Some 40,000 people flooded downtown Berkeley on a brilliantly sunny day in October, as the city became the latest in the San Francisco Bay Area to host a "Sunday Streets" open streets-style event. Organizers closed 17 blocks of Berkeley's Shattuck Avenue to cars––and opened them to pretty much everything else. Cyclists pedaled, hula hoops turned, [...]
On Sunday, June 27th, Downtown Oakland opened two miles of its streets to fun and activities—zumba dancing, circus arts, BMX bike competitions and performances from local musicians. Walk Oakland Bike Oakland (WOBO) partnered with the East Bay Bicycle Coalition, Oaklandish, Oakland YMCA, Cycles of Change, SPOKES, and other civic organizations to create the East Bay's [...]
San Jose, California, recently joined cities around the world in promoting car-free streets by hosting its first ciclovía, the Mattson Technology ViaVelo, which opened a portion of San Fernando Street in downtown to pedestrians, bicycle riders, and skaters. San Jose's first foray into ciclovía events was a hit with sponsors, elected officials and the throngs [...]
San Francisco set a new record for Bike to Work Day this year. Bicyclists accounted for 75 percent of the morning roadway traffic on Market Street, a big increase over last year. Throw in sunny skies, some new shiny green bike lanes, just-installed bike corrals, door zone warnings, and other infrastructure, and you realize there [...]
A common complaint among Muni riders is that the bus simply stops too often. It turns out they may be on to something: according to transit experts and the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA), which operates Muni, consolidating some bus stops is one of the cheapest and quickest ways to speed up Muni. That's the [...]
By instituting a prepaid boarding system called proof-of-payment, San Francisco's Muni could dramatically quicken the boarding process, speed service and improve reliability.
Every day at Streetsblog San Francisco, our writers and editors marvel at the intelligence and passion of our readership, though we rarely get to meet this community of dedicated urbanists in person. Recently we threw ourselves a birthday party at the LGBT Center in San Francisco to celebrate all that has come in one year [...]
For decades, planners and transportation specialists have debated how San Francisco's most important street could be re-visioned to make it work better for transit, pedestrians, cyclists, shoppers, and those living on or near it. Now, as the Better Market Street Project moves forward with trial traffic diversions, the Art in Storefronts project, music and programming [...]
350 parts per million. That’s the level of atmospheric carbon dioxide beyond which many scientists warn the earth’s climate may begin to spiral out of control. At higher concentrations, they say, heat-reflecting ice sheets will disappear and permafrost will melt, releasing vast amounts of additional greenhouse gases and driving sea levels higher in a vicious [...]
A generation ago, nearly half of all U.S. kids walked or bicycled to school. Today, less than fifteen percent do, with the majority arriving at school in private automobiles. It’s no coincidence, then, that studies show more than a quarter of San Francisco’s children are overweight. But a new program hopes to change that trend, [...]
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