A Note on Downtown Parking, and Prop. H

12 Folsom
I live in a neighborhood adjacent to downtown. Passing through downtown to get to the Castro last night- a half an hour sitting on Montgomery Street. See, the highrises empty out at 5PM, and the 10% or so parked vehicles in the basements spew out onto Montgomery Street for the 10 or so block ride south to the Bay Bridge or 101 South. I usually avoid this area from 5-7, like I avoid Broadway Corridor on Sat and Friday nights. So I’m sitting there, trying to mellow out to KBLX, when I hear on the radio that there’s a protest south of Market. Like clockwork, my block of parked cars sit through 4 light changes. Still on Sacramento & Montgomery. I call my friends- I”ll be late. I take a new route- take a right up California, right on Kearny, left on Washington, left on Stockton, right on Sutter. Things clear up a bit, and finally I’m past downtown, left on Gough. PriusAnother friend who works in Jackson Square was caught in the same traffic. She was in a cab. Why would we EVER increase the number of commuting vehicles in our downtown with Proposition H? And why do it 3-fold? I can think of a ton of better improvements: fixing the masonic/fell intersection, fixing the octavia/market intersection, underground tunnel through chinatown, etc. Geesh.

Related posts:

  1. A note from Gav about the prop 8 kickoff rally saturday
  2. East of the sun, west of the moon, parking in hyperspace
  3. Halloween Parking
  4. Thugs v. cops in downtown SJ
  5. 1st WTF Parking of the Month

7 Comments so far

  1. Jeffrey W. Baker (unregistered) on October 22nd, 2007 @ 10:31 am

    In case it’s not entirely clear to the readers: VOTE NO ON H.

  2. SaneinSF (unregistered) on October 23rd, 2007 @ 12:33 pm

    ", when I hear on the radio that there’s a protest south of Market. "

    Um, this seems to be the crux of the problem. Has nothing to do with Prop H.

  3. anna (unregistered) on October 23rd, 2007 @ 1:08 pm

    SafeInSF: you don’t get my point- things are always going on downtown to disrupt traffic. But imagine Prop H passing, and it’s 3 fold the normal commute traffic, and *then* something happening.

  4. Belgand (unregistered) on October 25th, 2007 @ 1:42 pm

    So why were you driving? I mean, if you’re just going from downtown to the Castro wouldn’t taking the Metro have made a lot more sense?

    At the same time commuting into downtown is a pretty stupid thing to do. I mean, it’s practically the only place BART goes and most East and South bay communities are at least close enough to a BART station to park and ride.

  5. Belgand (unregistered) on October 25th, 2007 @ 1:44 pm

    So why were you driving? I mean, if you’re just going from downtown to the Castro wouldn’t taking the Metro have made a lot more sense?

    At the same time commuting into downtown is a pretty stupid thing to do. I mean, it’s practically the only place BART goes and most East and South bay communities are at least close enough to a BART station to park and ride.

  6. Belgand (unregistered) on October 25th, 2007 @ 1:45 pm

    So why were you driving? I mean, if you’re just going from downtown to the Castro wouldn’t taking the Metro have made a lot more sense? Not to mention that at a basic level making such a short trip in an area so well-served by transit is a bit hypocritical when you’re complaining about traffic.

    At the same time commuting into downtown is a pretty stupid thing to do. I mean, it’s practically the only place BART goes and most East and South bay communities are at least close enough to a BART station to park and ride.

  7. anna (unregistered) on October 25th, 2007 @ 7:55 pm

    Belgand: you might address the "why are you driving" to the 3 fold corporate employees that are going to be parking downtown, if Prop H passes.


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