Mastodawn

@DrTCombs In San Francisco, we established a collection of "slow streets" in 2020 intended to permit local traffic but prohibit through traffic. They varied in quality depending on neighborhood vigor. Some were comfortable to walk in the middle of the street; others were not. The program was recently made officially permanent (https://sfist.com/2022/12/07/sfmta-makes-16-slow-streets-permanent-including-the-humongously-controversial-slow-street-on-lake-street/), but despite that, as a practical matter it is still proving necessary to fight for infrastructure befitting permanence (https://sf.streetsblog.org/2023/02/08/open-letter-to-sfmta-stop-watering-down-slow-streets/).

SFMTA Makes 16 Slow Streets Permanent, Including the Humongously Controversial Slow Lake Street

A full 16 so-called Slow Streets became permanent after a Tuesday night SFMTA board vote, though a dozen others will lose their Slow Street status, and six hours of public comment furor swayed the board to keep the Richmond’s Lake Street a Slow Street.

SFist - San Francisco News, Restaurants, Events, & Sports

@transbay Interesting! This line: "*demanding the city cease watering down the entire Slow Streets concept*" suggests the practice is being formalized faster than agency cuture is evolving. Is that fair?

@DrTCombs I find "agency culture" to be a difficult thing to define. The SFMTA (which oversees not just local transit service, but also street design, parking, etc.) is a large organization. Some staff there are as passionate as advocates, while others are more old guard, and all are subject to shifting political winds. But it has absolutely required attention and upkeep from the local community to maintain and perfect slow streets.

@transbay Fair! It's a big agency to try and paint with a single brush.

@DrTCombs It is -- and from an advocacy perspective, I find it helpful not to view the organization as a monolithic entity, so that one can better understand the internal levers and try to leverage them to accomplish even small incremental improvements over time.

@transbay OK, now I *really* want to talk to you and learn about these internal levers...and how you find them!

@DrTCombs It would be an interesting conversation to compare this type of hyperlocal notes from different places. Each jurisdiction has its own political structure, norms, quirks, and what works in one place might be less effective elsewhere. But perhaps there are some broad takeaways that can be drawn.

@transbay Indeed. We've got a somewhat longterm effort going to identify broad lessons learned during the pandemic, and I'm becoming increasingly aware that a lot of those lessons are likely hiding in all of these different cultures and political structures. And they'll keep hiding unless we have these conversations and make these cross-agency comparisons.

@transbay My dream would be for everyone working or advocating in a city that made COVID-related street space adjustments to write a case study on what happened next. Because there are SO MANY INTERESTING STORIES. And those stories will disappear if they don't get told.

There's just so much we can learn!

@DrTCombs Agree 100% with both your toots. It would be challenging to unearth these different experiences but worthwhile. I was recently thinking that next time I attend one of those transportation "unconferences" with bottom-up programming, it would be interesting to host a round table discussion on this topic, talking a bit about our experience in SF but then getting to learn about the work being done in other cities.

sanae

(SF)Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs @transbay I think outside political pressures are a huge part of it - like the agency started out with some decent plans and it seems they have been told to revise them with fairly little notice, right down to pasting blank stickers over their own road signs they'd just installed

Slow streets are generally pretty popular with the average person (we had a vote on a related project that won by a landslide) but the old guard of SF politics hates them and they have a lot of influence

@DrTCombs I should add that San Francisco has a solid tradition of temporary interventions. Since around 2008, we have had a series of Ciclovía-esque events called Sunday Streets -- streets temporarily closed to car traffic with a certain degree of programming as the specific neighborhood each week desires, but much less than a traditional street fair. The emphasis is more on active transport and public space than on programming. But it took the pandemic to generate a permanent program.

@DrTCombs (To clarify, by "permanent program" I mean streets that always have certain traffic restrictions, not just on one particular Sunday.)

Christine Bell Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs in Otley the pavement was widen by taking out the on street parking on high street. Slowly parking is coming back and pavement narrowing.

@facilitation Oooh, thank you. Where's Otley?

How was the widened pavement created & enforced, if you don't mind me asking? And who's leading the charge to re-narrow it?

Christine Bell Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs Otley is in West Yorkshire UK. The charge is led by people on "Otley Our Town" a FB group for people who live in the town and hate anything that stops them using and parking their car. I am on the Town Partnership Transport committee and progress is slow.

Christine Bell Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs the pavement was widen with the use of planters and plastic barriers

darren is Not Going Back Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs so it's NOT street space, and I'm NOT a rep of the agency, but i know that Arlington VA put a bunch of ped signals on recall during the early pandemic, and left a good proportion of them on recall permanently.

darren is Not Going Back Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs When i was there, we were pushing hard for an actual signals policy that formalized when/where actuation was appropriate, and i don't think they ever actually created such a policy. I think they just decided that some of them could stay on recall. Baby steps.

Chris McCahill Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs #MadisonWI made its "Streatery" program permanent, making it easier for businesses to use on-street parking stalls for seating, etc. https://madison.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/madison-makes-popular-streatery-outdoor-dining-program-permanent/article_7157afa8-6f90-5047-a687-4c80c483cc39.html

Jim Mayer Feb 10, 2023

@DrTCombs Does this count? Government Street in Victoria was made pedestrian priority during the pandemic. This was on the city's radar already, so it was pretty easy to do. Public response was overwhelmingly positive. Last July council approved conceptual plans that will be rolled out as underground work is done. Link: https://engage.victoria.ca/government-street-refresh

Government Street Refresh

UPDATE: Over the past year, the City has consulted with business and community stakeholders, the public and First Nations representatives to help inform a vision and concept design to improve and make Government Street a people-priority street between Humboldt and

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