Promoting the Bicycle for Everyday Transportation
SFBC
mainactionsrides_eventsresourcesaboutmembershipvolunteerdonatestoresearch
Level of Service Reform

Why are environmental laws preventing bike improvements?

In April 2006 the Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a resolution brought by Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi declaring auto LOS to be an inappropriate measure of a given project's environmental impact, and requesting that the Planning Commission act to replace LOS with a more meaningful measure, such as vehicle trip generation. In fact, we wonder why the city can't simply discontinue the use of intersection congestion as an environmental effect altogether.

This is an obscure but fundamental issue for the city's aspirations to a greener, healthier future, and anyone with an interest in better transportation and land use is encouraged to come out and participate in the process. For more information contact Andy Thornley at andy@sfbike.org.

LOS (Level-of-Service), Complete Streets, and Quality of Life interests in Street Design

Intersections like this force pedestrians to go out of their way in order to preserve the flow of traffic, or "level of service" (LOS).

Even in green, "Transit-First" San Francisco, planning and implementing better, safer streets for bicyclists, pedestrians and transit riders is complicated by an over-sensitivity to automobile drivers' experience when evaluating costs and benefits. Moving more cars faster is the imperative over which all other transportation and land use concerns take a back seat. Ironically, environmental quality considerations, in the form of California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) findings, are often the biggest obstacles to making quality-of-life improvements to city streets, not because pedestrian and bicycle safety improvements contribute to air / noise / water pollution (they don't), but because taking pavement away from private motorcars can potentially diminish the "Level of Service" (LOS) experienced by auto drivers below a failing-grade threshold of convenience.

The SFBC is working with its partners to help the city abandon auto LOS as a significance concern for CEQA review, and broaden the conversation into how a streetscape project provides for the safety, comfort, and dignity of all the different people who use the city's streets. Let's get on with "completing the streets" for everyone who uses them and improve everyone's level of service! For more information or to get involved, contact Andy Thornley at andy@sfbike.org.

LOS reading list

top