Eyes on the Street: Muni Buses Block Green Bike Lanes for the 4th

Tuesday, July 6, 2010 22 Comments

Eyes on the Street: Muni Buses Block Green Bike Lanes for the 4th

Photo: neas

We're pretty sure this happens every July 4th, but bicyclists headed westbound up Market Street toward Van Ness, and especially those turning right from Polk, got quite a surprise Sunday afternoon to find rows of Muni buses -- along two blocks -- queued up in the bike lanes. The difference this year is the bike lanes are green and separated with soft-hit posts, some of which looked pretty beat up after being run over by the buses.

We've got an email into the SFMTA to find out more but what do you think? Could the agency have come up with a better plan?

Photo: Bryan Goebel.

Bryan Goebel is the founding editor of Streetsblog San Francisco. He’s a veteran journalist who lives car-free in the Midtown area of Sacramento.

Hank Cancel

BOOOO!!!! Muni Sucks!!! That Shows A Callous Disrespect For Cyclists…Muni’s Incompetence Has Done More To Promote Cycling In San Francisco Than All Other Agencies Combined…
http://www.fourmajor.com/ Stuart Chuang Matthews

Gah. WTF?
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/njudah Greg

and let the intelligent commenting begin….
Peter Smith

Personally, I’m happy to see buses finally and formally taking over the bike lanes. Bikes have no business on the streets anyways. Soon, we’ll have more and bigger buses in the form of BRT taking over our most important corridors, and I’m excited as a pig in shhhhhhhade.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/Aaron_B Aaron Bialick

Is it really necessary to park them on Market..? And the fact that this is planned and repeated every year by the MTA is especially atrocious.
Gary

This kind of stuff happens when you put greedy idiots in high places instead of pushing a broom with a orange jumpsuit.
http://sfmybikelane.com the greasybear

Hey Muni–nice damage you willfully caused there. Going to pay to fix those soft-hit posts you trashed? Didn’t think so.
Nick

Fascinating photos. MTA likes to think they’re top dog in town. Drivers are like those small poodles that yell and bark to show they have some bite left in them.

And Cyclists? They just look at you calmly and say get off my space already.
Joel

I feel this kind of post pits people using bicycles against people who ride public transit. That shouldn’t be the aim of a blog that promotes all forms of sustainable transportation. Muni riders make sacrifices for Sunday Streets and other worthwhile events that close streets. My point is, we all (most of us) read this blog because we love livable streets and the city has made many accommodations for all modes of sustainable transportation. Can’t bicyclists, transit riders, and peds unite together?

And, as irritating as some of them are, please don’t take this out on the drivers. Even if they are overpaid, some of them are very nice (http://www.munidiaries.com/2010/05/26/muni-loretta-bus-driver-guardian-angel/ – http://www.munidiaries.com/2010/05/21/thank-you-friendly-23-driver/) and they have very tough jobs.
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/velobry Bryan Goebel

@Joel: My intention was not to pit bicyclists against transit riders. When I’m not on my bike I often walk or ride Muni. My only point with this was to ask: Could Muni have done a better job with these buses besides parking them in the green bike lane? If it’s one day a year that this happens, I’m pretty sure we can all live with that if there’s not another do-able solution.
chill everybody

Yeah there’s no point attacking MUNI drivers– this was clearly MUNI policy, and somebody high up f’d up.
greg

Why even do we even run Muni buses on Market St.? Market has the trolley and both Muni and Bart trains underground. And the Mission St. buses are one block away.
0101!

@greg
Because many buses come from residential neighborhoods and work as commute routes. for example, the 71. good luck trying to convince that ridership to transfer to an underground or walk down to mission st. once the bus reaches market from the haight.
MBrandt

Interesting article, thank you. Do we know what the drivers think of the soft hit posts? Most muni drivers are pretty aware of their rigs. Were the buses witnessed driving over the soft hit posts? If so did it appear to be a mistake?
Gary

So if a cyclist is injured/killed riding outside the green lane because the buses are blocking it, can Muni get sued?
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/airAndMagic airAndMagic

once again…
they could have parked them on the underutilized block of 11th street between market and mission. it’s right next to where these pictures were taken.
marcos

Agree this sucks, but it doesn’t look like there is much congestion on Market and it was on a holiday. I’d prefer to see more focus on the industrial, ongoing threats to cycling than one-off stupidity, as one political technique used to marginalize progress is the intentional directing of attention from the significant to the less significant.

-marc
those dudes

@ Byran:
Your stated point was to ask “Could Muni have done a better job with these buses besides parking them in the green bike lane”

Is that a question that really needs asking? Of course they could have. Why waste your readers’ time with crap like this?
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/SteveS SteveS

I’m sure DPW can just bill Muni a work order for replacing the posts
Peter Smith

Crap like this?

Classy and correct!
http://www.livablestreets.com/people/velobry Bryan Goebel

@those dudes: It’s a rhetorical question! The purpose of putting this post up is to get the SFMTA to rethink this, plain and simple.
neas

I’m curious to see how the SFMTA responds.

Staging buses here makes no sense. Most Muni drivers would agree.
It doesn’t benefit anyone. If they thought it did, the SFMTA could/should announce bike lane closures on Market Street during the 4th holiday. They didn’t. Kinda sucks.

Do Streetsblog readers care about this this stuff?

F*ck Yeah.

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Eyes on the Street: Muni Buses Block Green Bike Lanes for the 4th

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