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Lowering the speed limit doesn’t make sense if there are wide streets with wide lanes (more comfortable to drive in) and no enforcement. In SF it would be pref

Lowering the speed limit doesn’t make sense if there are wide streets with wide lanes (more comfortable to drive in) and no enforcement. In SF it would be preferable to reduce street width in reality or artificially with protected bike lanes, bus/muni right of way, etc on wide streets like Geary or Van Ness .

colpabar 5y ago
> In SF it would be preferable to reduce street width Absolutely. It seems like the best way to reduce speeds in cities is to make it uncomfortable to drive fast in them. Big wide streets make it feel like you're going "slow" at 25mph, so people go faster. Of course, we could also slowly carve out areas of cities where cars are not allowed, but how will businesses survive if people can't park directly in front of them? /s
- Gigachad 5y ago
  It’s funny that in my city, the most active retail area is a pedestrian only street. Anything with heavy car traffic tends to have more intentional destination type stuff.
  - IMTDb 5y ago
    > Anything with heavy car traffic tends to have more intentional destination type stuff. Is it possible that the intentional destination is the pedestrian street, to do your shopping ? Remove the heavy traffic lanes around it and people will go shopping somewhere else or go to amazon instead. In my city that's what's happening, the pedestrian only street used to be the place to go shopping for clothes/luxuries. Now it's impossible to get there so people go to off city malls instead (which are thriving) or online (also thriving), and street stores are slowly dying.
    - Gigachad 5y ago
      This street has many highrise offices, universities and residential buildings around it so its a destination of a lot of foot traffic from buildings, not so much somewhere you drive to access. There are also multi level parks on the ends, you just can't drive through it.
- laurent92 5y ago
  [flagged]
  - wahern 5y ago
    As a country France might not be going in the direction you think it's going: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/europe/france-albi-french-towns-fading.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/europe/france-albi-... I see that echoed in your post: "It has the added benefit of pushing right-wing people out of the cities back to the countryside". Perhaps what's happening is that France is seeing a transition to suburban communities. If so, enjoy your walkable town centers now while commerce remains viable. At some point in the future you may find yourself needing to trek to the big box retailer outside town, just as many of us urban Americans unfortunately have to do. :(
vineyardmike 5y ago
I really like seeing streets that have seating where parking spots used to be. Some popular areas have whole blocks converted. They really make it hard to jaywalk, and offer lots of barrier between sidewalk and cars. That said, it probably sucks for bicyclists.

colpabar 5y ago

> In SF it would be preferable to reduce street width Absolutely. It seems like the best way to reduce speeds in cities is to make it uncomfortable to drive fast in them. Big wide streets make it feel like you're going "slow" at 25mph, so people go faster. Of course, we could also slowly carve out areas of cities where cars are not allowed, but how will businesses survive if people can't park directly in front of them? /s

Gigachad 5y ago
It’s funny that in my city, the most active retail area is a pedestrian only street. Anything with heavy car traffic tends to have more intentional destination type stuff.
- IMTDb 5y ago
  > Anything with heavy car traffic tends to have more intentional destination type stuff. Is it possible that the intentional destination is the pedestrian street, to do your shopping ? Remove the heavy traffic lanes around it and people will go shopping somewhere else or go to amazon instead. In my city that's what's happening, the pedestrian only street used to be the place to go shopping for clothes/luxuries. Now it's impossible to get there so people go to off city malls instead (which are thriving) or online (also thriving), and street stores are slowly dying.
  - Gigachad 5y ago
    This street has many highrise offices, universities and residential buildings around it so its a destination of a lot of foot traffic from buildings, not so much somewhere you drive to access. There are also multi level parks on the ends, you just can't drive through it.
laurent92 5y ago
[flagged]
- wahern 5y ago
  As a country France might not be going in the direction you think it's going: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/europe/france-albi-french-towns-fading.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/02/28/world/europe/france-albi-... I see that echoed in your post: "It has the added benefit of pushing right-wing people out of the cities back to the countryside". Perhaps what's happening is that France is seeing a transition to suburban communities. If so, enjoy your walkable town centers now while commerce remains viable. At some point in the future you may find yourself needing to trek to the big box retailer outside town, just as many of us urban Americans unfortunately have to do. :(

vineyardmike 5y ago

I really like seeing streets that have seating where parking spots used to be. Some popular areas have whole blocks converted. They really make it hard to jaywalk, and offer lots of barrier between sidewalk and cars. That said, it probably sucks for bicyclists.