[Carfreeliving] Electronic bollards and the GG park concourse

[Joshua Switzky]

I definitely recall seeing electric bollards (or maybe it was an
electrically-lowered barricade) in New York City near the Federal Reserve
(or other sensitive federal building), and I wouldn't be surprised if there
were lots of such installations in DC around the Capitol, White House, and
other sensitive structures. I'm sure the technology exists and is employed
in many places.




                                                                                                                                       
                      "Brinkman, Cheryl"                                                                                               
                      <Cheryl.Brinkman at McKesson.        To:       Carfreeliving at livablecity.org                                        
                      com>                              cc:       Leah Shahum <leah at sfbike.org>                                        
                      Sent by:                          Subject:  [Carfreeliving] Electronic bollards and the GG park concourse        
                      Carfreeliving-bounces at liva                                                                                       
                      blecity.org                                                                                                      
                                                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                                       
                      05/17/2005 02:49 PM                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                       




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









 (See attached file: Macs Solutions Pop-Up Bollard Sheet.pdf)
_______________________________________________
Carfreeliving at livablecity.org mailing list
to facilitate and promote car-free living in SF
To unsubscribe:
mailto:Carfreeliving-request at livablecity.org?subject=unsubscribe
or, for all options, go to:
http://livablecity.org/mailman/listinfo/carfreeliving_livablecity.org

-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: Macs Solutions Pop-Up Bollard Sheet.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 66048 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : /pipermail/carfreeliving_livablecity.org/attachments/20050517/25ca5f37/MacsSolutionsPop-UpBollardSheet-0001.pdf