There are still taxis, busses, commercial/city vans, muni, and other vehicles on Market; just not personal vehicles. To say it’s car free is hardly accurate.
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And not to mention that like everywhere else in San Francisco, there will likely be in no enforcement of these traffic rules whatsoever, so in practice private vehicles will still he allowed too.
Also, traffic on all cross streets is still open, and on most of them it’s common convention to trail red lights by ten seconds or more, well into the start of pedestrian signal as it’s changed for the perpendicular direction — an extremely dangerous practice blessed by the city’s authorities (again, by refusal to ever enforce infractions).
I’m glad we’re at least trying to make some forward progress here, but strongly suspect that Market St will still feel extremely dangerous for dangerous for pedestrians and bicyclists alike well into the foreseeable future. IMO, we should be more careful about letting city officials claim bold and innovative successes (as in the headline) while not really having changed much of consequence.
They did just approve a 600 million dollar construction package to rework market. A protected bikelane and new sidewalks will help a lot, but it takes time. Enforcement in general is for sure still a huge issue in the city.
Is that still active after the whole Public Works corruption thing?
What? Yes, it was voted upon and legislated lol. It's not going anywhere.
Every pickup truck registered in California is also considered a commercial vehicle. They're exempt from the "car ban" on Market. The car ban also extends to motorcycles.
Since electric kick scooters are allowed, would electric motorcycles be OK? Is there an electric motorcycle class on the books? Existing moto laws define based on engine displacement.
Edited for clarity.
Incorrect.
Can I still ride a Vespa down this stretch of Market Street to the office?
> "Confirmed by SFTMA: Vespas not permitted. No private motorcycles either."
https://www.kqed.org/news/11798594/market-street-is-now-car-...
I meant that the "car ban" extended to motorcycles, not the truck loophole.
I've not seen any evidence of this pickup truck loophole either, first I've heard of it. Where'd you read that?
Simply not hearing of something doesn't change the facts.
Commercial vehicles are exempt from the ban. Pickup trucks are commercial vehicles in CA. It's that simple.
https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/dmv/detail/online/fee_calc/veh...
'A "commercial vehicle" is a vehicle which is used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation, or profit or designed, used, or maintained primarily for the transportation of property (for example, trucks and pickups). Vehicle Code Section 260.'
Probably most ordinary people would consider a taxi to be a car, so you raise a valid point with that, but I don't know why you mentioned all those other things that obviously aren't cars.
What if I drive a pickup truck?
Pickup trucks are OK to drive down Market St. They're registered as commercial vehicles in CA. You can tell because they have only a single letter on their license plate.
That’s hilarious considering how common they are as personal vehicles in most of the country.
They're common as personal vehicles (in usage) in most of non-urban California as well, this is just the state grabbing for more cash per usual.
Does anywhere in the US have time-of-day restrictions?
The main pedestrian streets in Copenhagen have signs indicating delivery vehicles are only accepted between 4-11am. Hopefully this links correctly [1].
(Since the US doesn't use the international road sign standards...) The blue square with people means pedestrian area. The circular red cross with a blue background is a restriction on stopping (or parking) vehicles between 11:00-04:00.
Scrolling along the pedestrian street, I see Google used a bicycle to take these StreetView photos :-)
[1] https://www.google.com/maps/@55.6816155,12.5756814,3a,26.5y,...
in Dallas we have a couple roads where the road changes from two-way to one-way (both directions) based on time of day.
For the morning commute the whole road is one way into downtown, in the afternoon it goes back to a two way road. Evening commute it turns into one-way out of downtown and after that back to two-way.
When it came online I figured it would be a death trap as people try to figure out what the signs and lights mean but it seems to be pretty successful.
There are a lot of places where specific turns are prohibited, but I don't think I've ever seen a street that was entirely blocked to cars based on the time of day.
Also crossing private car traffic.
With the exception of taxis, most people wouldn't call any of those "cars".
That's still a huge step forward. Personal vehicles are one of mankind's worst creations.
And also one of mankind's best creations. A conundrum.
Clearly you didn’t grow up rural.
I frew up just outside a town of under 10000 people, and I still agree. We need them some places, but they've infested everywhere.
When people in places like that need to get to the city for a doctor do you recommend horse drawn wagon?
> We need them some places
Missed that. Regardless you are agreeing with the OP that they are the worst things humans invented while acknowledging we need them some places is a bit contradictory.
Yeah, it is to some extent. (Also, the OP actually said "personal vehicles", which is definitely way broader than I'm meaning to argue. Bicycles are personal vehicles.)
A better formulation: Cars in their current form and predominance are terrible. Done right, we would still have pickups for moving heavy loads, and some speedy form of transport for moving around individuals, but would it be two tons of steel?
Imagine a world with no cars where you make this proposal: each person gets a two-ton machine that can go up to 100 mph, its direction determined by a driver-controlled steering wheel. We're going to have people as young as 16, with maybe 30 hours of training drive it on a curvy 20-foot-wide road. Now the machine's only ~six feet wide, so we'll divide this road into two 10-foot lanes separated by a painted line down the middle. People will go 55 mph on one side while other people go 55 mph in the opposite direction just on the other side. It's safe, because people know to stay on their side of the line, except sometimes when they're expected to cross over briefly if they think someone else is going too slowly. As mentioned, the vehicle can go 100 mph. The only thing keeping it at 55 is that the driver is expected to press and hold a pedal at just the right pressure.
This proposal would be shot down so hard. Someone would probably object that this crazy idea is likely to end up being the leading(?) cause of death for people under the age of 30.
We're in a situation where it's the best we have in rural areas, but if we really thought about it, we could come up with something better. We need them in this world, because we built this world to need them.
Correct, thanks for noticing!
City dwellers would change their tune on ban all cars if it really happened. Imagine no short term car rentals for trips to wilderness outside of the city. Are you going to ride your bike 200 miles or take your kid on a motorcycle?