End car dominance and save the planet one direct action at a time. Likes: bus lanes, bike routes. Dislikes: cops, the petrostate
@SafeStreetRebel
@sfba
.social
with gas prices so high right now, this would be a great time for the Left to talk about how auto dependency puts the working class in inescapable debt traps in return for one of the most basic human rights: mobility
A week ago, a driver turning right at 4th/King killed for a four year old. Today at the vigil, SFMTA said it would take 3 weeks to do a “quick build” to make the intersection safer. That's too long to wait. So we did our own quick build tonight and closed one of the turn lanes
Thank you to so many people for coming out to grieve the loss of a child & demand City leaders do more to keep all of us safe.
Please take 1 minute to send an email at to echo our call for 3 key actions the City must take NOW to fix deadly intersections.
not to mention the extremely violent global imperialism needed to secure all this oil so it can be sold to people that can't afford it. truly incredible system we got here
correction: *car dependency* is a war tactic that the state uses to attack the working class. Dismantling the petrostate and exploitative transportation status quo means fighting for alternatives to driving, not free parking.
Earlier today, members of the community came out and installed a one-block road diet on Franklin Street between Green and Union in front of Sherman Elementary School. This is where Andrew Zieman was killed in 2021 and where the city has reneged on its promise to narrow the road.
We installed flex posts to help dumb drivers not enter the Valencia bikeway. This is a stopgap-- SFMTA has done NOTHING to try to rectify their flawed design, even after the first death. Valencia needs permanent pedestrianization NOW.
1/5
Tonight we protested the city’s complete mismanagement of Valencia Street. While cars were loading in the bike lane, we paused car traffic to create a safe route for bikes.
SF Parenting Chronicles:
My 6-year-old dropped this gem before bed:
“Daddy, when all cars are
@Waymo
, will people stop getting smushed by cars?”
My reply: “Probably fewer smushings, sweetie.”
She smiled, drifted off.
Dreaming of a safer EV future.
Love living here.
Welcome to Week of Cone
On Thurs 7/13, the CPUC will vote to expand AVs in SF. Cruise & Waymo promise they’ll reduce traffic & collisions, but we know that’s not true. They block busses & emergency vehicles, create more traffic, and are a surveillance nightmare.
But there’s hope
Waymo robot with a passenger briefly driving on the wrong side of Mission St approaching 2nd. If it was to avoid the unicyclists, then who's driving whom/what?
Is the future of transport humans on 1 & 2 wheelers herding/driving dumber than cattle robots?
JFK IS CAR FREE!!!!!!
fuck cars we're coming for the Great Highway next and then Valencia and Polk and the Embarcadero and the Wiggle and the Golden Gate Bridge and every other goddamn road let's fuckin go
In a massive but predictable bummer, Oakland has ripped out community installed infrastructure with no plan to replace it with anything official. We need process to allow the people to intervene if the state abdicates its responsibility to keep people safe
Awesome job
@Oakland
! The community has made this once dangerous bike lane on the Bay Trail much safer for all!
Can't wait for this to be extended all the way down Embarcadero!
The city wasted no time removing the safety infrastructure the community installed yesterday. Crews responded to remove the road diet in 2 hours, yet we’ve been waiting for more than 2 years since Andrew Zieman’s killing for SFMTA’s promised road diet.
Earlier today, members of the community came out and installed a one-block road diet on Franklin Street between Green and Union in front of Sherman Elementary School. This is where Andrew Zieman was killed in 2021 and where the city has reneged on its promise to narrow the road.
for drivers even an entire family getting annihilated by an SUV isn't a good enough reason to make bare minimum street design changes in front of a crucial transit nexus
Very wrong. Concrete and narrow streets are much more effective than cops and cameras. Infrastructure will stop bad behavior before it ever happens, enforcement is only reactionary
Without enforcement, Vision Zero is impossible. It’s why I support speed and red light cameras alongside a fully staffed police department.
We can end traffic deaths with common sense measures to bring sanity back to our streets.
GM Cruise's $9 Billion human DEPENDENT ROBOTS:
1.5 human ops per robot
2.5-5 VMT per human "assist"
Ignore the people behind the curtain goosing the incompetent robot to fool the world.
No wonder Cruise employees have dumped >$800 million stock.
From today's NYT article:
Today, we’re launching a new campaign to make the Wiggle–San Francisco’s premier east/west bike artery–safer for all. If you want to see the city install safe ped and bike infrastructure like it, use this 1 click link to send an email to SFMTA-
Dumbasses- Self-driving cars will never replace public transit. Cars, whether or not there's a driver, are inherently inefficient and don't scale. All they do is lock in car dependency and create more traffic.
The Cruise "sensed something under the tires and stopped". It took a bike messenger passing by to call for help. Robot cars have all these new failure modes that interact in terrible ways with the old ones. We need less cars in society, period
Exclusive:
The Chronicle has obtained photos of the pedestrian trapped under the Cruise self-driving car.
The woman was thrown into the path of the Cruise by a hit-and-run driver, officials say.
By
@jparkerwrites
& Nora Mishanec
*Driver* kills a little girl by SUV. Killer has not been arrested.
Intersection is set up to channel cars onto the freeway, despite being next to the ballpark, Caltrain station, and two Muni lines. We need streets for people, not cars, NOW
Vigil coming soon
Lots of stories coming out right now quoting struggling merchants who believe that allowing cars everywhere is what will save their business. Note that there is never any data here, and no mention of how pedestrianized shopping corridors are successful all over the world
NEW: In an unprecedented move 4 years ago, San Francisco banned private vehicles from part of Market Street to improve public safety & transform San Francisco’s most important traffic artery into a futuristic boulevard.
A deep dive into what went wrong.
the biggest correlation we saw in this election: pro-car = pro-cop
inviting in reactionary politics only hurts the transit/bike coalition. cops are not infrastructure. it's time to choose between them
If this city really cared about pedestrian safety, this would have been done the day after the killing. We don’t need studies to do what we know saves lives. We don't need platitudes from city officials (no matter how heartfelt). We need concrete action and we need it now
We installed flex posts to help dumb drivers not enter the Valencia bikeway. This is a stopgap-- SFMTA has done NOTHING to try to rectify their flawed design, even after the first death. Valencia needs permanent pedestrianization NOW.
1/5
Oregon's response to a driver killing a 15 year old is to deny other kids mobility so the grown-ups can still go vroom vroom
As
@tomflood1
says, "we've made it so automobiles can go everywhere at the expense of children going anywhere"
After 7 days of city inaction, we closed the right-turn lane to cars ourselves. 3 days later, SFMTA removed our installation and placed their own, notably without a flex post at the apex of the turn - actively making this intersection more dangerous than it was Tuesday night.
Spotted: Three robo cars stalled in the same intersection in San Francisco. This time, it’s
@Cruise
cars jamming the intersection of Valencia/21 St. in the Mission.
Parking enforcement guy banging on windows trying to communicate w/ Cruise. Traffic backed up for blocks.
A week ago, a driver turning right at 4th/King killed for a four year old. Today at the vigil, SFMTA said it would take 3 weeks to do a “quick build” to make the intersection safer. That's too long to wait. So we did our own quick build tonight and closed one of the turn lanes
celebrating beg buttons in 2024 is shambolic. They place the burden on pedestrians and are a deadly compromise when the city should just put in a traffic light, raise the crosswalk & narrow the road.
Some days we do ribbon-cuttings. Last week I got to join Diamond Heights neighbors,
@sfmta_muni
and
@sfpublicworks
for a “tape-removal” as we activated new Rapid Rectangular Flashing Beacons 🚨 at Duncan / Diamond Heights!
SFMTA removed the flex posts we put up in the Valencia bike lane :(
Imagine if the city acted as expeditiously to protect people outside of cars as they do to make it easy to drive down bike lanes
Yellow posts are a great addition to the Valencia bike lanes. Shame SFMTA wouldn't do something so simple (which they have on Scott traffic diverter). Good work
@SafeStreetRebel
!
We got tired of waiting for our local leaders to act 😴
So we're introducing our new pedestrian safety pilot: BRICKS (TM)! 🧱
Thanks to
@nicthedoor
&
@aboutherevideos
for creating this video for us!
One of the buses has driven off, barely filled with kids, two blocks away to Mission Station
The kids shout as they’re being driven off
Their parents and friends are laughing that SFPD is using a bus to move kids down the street
Traffic remained free flowing, with reduced speeds and a large buffer in front of the school. There is no reason this should not be a permanent installation.
London Breed does photo op bike tours in Paris and the Netherlands but refuses to implement their tried and tested strategies for healthier cities in San Francisco. She actively fights against Slow Streets (the bare minimum). What's the point? Who is she trying to fool?
this article does a great job showing how carbrain leads to ceding nearly every square foot of public space to storing private property for free. These car owners are some of the laziest and most entitled people in SF
Why do so many San Franciscans park in their driveways, blocking the sidewalk? Our readers wanted to know, so we asked people: Why don’t you park in your garage?
The city could fix this in a week. SFMTA & the mayor would rather push vulnerable road users into traffic than show the slightest amount of leadership, so Valencia is without a bike lane during commute hours.
@SFMTA_Muni
@LondonBreed
The new BART fare gates in action — kicking off at West Oakland & coming to a station near you!
BART is doing what’s needed to modernize & improve the system. BART is essential to the Bay Area’s future.
Shoring up & transforming our transit systems is a huge priority for me.
from Reddit:
a biker was trying to cross the Great Highway and a car hit them and dragged them for 100 feet. luckily they pulled through but they're looking for more info on what happened since they lost consciousness. if anybody knows anything please let them know
Yesterday we went to 24th Ave & Santiago to hold space, talk to neighbors, and make safety improvements to the intersection. Santiago is designed to encourage speed, which led to a driver killing 何焕苏的离世 Huansu He last week. When will SFMTA start slowing cars down?
Thanks to everyone who showed up. This crash happened half a block from a police station. Cops & enforcement can’t prevent traffic violence, but infrastructure and community can.
We went out to Lincoln/46th where somebody was killed by reckless driving last week and implemented a quick, safe, and effective road diet. Drivers slowed down without a fuss and everybody was safer for it.
@sfmta_muni
@jeffreytumlin
you can do it too
Proof: we did it (?)
It took an hour to paint a center island, a stop line, and about 50 feet of intersection daylighting. Ofc we need concrete infrastructure, not just paint. But there’s no excuse not to take this first step.
Afterwards, we held a rally to demand that SFMTA build off our work and extend this road diet from Broadway to Lombard as they promised, if not all the way to Market. Neighbors, parents, and teachers told us how this street has been dangerous for years.
20 traffic deaths this year. 134 over her tenure. But still London Breed keeps ignoring her Vision Zero pledge. So today we reminded her of the human toll of her inaction.
Instead of engaging, the mayor did what she always does and turned her back on traffic violence. Shame.
in the spirit of being gracious in our victory:
UNANIMOUS SLOW STREETS!!
San Francisco is making real progress on fighting car dominance and we're excited to keep pushing that along
For reference, this is what
@LondonBreed
thinks about Vision Zero. No wonder people are still dying and the city is ripping out necessary safety improvements. And none of the other people running for mayor are better. Shambolic
JUST IN: Two people were killed and three were taken to a hospital after a vehicle ran into a bus stop near Muni’s West Portal Station on Saturday, according to the San Francisco Fire Department.
A look at Mission street tonight. Many restaurants nearby say they’re disappointed business is slower than normal this Sunday, and they’ve received quite a few cancellations
@KPIXtv
#apec
#SanFrancisco
look at the tech capitalist class change its message in real time from "self driving cars are coming imminently" to "self driving cars will only work if we completely rebuild our cities to accommodate them"
Yep, signs are coming out unfortunately. Lasted over 48 hours though, and thousands of people got to see how much better the street can be with such a simple change.
If you want the city to do stuff like this, send an email here:
Hope you liked it!
Crazy that this is the angle that the Chronicle takes when the city succeeds at building affordable housing in one of its most transit rich neighborhoods. New neighbors and no new parking is the best case scenario
Residents and business owners in the iconic Haight area are bracing for increased parking issues when hundreds of new neighbors move into the Stanyan Street building.
We're at 22nd & Harrison protesting the death of yet another teacher on our streets. Heavy traffic, wide crossings, and drivers blowing stop signs create a dangerous intersection next to a school. We need raised crosswalks and concrete bulbouts to protect our community NOW
This approach is so frustrating from the Left cause with Muni facing huge deficits, every dollar we use to subsidize parking is a dollar that won't go to running buses. That amount of money funds 6 bus lines. That's the choice we have: free parking or functional transit
it’s fascinating how some left wing groups have convinced themselves that using public land for free storage of private carbon emitting vehicles is True Socialism
Awesome job
@Oakland
! The community has made this once dangerous bike lane on the Bay Trail much safer for all!
Can't wait for this to be extended all the way down Embarcadero!
Since we know from Uber and Lyft that these miles are additive to and not replacement of human-driven miles, Waymo actually created 3 injuries and 15 crashes where none would have existed. Take the bus.
2024 is the year we’re supposed to achieve Vision Zero, and that requires big action on deadly roads. Since the city wasn’t taking action, the community came together to do the job ourselves and calm this deadly speedway next to an elementary school before it claims another life.
so many people in safe streets advocacy are afraid to say it, but we're not
the goal is to Ban Cars. period. full stop.
it is our moral imperative to build a transportation system without private auto, so that's what we will do
@MarcelMTG
The danger is from 2 turn lanes next to each other. This increases visibility with no inner cars obstructing the crosswalk. The post in the corner tightens turning radius, slowing down cars. Ped crossing distance across 4th street also reduced. SFMTA is planning to do this too
Breathless reporting by the Chronicle and the Standard that what BART needs is more cops. Never mind that only 17% of people on this poll regularly ride transit. What we really need is investment in frequent and reliability. Cops take away from that
BART should hire more sworn police officers and double down on keeping trains clean if it hopes to see any significant boost in ridership, according to a new poll.
Great turnout tonight! So inspired by all these people willing to come out in the dark and fight for car free spaces and to keep each other safe. And maybe have a little fun while we're at it.
Tonight we protested the city’s complete mismanagement of Valencia Street. While cars were loading in the bike lane, we paused car traffic to create a safe route for bikes.
And it made a difference! Drivers can barely read but they do notice paint (sometimes). Especially when cars are speeding up steep hills, slowing them down at intersections is crucial. We still need physical barriers like bulbouts and chicanes to prevent sharp turns.
Here are some tips to avoid having your car broken into in San Francisco:
- Know the risk of where you park
- Avoid hot spots
- Don’t leave Bluetooth devices in your car
- In fact, don’t leave anything in your car
- Curb your tires
@AlbertBreer
posting about traffic while being traffic, complaining about the vastly more efficient people-moving infrastructure taking away space from your climate destroying inefficient infrastructure. nice