“Regenerative Suburban Median” designed by Brian Alessi.  From the Reburbia Suburban Design Competition sponsored by dwell magazine and Inhabitat.com.

Create more median strips, and allow gardening there. In San Carlos, we have many overly wide streets like Laurel Street between Oak Street and Spring Street. Those couple of blocks, for example, are a massive, ugly expanse of pavement. In spots like this, we should add wide medians with parks/community gardens. This would enhance pedestrian safety by slowing down cars, and it would make the town much more beautiful.

Here’s a description of how this might be done: Brian Alessi’s “Regenerative Suburban Median”

- Arley Lewis, San Carlos

It would be wonderful if there were more signs that tell you when the Devil’s Slide is closed. Also, on the week-ends having more signs that tell you how long it will take to get to HMB using 92. - Larry Kleinman

The Devil’s Slide Tunnel Project April actively advocated for should solve the problem of an impassible Highway 1 come 2011.

Charge solo commuters to use the express “carpool” lane and use that money to help fund SamTrans and Caltrain. – Elizabeth Lasensky

The VTA Express Lane project in Santa Clara County already follows a similar model.

Assembly Bill 2032 directs that revenue from express lanes operations be reinvested in projects and services that provide traffic congestion relief in the express lanes corridor. This will include operation and maintenance of the express lanes and expanding public transit service within the corridor.  This may allow funds collected to be invested in SamTrans and other transportation within the county.

Original Photo: Flickr user crderivative.  Used under Creative Commons license.

Install bus shelters that provide shelter from the weather, not advertising space.

Recently many of the bus shelters which had provided shelter from summer hot afternoon sun and winter rain and wind, we removed and replaced with more open shelters which provided illuminated billboards for advertising, but which do not provide protection from weather.

Since a rider has to wait for up to an hour, sometimes more, for a bus, don’t they deserve some protection? It gets pretty rough out there. The old shelters should have been kept in place which would have increased the number of shelters. – Dana Callen

In San Mateo we have a problem with keeping the levee on the bayside safe and in repair.

My so-called flood insurance goes up every year (it has NEVER flooded here to my knowledge [by DMV.]) I pay $500 to $600 a year for fire insurance (more likely, more devastation) and over $1500  going close to $2000 a year for flood-ins. – Arlene Horan

Original Photo: Seattle Municipal Archives.  Used under Creative Commons license.

-Ann and Alan Fleishman