After three years of waiting, three years without a single bicycle infrastructure improvement in San Francisco, the Planning Commission tonight unanimously certified the Bike Plan EIR, the first step necessary to lift the bicycle injunction.
"We are so thrilled and relieved. This was a big step forward to getting the bike plan back on track," said Leah Shahum, SFBC Executive Director. "We'd been hearing good support, the Planning Commission has been strong along the way. I've been impressed by how closely they followed it, about the lunacy of what's been going on."
Shahum said they had 12 supporters present to support the project and that eight people showed up to oppose the certification, several of them there because of the 2nd Street bike lane proposal. Undaunted, Shahum argued that this concern has been present for most bike lane stripings, especially when parking is removed.
"The kind of concern we heard on 2nd Street tonight was the same concern we heard on Valencia Street ten years ago, the same concerns on Arguello St. Time and again we see that concerns about the addition of bike lanes causing irreperable damage have not happened. These projects are well-studied, well analyzed, smart projects that work."
Supporters and opponents of the Bike Plan and the 40-plus priority projects will be back at City Hall in under twelve hours for the MTA Board hearing, which begins at 9 am and could be a marathon. Streetsblog will be blogging updates as they come in and Tweeting. Search for @streetsblogsf on Twitter.
