I think you can sum up the problem in terms of accountability–increasingly, people give themselves license to behave in antisocial ways as long as are in an anonymous context with no accountability. Roadways in the automobile age seem to be the paradigmatic “accountability-free zones.” One often hears that robert Moses and other transportation designers were motivated by a vision of maximum mobility in which everyone could escape the limitations of their neighborhood and explore our Great Nation. What they ignored is that, cut lose from the community pressures that enforce accountability, many people act like complete jerks. Hit and run acidents are the paradigm. Mobility is good for individuals but not so good for communities tht cannot control those who enter them.

In the meanwhile, the amount of traffic has exploded so that even the upside of the scheme–mobility–is lost to traffic jams. Some deal!

Naturally there is no simple solution to this problem, but i think the most important improvement SF needs to make is to its public transportation. Few people will willingly spend over an hour waiting for and riding public transportation when they can hop in their car and arrive at the same destination in half that time (of course, they may make up the rest of the time looking for parking, but few think in those terms). Give people a transportation option that beats driving and they’ll likely hop aboard. It is ludicrous that Geary Blvd and 19th avenue are not serviced by light-rail; there have been countless plans to do so, but time and time again they get shot down, and so people stick to their cars. Maybe someday I’ll get to move back to a San Francisco serviced by the quality public transportation it deserves.

This is the sort of culture-clash I see repeatedly in my neighborhood–St. George, Staten Island, a walkable community near the ferry, developed in the 19th century with a substantial number of narrow, two-way streets and only two true thru-streets.

My neighbors and I have discussed how you can often distinguish a local driver–one accustomed to sharing the street with pedestrians, bicyclists and people in motorized wheelchairs, who often find slate sidewalks difficult to negotiate–from a driver who lives in a more suburban, more sparsely populated neighborhood with few pedestrians and cyclists or other non-vehicular users.

Judging from behavior, the latter type of driver is accustomed to looking out for other vehicles–which s/he regards as equals-in-tonnage, primary road-users like him- or herself. But pedestrians, cyclists and motorized wheelchair operators are inconvenient Others who force the automobile, often grudgingly, to share its right to the road.

I was just such an Other on a recent afternoon. As I was crossing at the corner, a driver making a turn nearly drove into me because while he checked for approaching vehicles, he didn’t check for pedestrians crossing at the corner. Because he probably was unused to the need to check for pedestrians–which is to say, because I wasn’t a car–the driver literally didn’t see me.

To too many drivers, we pedestrians are invisible. And because we’re invisible, we’re vulnerable targets for any drunk, any cellphone yakker, any distracted parent behind the wheel of an SUV packed with kids. It happens all the time. And with more people and more cars, it’s getting worse.

Rather than fighting for congestion pricing let’s limit the parking available in the city. If in fact 28% of Soho traffic is looking for parking, wouldn’t traffic go down by some percentage (less than 28% surely) if people knew they couldn’t park for free and either had to pay to put their car in a garage or take public transportation?

Last week, burger joint in Chelsea: a man wearing a very expensive NASCAR jacket (about 20 patch logos sewn on it) comes in and places an order, he asks the woman behind the counter if she can bring the food out to his car when it is ready. (He points out the window to his car which is idling and parked in front of a fire hydrant.)

She says no. He then throws the money at her and says, ” well, it couldn’t hurt to be a little fucking courteous!” Then he runs out and sits in his car.

He darts back in a few minutes later. Swipes his bag of food, utters anothr tirade, and nearly knocks a young woman over on way out door (all this while on his cell phone.)

Then he sits in the car eating his food while continuing to idle.

This kind of thing scares me when I realize I am out there walking or bicycling. You assume that most people driving around you are reasonable people – maybe bad drivers, but not out to kill you. This person was completely insensitive to everyone around him. I wish I could have put a hidden camera on him for a day…