Editor:
The Chronicle article, “‘Choker’ to slow traffic will be removed despite its success,” on
Dec. 7, reads like an MTA press release rather than investigative journalism. I live
a block away. Those of us who have lived with the Kirkham Street “Choker” know that it was always a
solution in search of a problem.
Just to be clear: There are stop signs at each end of the block, and there are
sometimes double-parked trucks unloading at the market on the corner. Speeding on
the block has never been a problem.
The Chronicle article states, “the city documented 15 crashes in the area.” It does not
say, “on that block.” Last summer, the Westside Family Democratic Club sponsored a
gathering on the site to hear from an MTA staff person. My memory of what he said, in
response to specific questions, is that there had been no head-on collisions on that
block and that there had been no problems with speeding. I came away with the
impressions that the real experiment was to see how tolerant the neighborhood would
be to a major inconvenience.
Robert W. Cherny, Professor emeritus of History, San Francisco State University
Categories: letter to the editor
Richmond Review/Sunset Beacon 
Your bicycle lobby at work, inventing problems from ether.
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I find the vast majority of SFMTA projects are a solution in search of a problem.
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Yes, why doesn’t SFMTA work on appropriate bread-and-butter matters, such as adding more frequent buses where needed as indicated by feedback, observations, and other data? If Muni service had more coverage, frequency, and predictability, people could opt to do more errands or other trips by public transit rather than cars.
Why did Muni severely truncate the traditional Clement bus route some years ago to exclude the Clement commercial business district between Arguello and 27th Avenue? (When I was younger, the #2 Clement ended at 32nd Avenue.) Other commercial business districts have not lost Muni service, such as Union #45, Fillmore #22, Noreiga #7, and Taraval #L.
Why did Muni eliminate every other bus stop on the western side’s north-south routes which resulted in passengers walking an extra equivalence of three blocks along the route. It’s disingenuous to say to riders (like the elderly) that it’s just one block away from other existing parallel west-east routes when one north-south block in western San Francisco is the equivalent length of three west-east blocks in western San Francisco.
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