Comments on: Jan Gehl Says San Francisco Must be Sweet to Pedestrians and Cyclists

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:24:32 +0000

Did anyone film his presentation? If so, can someone post it online?

By: Jeff Leach

Jeff Leach — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 08:58:11 +0000

I didn't know Jan Gehl is. I found this 10 min video that covers some of his work:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9067416427722807670&ei=w8XtSNfgI5D8qAOOk4jlCg&q=9067416427722807670

By: Andy Thornley

Andy Thornley — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 00:29:31 +0000

Good idea on the Green Wave for Valencia, Greg, you may know that transplanted Portlander Janel Sterbentz is championing just such a thing, she's already had traffic engineers run some timing models and it looks quite plausible, if not simple, when it happens you can thank her . . .

And that crank who peed on our parade in the Q&A is notorious sneetch David Ferguson, he's running for D4 Supervisor and the SF Bay Guardian just endorsed him, Sunset voters please be careful and leave that box blank . . .

And above all, be sweet.

By: Charles Siegel

Charles Siegel — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 19:30:53 +0000

Lots of streets to the west of SF's city hall were made 1-way and some pedestrian crossings were banned to speed up traffic coming off of the Central Freeway. That freeway has been replaced by a pedestrian friendly boulevard, but the one-way streets and no-crossing signs remain. One obvious improvement for pedestrians and bicyclists in SF: make those streets two-way and allow pedestrians in all the crosswalks. (When I bicycle to the Civic Center BART station, I always hit a one-way street going the wrong way.)

By: Greg

Greg — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:58:13 +0000

Ditto on the first commenter...if the location of your house is not ideal for bicycling downtown, what does that have to do with the rest of us?

One thing the SFMTA could do is retime coordinated traffic signals to benefit bikes (12-15 mph) rather than cars (25-30 mph). As Jan Gehl mentioned, they have created a "green wave" of traffic lights for bikes in Copenhagen, toward downtown in the AM and away in the PM. Portland has done this too.

Valencia Street would be ideal for this treatment. Mundane modifications such as signal timing adjustments can be implemented without triggering California's infamous environmental analysis requirements, which means this could be done quickly and with minimal cost, despite the bike injunction.

By: anonymouse

anonymouse — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 18:42:27 +0000

You know what would make San Francisco's streets better? Pedestrian crossing signals. A huge majority of intersections don't have any pedestrian signals at all, much less fancy ones with countdown timers.

By: jane

jane — Wed, 08 Oct 2008 17:48:17 +0000

He was AMAZING. his vision is going to transform San Francisco, as long as the people that make decisions truly listen to him. Putting people first (not cars) in planning is so simple and so powerful.

Boo on the hoser who had inane self-centered comments in the question round. It is bigger than you - get on board.