourage bikes over cars, and now we're stuck with this mess of bikes in the city that would cost literally hundreds of dollars to clean up".   Officials are contemplating how to clean up this mess and what weekend they could do it.

Hopefully we don't make the same kind of grave mistakes in San Francisco, where city officials want 20% of bike transit usage by 2020.  If the city gets its way you won't even be able to walk a foot without running into a bicycle.  Let's look at Amsterdam as a terrible, horrible beacon of things to come.   Friends, stick to the tried and true method of transportation, with uncluttered cars parked on every single street of San Francisco.  

The bicycle epidemic is so bad that bikes have actually formed unstoppable super bikes.  
(Image Courtesy of the City of Sydney)