Streetsblog San Francisco

While riding my bike there have been many times that I have asked police officers on Valencia Street to cite all of the cars double parked in the bike lane. Invariably they just shrug their shoulders and feebly offer some lame excuse why they don’t have the time to do it. It would be excellent for both safety and city revenue if cops started giving out tickets for these parking violations.

And Muni fares are going up because they’re not bringing in revenue from parking enforcement.

Call DPT to report double-parking: 553-1200

Motorists double-park in bike lanes everywhere in San Francisco, effectively stealing SF’s paltry cycling infrastructure and converting it to temporary car parking.

SFPD occasionally tries to reopen a blocked bike lane, as we see in the photo here–but that is the rare exception to the rule–cars take everything from cyclists, with impunity. Perhaps every cyclist who encounters a motorist closing down the bike lane should sidle upside the illegal parker and also stop–right in the middle of the “car lane”–and stay put, until that motorist returns the bike lane to cyclists?

Rachel you may have noticed the cameras which have appeared in the front windows of certain Muni vehicles lately. Supposedly they will be used to enforce double parking and bus lane violations.

If I have the time, I’ll stop right behind a car parked in a bike lane and pull out a pen and piece of paper and start writing down the license number. An amazing number of drivers will plead with me not to give them a ticket, as if the new uniform for traffic control officers is a Hawaiian shirt and pants tucked in droopy tube socks! If they move then and there, I tear up the “ticket” with a stern lecture to never do this again. Warning: Many drivers react very hostilely to this fake enforcement. Be prepared.

A good follow up article here would be to talk to the police and ask them what’s up, what they think is the best way to improve things, you know do some journalism. Also you could talk to the MTA and ask what their ideas are what they would do, how to improve things, look to examples in other Cities, etc. This kind of dialogue is very important especially when conducted in a non-confrontational manner and moving towards solutions. Interviewing the Bike Corporation about the issue is the same old tired sound-bites. They are very good at press releases and packing meetings and generating letters and not so good at working through issues with the city government and helping create solutions. “We encourage the police department to follow the law” is even a mistatement they apparently would like to encourage the police department to actually enforce existing laws. The way to do this is to talk to them and help them.

I mean the Hawaiian shirt thing is pretty funny but the point would be that its not an individual’s job to enforce the law. To deal with lack of funding etc. you likely could have a situation where volunteer enforcement people are deputized by the police or MTA given ticket pads and sent out. That is probably the most realsitic thing to do. Takes the pressure of of understaffed cops and MTA and addresses the issue. These people would have to be trained though to not be pricks and have some tolerance. There are times when double oparking is necessary to unload, etc, giving warnings is not necessarily a bad thing. There are also times when I have seen valets blatantly line up cars in a bike lane,etc. One time I saw a cyclist pull uop behind a lttle old lady and just scream “bike lane!” like some kind of psychotic freak. There was no other traffic on the street. He could have easily and safely gone around. I wondered if that same person would have done that on the next street over where some rather large construction workers were unloading.

The way to deal with businesses using the bike lane for private commerce, such as valet parking would be to ask the City Attorney to threaten or bring an action in public nuisance for obstructing the public right of way. The way to do that would be to do the work for the City Attorney make it as easy as possible, get Hererra into it, etc.

The City Attorney is very busy though so they don’t really care. They will only care if something is presented to them in a complete, easy way. The public bike plan, the place to do such work was unfortunately privatized by the SFBikeCorporation in their all-network bike plan disaster. The SFBC caused the bike plan law-suit by lobbying to remove all other areas of study from the bike plan. They even removed CEQA work, which is why the law-suit was possible.

So you are pretty much out of luck. The SFBC itself is far too closed minded to be able to concieve something like this. Their Board of Directors does not direct or make decisions. There is no way to propose ideas to them, etc. or even know what they are going to do. Their “democratic process” is highly undiscernable and mysterious. Basically, they are a totally staff driven mutant oddity that seems to really want a complete bike network. They are indeed so focused on the bike network that they end up working against other bike advocates and even against themselves. It is at time humorus to observe but mostly very counterproductive to the bicyclists of this city. What to do about businesses using the bike lane intentionally and such is a good example

So as a citizen your options are to beg the beg the restaurant staff/valets to respect your rights (which apparently doesn’t work), beg the SFBC staff to effectively protect your rights(they will probably give you some stickers and a new blinky) or speak in the public bike plan about the problem and work with other citizens to resolve it (but unfortunately the public bike plan was taken away/privatized by the Bike Corp.)

so in conclusion,in short, you are out of luck…

…ride safely

I’m happy to read this. For all their necessarily gruff demeanor, I’m pleased to see that the SFPD can be even-handed in its enforcement.