[Carfreeliving] Electronic bollards and the GG park concourse

[David Baker]

I'm wondering if the loop road is still an asphalt drive with some sort
of curb?  Just got back from an epic (for me) bike tour of the south of
France and just about every city, town and village seems to have
converted it's historic core to a pedestrian zone with lots of those
operable bollards.  But the most important thing they do is pull out the
asphalt and curbs and do a continuous non-road like surface, such as
paving stones (they drain to the middle of the street, which is actually
cheaper, so the curbs don't function like our curbs to channel water.)
Even when cars are allowed there they are sort of out of place and they
behave much better, and the peds feel entitled.  Actually Alta Bates
hospital in Berkeley did this to a street by their entry with striped
concrete and no curbs and it works great.  I guess the entire
$50,000,000 budget has already been buried underground so a nice paving
surface would be too expensive.

 

db

 

David Baker FAIA

david baker + partners, architects

461 Second Street, Loft 127, San Francisco, CA 94107

v.415.896.6700x101

f.415.896.6103

dbarchitect.com <http://www.dbarchitect.com/> 

db at dbarchitect.com <mailto:db at dbarchitect.com> 

  _____  

From: Brinkman, Cheryl [mailto:Cheryl.Brinkman at McKesson.com] 
Sent: Tuesday, May 17, 2005 2:50 PM
To: Carfreeliving at livablecity.org
Cc: Leah Shahum
Subject: [Carfreeliving] Electronic bollards and the GG park concourse

 

Hello all,

 

At the GG Park Concourse Authority meeting last week an option was put
forth to allow drop off traffic from both the south, the band shell
side, and the North, the JFK Drive side.  The good news from this most
recent meeting is that no one seems to be calling for the through
traffic pattern as it existed pre-construction.  Even the museums seem
to realize they gain nothing from 600 cars an hour driving past the
museums.

 

However, this option, 2A, calls for making the Concourse not a through
street by using signs and single arm gates, such as you would find at
the entrance to a parking lot.  Many aesthetic objections were raised to
the single arm gates, not appropriate for a park, too ugly, etc etc. 

 

The other option, option 2, is the single loop option, with drop off
traffic entering the concourse from the South by the bandshell, making a
one way loop to drop visitors off, and exiting by the same Southern
route.  There would still need to be MUNI access to JFK in this option,
so a traffic control device of some sort is still necessary on the North
side.

 

I suggested that the aesthetics of the traffic control devices should
not determine the final plan - single arm gates are not the only way to
go, electronic bollards would also work.  We saw these in use in Bologna
last summer.  On weekends the city of Bologna opens the old city center
to peds and bikes only.  The electronic bollards can be lowered by
emergency service vehicles and busses, and in some areas residents as
well. (see attached PDF.)

 

Does anyone have any opinions on or experiences with the electronic
bollards?  I would love to see them used successfully in San Francisco .
It could open up a whole new world of easy street closure methods  -
they could be used for Sunday and Saturday closure in GG Park, for our
car free downtown zone, and for other weekend closures we may want to
ask for - and perhaps for woonerfs in the alleys around Hayes Valley.

 

I worry about controlling SF drivers using only signs and delays, the
idea is that the gate would open for any car that pulled up to it, after
perhaps a short delay, but signs would state that the concourse is for
drop offs only and fines exist. I suspect that once drivers find out
they COULD cut through - they will.  If I were to support this option 2A
it would have to have a back up plan to deal with scofflaws.

 

Thanks,

 

Cheryl

 

Cheryl Brinkman 
McKesson Corporation 
Sr. Product Manager 
Generic Rx 
415-983-7501 
415-732-2699 - fax 
cheryl.brinkman at mckesson.com 

 


 

 

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