A variable message sign (VMS) will soon be installed on Franklin near Linden Street -- and at least one local isn't too happy about it.
The sign, depicted above in a rendering by the Department of Public Works, would "display real-time space information for City-owned parking garages and disseminate street event information." It would be installed on the east side of Franklin Street, just north of the Linden Street intersection, while another would be installed at Gough and Turk. The signs are part of the Van Ness Corridors Project, which itself is part of SFgo, the city's integrated transportation management system. SFgo's goal is to use technology to improve the safety and smoothness of the city's vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. The total cost for the Van Ness Corridors Project is just over $11 million, which is funded by federal grants, the state's Traffic Light Synchronization Program, and local sales tax revenue from 2003's Proposition K. While smoother, safer traffic in Hayes Valley sounds like a good thing to us, Twitter user @DanielMorgan snapped the photo below of an anonymously-written flyer posted in the area recently, warning of the VMS's potential downsides.
Twitter/@DanielMorgan
The flyer reads, in part:
The sign, depicted above in a rendering by the Department of Public Works, would "display real-time space information for City-owned parking garages and disseminate street event information." It would be installed on the east side of Franklin Street, just north of the Linden Street intersection, while another would be installed at Gough and Turk. The signs are part of the Van Ness Corridors Project, which itself is part of SFgo, the city's integrated transportation management system. SFgo's goal is to use technology to improve the safety and smoothness of the city's vehicular, bicycle, and pedestrian traffic. The total cost for the Van Ness Corridors Project is just over $11 million, which is funded by federal grants, the state's Traffic Light Synchronization Program, and local sales tax revenue from 2003's Proposition K. While smoother, safer traffic in Hayes Valley sounds like a good thing to us, Twitter user @DanielMorgan snapped the photo below of an anonymously-written flyer posted in the area recently, warning of the VMS's potential downsides.
Twitter/@DanielMorgan
"...these signs, and more to come, are intended to help motorists speed more quickly through our neighborhood, putting pedestrians, bicyclists and nearby school children at risk, and potentially harming revitalization efforts."The flyer then describes the "ugly, unnecessary, costly" sign as a "big, bright, flashing, freeway-style, 2-story digital display shining through the windows of your living room and bedroom, obscuring your view, and down on you as you walk or bike, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week." The sign would not be quite as immense as the flyer suggests. In designs created by the Department of Public Works, the sign would measure 5.5 feet tall and roughly 10 feet wide, and its bottom edge would be 17 feet above the roadway surface. A contract hasn't been awarded for the project yet, but that should happen by April, at which point work will begin. The entire project is expected to take about a year. It certainly sounds like this is moving forward, but we're curious about whether any readers out there feel the same way as whoever posted that flyer. So, if you have a strong feeling about this sign, leave a comment and let us know.
