Comments on: Will The California Environmental Quality Act Doom Us Forever? http://bikeblogs.org/sf/2008/11/18/will-the-california-environmental-quality-act-doom-us-forever/ Biking in the Bay Fri, 18 May 2012 11:00:03 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.5.1 By: Rob Anderson http://bikeblogs.org/sf/2008/11/18/will-the-california-environmental-quality-act-doom-us-forever/#comment-1775 Rob Anderson Tue, 18 Nov 2008 18:10:04 +0000 http://bikeblogs.org/sf/?p=441#comment-1775 CEQA is really a pretty simple law: You have to do an environmental study before you implement a project if it even might have a negative impact on the environment. It's a good law. You can read an online version of the statute, but most of the law is in developed in the case law, which is a consequence of litigation between developers and those who challenge their projects. It applies to housing developments and Bicycle Plans. Declaring good environmental intentions is not enough. If you're going to make traffic worse in the city, that is obviously a negative impact. Your bike-centric perspective impairs your ability to perceive reality. To a hammer the whole world looks like a nail, but most of us aren't hammers and we see things differently. Cars, buses, and trucks are here to stay. Our economy, among other things, depends on motor vehicles. You keep talking about hardened bike lanes that make cycling safe, but redesigning city streets in SF is a zero-sum game. Any kind of bike lane takes 4-5 feet to make, which means that the city either has to take away street parking or a traffic lane to do that on almost all city streets. CEQA is really a pretty simple law: You have to do an environmental study before you implement a project if it even might have a negative impact on the environment. It’s a good law. You can read an online version of the statute, but most of the law is in developed in the case law, which is a consequence of litigation between developers and those who challenge their projects. It applies to housing developments and Bicycle Plans. Declaring good environmental intentions is not enough. If you’re going to make traffic worse in the city, that is obviously a negative impact.

Your bike-centric perspective impairs your ability to perceive reality. To a hammer the whole world looks like a nail, but most of us aren’t hammers and we see things differently. Cars, buses, and trucks are here to stay. Our economy, among other things, depends on motor vehicles. You keep talking about hardened bike lanes that make cycling safe, but redesigning city streets in SF is a zero-sum game. Any kind of bike lane takes 4-5 feet to make, which means that the city either has to take away street parking or a traffic lane to do that on almost all city streets.

]]> By: Stuart Matthews http://bikeblogs.org/sf/2008/11/18/will-the-california-environmental-quality-act-doom-us-forever/#comment-1772 Stuart Matthews Tue, 18 Nov 2008 17:59:08 +0000 http://bikeblogs.org/sf/?p=441#comment-1772 We need a team of rogue bike lane painters. Go out there at 3:30am with 30 people, 30 paint brushes and 30 buckets of paint and start painting. By the time the cops show up we'll have done a whole block or two. We need a team of rogue bike lane painters. Go out there at 3:30am with 30 people, 30 paint brushes and 30 buckets of paint and start painting. By the time the cops show up we’ll have done a whole block or two.

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