Man vs. glass - a small victory

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I am happy to report that the system (sometimes) works! Not too long ago the city of SF added some separation barriers in a few of the intersection on my normal commute.


For the most part it is great, these poles do a good job at separating bicycle and car traffic in dangerous spots where we can get sideswiped. There's one problem, the area around the base of the poles is a figurative magnet for road debris, especially glass. Street sweeping machines can't get in between the poles, so even if the road around is clear these spots can be nasty.

So one day a few weeks back went to sf311.org, registered for a new account, and made a "new request" to report the issue. I wasn't expecting much, but this week I noticed that the spot is definitely cleaned up. I'm not sure if it's actually tied to my report, but either way I am happy. I definitely encourage people to report issues. Now that these systems are tied to a ticketing system (instead of an email black hole), I think that there's a much higher likelihood of seeing action.

"My Requests" status on SF311.org

Comments

  1. UnknownOctober 8, 2018 at 1:12 PM

    Beautifully written! Thanks for looking out for the biking community, Kieran. I've definitely crossed spots like those and wondered what do to

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. KieranOctober 9, 2018 at 10:19 PM

      As I learned doing some research when living in on SoCal, it can be quite a web of public agencies to navigate when trying to report these things. I'll definitely dedicate some future posts to investigating the best ways to identify and contact the right agencies in the Bay Area.

      Delete

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