Comments on: Eyes on the Street: San Francisco’s First Green Bike Box Remains Unfinished

By: Bryan Goebel

Bryan Goebel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 21:58:06 +0000

A minor matter, but it turns out the Scott Street bike box was the first green bike box in California. Long Beach called to say their bike box was installed Dec. 20th. Ours was painted Dec. 3rd.

By: Bryan Goebel

Bryan Goebel — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 18:53:36 +0000

It’s true this is not California’s only green bike box, and I’ve changed the story to reflect that: http://www.bikelongbeach.org/News/Read.aspx?ArticleId=53. The good news is DPT crews are out there painting a bike symbol in the bike box right now as I type this. We’ll have a story up soon.

By: walley george

walley george — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:24:01 +0000

Just watched the video, how did Portland get so lame?

By: walley george

walley george — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 19:21:02 +0000

I don’t know how I got around on my bike for the last 20 years in this city without.

By: monkeyface

monkeyface — Sat, 26 Dec 2009 15:46:34 +0000

This is such a great idea! Life saving! Always have difficulties turning from that location (and others) hope it catches on.

By: Todd Edelman

Todd Edelman — Fri, 25 Dec 2009 16:06:01 +0000

Tucson, AZ: http://www.flickr.com/photos/36201438@N04/3342929500/in/set-72157615040591748/ + http://dot.tucsonaz.gov/bicycle/

By: Nick

Nick — Thu, 24 Dec 2009 00:04:42 +0000

At the end of the day it just a stencil. Nothing to get upset about. Take a left on Fell and you know you’re not anywhere close to Portland.

By: jacob

jacob — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:59:51 +0000

In Portland there was a huge education campaign, There were police stationed at the bike box for the first several days, not handing out tickets to violators but a warning and educational material. It seemed to work pretty well.

By: Richard Masoner

Richard Masoner — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:03:47 +0000

Is that one really the first? Long Beach has a green bike box as well.

By: Tom Wald

Tom Wald — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:45:27 +0000

In Austin, Texas we also have our first bike boxes. Since they are pilot (experimental) projects, there is a period of study, with cameras at the intersection to monitor road user behavior. For the first stage of the study, nothing was painted — the city needs to see what happens without the bike boxes.

Then the bike boxes are phased in, in stages. Various insults were hurled about how the city doesn’t know what it’s doing, and so on. Unknown to the skeptics, the point is to get data for various implementations. E.g. does there need to be paint?… a big stencil of a bike?… a no-turn-on-red sign? These things have been (or will be implemented) stage by stage to see what the effect of road user behavior is.

This appears to be what is happening in SF as well. My suggestion is to be a bit more patient with this.

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:29:26 +0000

It’s funny that there has to be a Department of Transportation authorization of an approved symbol for the bike box. SF uses about 5 different markings for sharrows and the same amount for bike lanes.

By: smushmoth

smushmoth — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:27:42 +0000

Just to add some fuel to the fire. This is more common than cars in the green zone. http://www.zannel.com/viewupdate.htm?id=MCPXZ

By: Michael Smith

Michael Smith — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 19:20:15 +0000

Perhaps due to budget cuts the MTA is simply waiting and hoping that someone else will to to http://www.pbp1.com/dynamic/ps/ps_details.asp?PN=HPSTBKA and just stencil the thing themselves. Of course a homemade cardboard stencil would be even cheaper but probably not reusable for other needed bicycle improvements.

By: Alicia

Alicia — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:33:13 +0000

The shade of green that was chosen for the bike box is also problematic. It is much too dark (unlike the more neon-green shade shown in the Portland photo). During low light conditions, it is impossible to see the bike box, especially because there is not a bike designation painted on it.

By: Cadence

Cadence — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:26:13 +0000

Personally I prefer to maneuver like cars, if I’m going to make a left turn, I get in the far left lane(using hand turning signal, and switching lanes safely, one at a time, or more if it’s safe to do so)

And as for the right turning cars, there is no problem if
1. Motorists learn to use their signals, actually this the driving law,
(perhaps a hefty fine for turning without signal needs to be imposed by the police)

2. Bicyclist can stop at right before the cross walk as cars have to(not in the way of crossing traffic traveling left to right).

I find that people in general do not seem to use hand/light turning signals, which is doesn’t help in reading the traffic. This miscommunication, or lack it leads to accidents, because it makes it hard to figure out where everyone’s trying to.

Of course the absent mindedness such as using a cellphone, not looking, or wishful-multi-tasking compounds this problem. But that’s another discussion

By: zsolt

zsolt — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:52:13 +0000

Sooooooooooooo typically San Francisco. Embarrassing.

By: mattymatt

mattymatt — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 03:00:35 +0000

Uh huh. And how exactly are they “collecting” this data? Do they have some guy out there keeping an eye on things?

It seems to me that it would not be so hard for a citizen to helpfully intervene by stopping by to complete the work themselves.

By: jass

jass — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:54:56 +0000

In Boston, theres a 6-9 month gap between when a bike lane gets painted, and when the bike stencils get added, it makes no sense.

As for your bikebox….it looks huge. I wonder why it was made so deep?

By: Nick

Nick — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 02:48:04 +0000

SF can be quite strange when it comes to the mixing of politics of cycling. I get the feeling that the City was moving a little to fast in that first week and was told to slow things down.

Example: The soft hit posts on Market went up in a day and then further progress from 8th to 12th hasn’t happened in 3 weeks. Maybe I’m wrong and they’re focusing on the approved bike lanes first.

However, you walk down Market and take a close look at the soft hit posts and you’ll find that they are already scuffed up from use on other streets. If the project is intended to be reversible, I guess you might as well use recycled parts. This leaves me wondering just what brand of environmental responsibility the City is practicing.

By: pylondude

pylondude — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:23:37 +0000

Another case of great intent, lousy execution from MTA. Like a lot of people I’ve been waiting for the rest of the paint to go down, like a bike symbol a sharrow or some sort of bike here car there indicator. They’re waiting until January?!

I ride through here all the time and there is a lot of cyclists who don’t know what it’s for. Just as many motorists. Today I had a motorist stopped at the light at Fell with his car blocking the bike turn lane. So, even with evident marking we still get people who just don’t get it.

However, what would help make the whole package work is the added paint on the bike box and a green arrow for turning left on Fell from the bike lane. That way cars could turn, bikes could turn and we don’t have to risk getting smacked by a car turning left onto Scott from Fell or dealing with oncoming traffic from the other side of Scott.