[Carfreeliving] Electronic bollards and the GG park concourse

[Andrew Sullivan]

Will these cause Muni (44 line) delays?  Or be smashed to bits by 
vandals?  Things to think about when placing anything automatic in San 
Francisco...

-------------------
   ANDREW SULLIVAN
h:     415 673 0626
f:     415 673 0686
m:     415 609 8801
e: andrew at sulli.org
w:    www.sulli.org
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On May 17, 2005, at 15:16, David Baker wrote:

>
> 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
> 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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