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Maybe because people believe all this valuable public space can be better used than as a Thruway for ferrying individuals in massive steel cages from one part o

Maybe because people believe all this valuable public space can be better used than as a Thruway for ferrying individuals in massive steel cages from one part of town to another. Re: the 14th street busway, The “fears” about 13th and 15th street turned out to be unfounded. In the meanwhile, thousands of people who used the bus are benefitting with much faster and more reliable service (to the point that buses on 14th street are now waiting at stops because they are arriving too fast). Car traffic has basically been unaffected. Pedestrians find it much better and safer. People who live and work there have it much better with the massively reduced air and noise pollution. And you’re right that this should be replicated throughout the city. If it works on 14th street, which as you rightly point out already has a train, it will be a much bigger success on other streets. Similarly in SF besides the quality of life improvements you have reclaimed valuable space that was being given away for no good reason.

roywiggins 7y ago
My vote is 34th Street next, but that's probably a fantasy. Getting crosstown at 34th would be so much better with a busway. It might even make the nightmare that is Herald Square/Penn Station slightly less bad.
jrochkind1 7y ago
Well, to be fair, the busses and streetcars which will still be prevalent on Market are also massive steel cages used to ferry individuals from one part of town to another. But certainly much more efficient and effective massive steel cages with regard to their use of the space, which will result in a much more pleasant public space.
komali2 7y ago
The noise pollution thing is huge. Private car owners love their god damned horns. Beep beep. Like children. Drives me fuckin crazy. I'm at the corner of 2nd and Howard. Easily 5% of my day is spent daydreaming about ways to get those cars to shut the fuck up. Paintballs, HERF gun, signs. I'll never do anything but I'll continue to daydream my way through the honking. It's one traffic light! Just WAIT.
- emmelaich 7y ago
  Holy shit, you've just pinpointed what irritated me most about SF! So much beeping. In Sydney, for comparison, it's quite rare.
  - darkwizard42 7y ago
    Oh man, if you think honking in SF is bad, in NYC it’s a damn 24 hour chorus. I mean even at 4 am I have heard honking (park ave is NOT congested then so I can’t even imagine the need to honk then)
    - komali2 7y ago
      I one time watched a disabled kids school bus stop and kneel and deploy its ramp for a kid in a wheelchair to get on, on a residential street in Brooklyn. Throughout the WHOLE process, a car behind the bus was slamming the horn. It was like 2 minutes of beeping lol.
    - gowld 7y ago
      NYC has signs up promoting the expensive fine for non-emergency honking, which is illegal, but there's no enforcement.
      - cletus 7y ago
        This is NYC in general. It has a police force rivaling the armies of some countries and the lowest crime in decades so I'm not sure what they're doing now but whatever it is, it isn't traffic enforcement. Running red lights ("but it was amber 15 seconds ago!"), honking at cars in front who are waiting on pedestrians who have right of way, block intersections preventing cross traffic (every Saturday afternoon you see dumbasses do this and traffic going to the Holland Tunnel backed up to Midtown), turning at red lights (illegal in the five boroughs), deciding to enter an intersection to block an emergency vehicle that has its sirens going, not getting out of the way of emergency vehicles and so on. In nine years living in NYC I think I've seen a driver pulled by the NYPD exactly twice. And what does the state legislature do? It tries to pass laws to make it illegal to detain taxi drivers who kill pedestrians [1] (luckily vetoed by the Governor). [1]: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2015/06/23/senate-passes-bill-to-prevent-arrests-of-bus-and-taxi-drivers-who-kill/ https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2015/06/23/senate-passes-bill-to...
closeparen 7y ago
Private auto traffic on Market St. has always been marginal; the vast majority of the steel cages to contend with as a bicyclist are buses. There is no big dramatic transformation here. There will be in later phases of the project when bikes finally get separation from buses.

roywiggins 7y ago

My vote is 34th Street next, but that's probably a fantasy. Getting crosstown at 34th would be so much better with a busway. It might even make the nightmare that is Herald Square/Penn Station slightly less bad.

jrochkind1 7y ago

Well, to be fair, the busses and streetcars which will still be prevalent on Market are also massive steel cages used to ferry individuals from one part of town to another. But certainly much more efficient and effective massive steel cages with regard to their use of the space, which will result in a much more pleasant public space.

komali2 7y ago

The noise pollution thing is huge. Private car owners love their god damned horns. Beep beep. Like children. Drives me fuckin crazy. I'm at the corner of 2nd and Howard. Easily 5% of my day is spent daydreaming about ways to get those cars to shut the fuck up. Paintballs, HERF gun, signs. I'll never do anything but I'll continue to daydream my way through the honking. It's one traffic light! Just WAIT.

emmelaich 7y ago
Holy shit, you've just pinpointed what irritated me most about SF! So much beeping. In Sydney, for comparison, it's quite rare.
- darkwizard42 7y ago
  Oh man, if you think honking in SF is bad, in NYC it’s a damn 24 hour chorus. I mean even at 4 am I have heard honking (park ave is NOT congested then so I can’t even imagine the need to honk then)
  - komali2 7y ago
    I one time watched a disabled kids school bus stop and kneel and deploy its ramp for a kid in a wheelchair to get on, on a residential street in Brooklyn. Throughout the WHOLE process, a car behind the bus was slamming the horn. It was like 2 minutes of beeping lol.
  - gowld 7y ago
    NYC has signs up promoting the expensive fine for non-emergency honking, which is illegal, but there's no enforcement.
    - cletus 7y ago
      This is NYC in general. It has a police force rivaling the armies of some countries and the lowest crime in decades so I'm not sure what they're doing now but whatever it is, it isn't traffic enforcement. Running red lights ("but it was amber 15 seconds ago!"), honking at cars in front who are waiting on pedestrians who have right of way, block intersections preventing cross traffic (every Saturday afternoon you see dumbasses do this and traffic going to the Holland Tunnel backed up to Midtown), turning at red lights (illegal in the five boroughs), deciding to enter an intersection to block an emergency vehicle that has its sirens going, not getting out of the way of emergency vehicles and so on. In nine years living in NYC I think I've seen a driver pulled by the NYPD exactly twice. And what does the state legislature do? It tries to pass laws to make it illegal to detain taxi drivers who kill pedestrians [1] (luckily vetoed by the Governor). [1]: https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2015/06/23/senate-passes-bill-to-prevent-arrests-of-bus-and-taxi-drivers-who-kill/ https://nyc.streetsblog.org/2015/06/23/senate-passes-bill-to...

closeparen 7y ago

Private auto traffic on Market St. has always been marginal; the vast majority of the steel cages to contend with as a bicyclist are buses. There is no big dramatic transformation here. There will be in later phases of the project when bikes finally get separation from buses.