San Francisco; Sept. '07

Alta Planning found this symbol to be an effective alternative to bike lanes, when bike lanes can not be installed due to narrow streets. I noticed them all over and more cyclists, compared to the last time I had visited a year ago. This is on Polk Street.

"The bike-and-chevron marking had a stronger impact  on motorist positioning and in reducing wrong-way  riding and is preferred by cyclists surveyed.

SF's Shared Lane Pavement Markings

This is a new multi-space parking meter, several different types starting to show up around SF. Parking rates downtown for cars is $3 per hour and 25 cents per hour for motorcycles. I believe this is a Reino Digital Parking Meter: "A digital, ticketless multibay meter, powered by an environmentally friendly green cell battery."






Former industrial district to spawn 2,220 new housing units, including 266 to 377 new affordable units (17%), along with shops to create a mixed-use neighborhood. "The Plan was the first neighborhood plan adopted by the Planning Commission in more than 10  years."  -planning dept.

"The Rincon Hill area is south of the Financial District and north of the South Beach neighborhood. The area is bounded by Folsom Street, The Embarcadero, Bryant Street, Beale Street, the Bay Bridge approach, and the Transbay Terminal ramps."

This pic is at Folsom and Beale St.
Graphic of future neighborhood

"Plans call for retail shops and neighborhood services along Folsom Boulevard, and  transforming Main, Beale, and Spear Streets into traffic-calmed, landscaped residential streets lined  with townhouses and front doors." Yeay!
Planning Dept. Description

Unfortunately I did not find anything about whether the buildings will be LEED Certified. This reminds me of the Pearl District in Portland, OR, that was developed in late 1990s, which has many LEED certified buildings and a requirement of 30% affordable housing. Some criticize that Rincon Hill will be a neighborhood of the rich, who may possibly be part-time residents leading to less of a cohesive neighborhood.


One Rincon is the tallest residential building in SF. Changing the SF skyline some say for the better some say for the worse. SF Gate Article.

In the foreground is construction of a new approach to the Oakland Bay Bridge to strengthen the freeway overpasses and ramps.

Interestingly, in the 1860's when SF was just starting to develop, Rincon Hill was home to the wealthiest residents because of the proximity to downtown (around Montgomery and Clay) and the weather was more favorable. Check out these great historical pictures and descriptions on the SPUR site.











These terrible one-way streets with wide lanes and ped crossings only every 5 blocks or so are all over SOMA. I believe this is Bryant and 3rd. They are engineered to get cars to the surrounding freeways as quickly as possible leading to fast cars who cut pedestrians off to make right and left hand turns (it has happened to me several times). SF really needs to work on this, especially around the Caltrain area where commuters walk into downtown from the trains. Fortunately looks like the Rincon area will benefit from traffic calming.