I'm a lasagna boy!

Pulpo fiction.

Anar's "landlady", thrilled to hear that I enjoy the eating of the sausage, gave us a big rope of homemade chorizo. She applies the chorizo to many household tasks, including greasing the pan for pancakes.

From a row of Turkish cafes, I supped at Gallipoli, drawn in part by the "grilled garlic sausage" item on the menu.

Catch, Twenty-two!

Stanford University, amongst others, refuse blood donations from people who have spent more than three months in the UK over the past two decades (!!) . This is because of variant Creuzfeld-Jacob ("mad cow") disease, for which there is no blood test.

... but there isn't a blood test because vCJD is transmitted through spinal matter, not the bloodstream (-- insert gag about blood sausage here --).

Running 'round in circles.

The Page St. circles fiasco is coming to a head. After nine months (three times the intended evaluation period), residents of the Lower and Upper Haight will have the opportunity, once again, to voice their opinion on the traffic circles placed at 11 intersections. One of the traffic-irritating circles is at the intersection of Scott and Page, where I used to enjoy watching eastbound cyclists blow through the stop sign, self-righteously yelling at motorists who didn't anticipate their lack of courtesy (oh yes, and disregard for the law).

These former four-way stops have been replaced with haphazard, ineptly-designed, and poorly-maintained roundabouts. The placement of the roundabouts increases the threat to pedestrians from cyclists and motorists, and undercuts the notion that pedestrians (the most fragile of the three groups) come first when planning high-traffic residential intersections.

The advocacy groups WalkSF and the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition (of which I am a long-standing member) heartily endorse the circles, while acknowledging that they are imperfect. I've pasted their last email salvo below.

To sum the reasons:

• limited line of sight: cars travelling at speed can't see pedestrians for R turn

• eyesore: if the city couldn't maintain the test circles, how will they maintain real ones?

• belief that drivers will slow down is mistaken, and only partly addresses the problem. Many drivers on use Scott St. as a shortcut to the traffic and turn restrictions on Divis, or as a path to the freeway (Oak / Fell Sts). These drivers are in a hurry, and don't slow down.
  The other part of the problem is that

• limited turning radius, ambiguous rules
  this is significant, and doesn't only affect large emergency vehicles. This means that older, larger cars (and new SUVs) have trouble navigating the narrow circles, and infringe on the pedestrian crosswalks. If these circles are primarily about encouraging calm traffic, the don't ease the passage of larger cars. For many cars, these circles bring the interaction of the 2 tons of steel even closer to the trandition linear pedestrian crosswalk. These circles constrain the turning radius of cars in a way that impedes the flow of traffic.

• cyclists don't need to slow down; I've seen plenty of near misses. No incentive for them to slow down at STOP signs, anyway

• unclear signs; lack of driver recgonition of sophisticated traffic circle. Fully 10% of cars during a Saturday did not obey the rules for a traffic circle (cite CVC)
  

Subject: Page St. Traffic Circle Hearing TOMORROW
From: joshua@sfbike.org
Date: March 17, 2004 1:30:06 PM PST

Dear SF bicyclist,

The 9-month long Page and Waller Traffic Circle Pilot program is coming to a
close, and the Department of Parking and Traffic is holding a public hearing
TOMORROW, THURSDAY MARCH 18TH to hear from residents and users of the
street. This is your chance to voice ideas, concerns, and opinions about
this traffic calming experiment. Each of the 11 proposed circles will be
voted on by residents living within a block, and voting will conclude March
25th. The circle receiving the highest percentage of votes (over 50%) will
be installed on a permanent basis, with consideration for others that also
receive 50% or more of the vote.

The meeting will be held:

6:30pm-8pm this Thursday, March 18th
Park Branch Library
1833 Page St. at Cole

The SFBC supports the concept of the traffic calming circles, but shares the
concerns of many other residents and neighborhood groups, including Walk SF
and the Haight-Ashbury Neighborhood Council, that:

1) there was not sufficient neighborhood outreach or involvement prior to
circle installation

2) more education and public outreach is needed to users of the street to
convey safe and legal behavior at the circles

3) pedestrian right-of-way is being compromised with the current circle
design

Although we don't think the current design is perfect, we are encouraging
our members and other residents living along the Page and Waller corridor to
VOTE YES to give the circles a chance to be improved upon.

BICYCLE BOULEVARDS

Given the right education, signage, and enforcement, we believe the circles
will benefit the neighborhood and cyclists by being the first step toward a
true bicycle boulevard on Page St.

A bike boulevard is an innovative bicycle facility that is often applied to
residential streets that parallel major arterials. It consists of three
design elements:

1. stop signs placed only on side streets to give priority to the boulevard

2. traffic circles installed in at least some of the intersections to slow
cars down to 10-15mph while allowing bikes to maintain momentum

3. diverters, barriers or forced turns that prohibit automobile through
access on the bike boulevard while continuing to allow cyclists,
pedestrians, and emergency vehicles through.

A bicycle boulevard treatment applied to Page St. could dramatically reduce
the volume and speed of traffic, and reduce or eliminate stop signs, making
bicycling along Page much easier, safer, more efficient and pleasant. It
would not "close" the street to cars- drivers would still be able to access
every point along Page, but using this neighborhood street as an auto cut
through would be a thing of the past.

Although the DPT is not considering a full bicycle boulevard currently,
Thursday's meeting will be a good chance to voice your support for this
concept, and build support among local residents.

You can find out more about bicycle boulevards at:
http://www.odot.state.or.us/techserv/bikewalk/planimag/ii1e.htm

DPT's web page on the circles is at
http://www.sfgov.org/site/dpt_index.asp?id=13573

Because of vocal opposition to the circles, it is particularly important for
people to come and speak at the hearing about the benefits of traffic
calming and a bicycle boulevard along Page St. For more information,
contact me (using the information at the bottom of this e-mail).

TALKING POINTS FOR THURSDAY'S MEETING

- There are problems with the implementation of the circles, but the concept
is good. We need better signage (yield to peds pop-up signs, and stops
where appropriate)

- A full bicycle boulevard (including side street stop signs, circles, and
diverters) will dramatically reduce car traffic on this residential street,
prioritizing the street for cyclists and pedestrians.

- Vote yes on the circles!

Thank you for supporting YOUR Bicycle Coalition and an improved bike
network!

Check the record.

The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition have posted mock-ups of the Jefferson St. bike lanes.

Living too late?

Utility undergrounding in San Francisco moves at a snail's pace: one or two miles per year, at a cost of $3 million per linear mile. This doesn't include the thousands of dollars that homeowners must pay out of pocket.

DPT and PG&E plans call for 390 (of 920) linear miles of San Francisco streets to have underground utility cabling complete by the end of 2004. Expect homeowners all across our 47 square miles to rejoice on New Year's Eve, 2219.

Happily, my block in the Lower Haight boasts underground electrical connections. No pretty retro streetlamps, but no flyer-papered utility poles, either.

Planned streetcar-suburb communities such as Schenley Farms in Pittsburgh made underground wires a part of their design; in San Francisco, where digging is more complex (and thus, more expensive), utility poles sprouted like weeds.

Knuckle down.

Aram, logorrheic author of fixed-gear field studies, pointed out this 1925 Retrodirect cycle.

Round-up and update.

This morning I used Aram's translink card to get me to work.

One of the main reasons I wanted this card was that it covered the entire public-transit segment: if I take the N-Judah to connect to Caltrain, then I can avoid the constraint of having to board at the first car when paying a cash fare. I was thwarted, however: a nice morning, so I cycled to the Caltrain terminal. Once there, I tried convincing the Translink reader that I held the smartcard, but the reader itself wasn't working. I ran across the station to use the other reader, which charged me the full fare rather than the discount 10-ride fare. On board, the conductor only smiled when he came to check tickets and I presented the card; later he explained that he saw me swiping it at the station. I had hoped that he would use the handheld validator to check the TransLink card.

Three of the five MUNI fare vending machines at the Caltrain station are still broken; it's been more than a week. One is entirely on the fritz, with a fuzzy screen; one has stickers indicating that it is out of service; a third has a blank screen. For additional inconvenience, the fourth doesn't accept bills. That leaves one (of five) fully-functional.

If only MUNI made tokens (or single-fare rides, or even round-trip/day passes) more widely available; that the vending machines sell a single type of ticket is very frustrating.

Oh yes: and Caltrain running the baby bullet? Or on weekends? Their home page still optimistically claims "Weekend train service returns in Spring 2004", but the agency now internally plans to launch in June. Possibly. Signal installation has delayed the service.

These are the people that you meet (Pt. Three).

While working 'round the house this morning, I was seated deep in thought when I heard the doorbell ring. A lycra-clad figure in dark glasses waved up at me: lo and behold, Matt had ridden around the south part of the city and stopped in on his way back home. We sat out on the stoop and watched the neighbourhood roll past, this lazy, unseasonably warm and sunny Sunday. When Mark and Jeremy from the café walked past, I started: was it already past one? Indeed.
I dashed off to the furniture shop down the street, mindful that I absolutely had to get something in the way of a cosy guest bed before I split town on Weds. The man behind the counter was basking in the sunshine streaming through the shop windows.
Did he have such-and-such model in stock? Indeed. And could he deliver today? Happily. Don't you charge for delivery, I asked, pointing to the sign on the wall. No, he replied; you're just up the street.
As I was signing the paperwork, he nodded towards the new Indian restaurant across the street.
Have you tried that place?
No, but I'm going there tomorrow. I'm looking forward t

When he delivered the boxes and mattress, he was still cheery and smiling. Have a good time at Naan'n'Chutney tomorrow!