Then I wonder about the obesity problem with children, then I come back to reality when I almost get nailed by a parent in a car dropping off his/her kids while I’m busy causing safety issues by being on a bike.

How often is each driveway curb cut used I wonder – twice a day? Four times a day? I would be happy to watch out for cars turning into their garages – especially if there were a wee speed bump at the edge of the parking lane which would slow them down before they turned across the parking lane into my buffered bike lane. How lovely it would be to pedal up Masonic buffered by a line of parked cars – why I bet parents would even allow children to bike to school in that lane. Perhaps the parking spots on the leading edge of the drveway would have to be reserved for small cars over which the drivers could see cyclists, no vans or SUVs which would block views of an approaching cyclist. We don’t have anything like it, but we need it on a street like Masonic.

http://tinyurl.com/d97oh4 (PDF)

that Masonic picture is pretty incredible. it’s all about cars.

let’s go ahead and start pushing for cycletracks, now. i don’t know what the best solution looks like for us, but parking cars should get priority over transportation. The road should be designed to facilitate traffic flow — pedestrian, bike, etc.

Broadway really does need a diet, it’s got way too much pavement and I can see why the neighbors wanted something done to scale it down. With no special project called for, Broadway will get sharrows because it’s Rte 10, which is all right, but they’ll got lost in the vastness of the pavement, unless SFMTA steps up their guidance and sets them out every 50 feet, rather than every 250 feet. But hang on, this is crazy — Broadway is a numbered bike route with room for bike lanes and several schools located along it — the bike route should be connecting the schools to the community, right? I know this isn’t Davis, but really, when are we going to put automobility below self-propulsion when it comes to access to schools? Real stakeholders work to remove the danger, they don’t bring more danger to the neighborhood and call it “safety” . . .

I see your point regarding the location of the parking lane but could you not have gaps in the parking lane for curb cuts just as you would if the parking lane were adjacent to the curb? I suppose it might be unsafe if you are riding along and a car turns into the bike lane.

Is there another street near Masonic that would be a better fit for a bike lane or bike boulevard? Even with bike lanes, riding on Masonic would be pretty unpleasant, similar to riding on Embarcadero.

14′ dynamic lane
9.5′ travel lane
9′ turn lane in the center
9.5′ travel lane
14′ dynamic lane

Off-peak, there would be a single travel lane in each direction, car parking along the curb (9′ T-marked), 5′ bike lane floating between parking and travel lane. During AM peak, parking on the east side of Masonic (NB) would be suspended, revealing a 4′ bike lane at the curb and providing a second 10′ travel lane to the left of it. During PM peak, the same thing would happen on the west (SB) side of the street.

I took the liberty of allocating the 14′ of dynamic lane as 9′ park/5′ bike, rather than 8′/6′, not sure what the MTA crew would say to that but I think it’s better to set the right edge of the bike lane further from car doors, especially on a downhill, and skimp a little on the bike lane width.

Anyhow, as to Muni impacts, yes, those 9.5′ & 10′ lanes are tight for buses, but all the pavement will still be there after the stripes are re-arranged, the left-turn lane is new and will help flow motor traffic (right now there’s no left-turn facilitation anywhere along the project length except SB just below Geary onto O’Farrell) and the (off-peak) 43 can hang over left a wee bit as necessary, slow down when you pass, for heaven’s sake . . .

I assume the NN graphic depicts a peak period tow-away lane & floating bike lane. Now that’s a good idea. However the lanes are likely too narrow for the 43 bus.

I will ride South bound on Masonic from Geary to the Panhandle or at least Hayes. It seems a lot easier to deal with but for some reason, the Northbound traffic is faster and more aggressive especially on weekdays but even weekends are scary.

To illustrate, I was once riding to Trader Joe’s early on a Saturday morning, hardly commuting conditions. An old woman in a pretty conservative looking car, not a hot-headed Hummer, started blowing her horn at me because I was in the way! When I turned to look, she motioned me to move out of the way. She clearly saw me as something that shouldn’t be in the road.

Again, there has been five years to do this kind of organizing work in preparation for the lifting of the EIR, but showing up after a tragedy of one’s own making and demanding, like a spoiled child, that the world of streetscape revolve around cyclists and cyclists alone is what is really depressing.

What again is the onerous cost of striping bike lanes for 18 months and then improving the streetscape?

Politics is all about allocating scarce resources. MTA’s capacity is a scarce resource. It is not politically feasible for groups to come in and when faced with a political choice, to say “I want it all and I want it now.”

Again, advocates had five years to plan for scenarios for after the lifting of the EIR with scant little to show for it.

-marc