Streetsblog San Francisco

A mystery stenciler/good citizen isn't waiting for the MTA to implement measures to stop the mess of drivers seeking cheap gas from continuing to obstruct the bike lane on Fell Street at Divisadero. Early Sunday morning, someone stenciled "keep clear" signs in the bike lane, and painted antlers on the bicyclist symbol.

Anyone who has pedaled down Fell knows this gas station has been a troublesome spot for bicyclists for some time now. We don't know yet what kind of impact it's having on drivers, but feel free to share your impressions in the comments section if you've pedaled by recently.

MTA spokesperson Judson True said the agency has been planning to put in similar markings. Although crews plan on grinding out the fresh unofficial markings "soon," he said they intend on replacing them with essentially the same thing, except the signs that read "keep clear" will have the word order switched, with some additional signage warning drivers to stay out of the bike lane.

"We’ll see if those signs and markings work and if not more extensive measures, such as parking changes, may need to be explored," he said.

If the MTA were to remove parking, it would be on that portion of Fell Street, where a tow-away zone would be created. True said MTA staffers have been in discussions for some time now with the owner of the gas station to consider options. 

See the old bike lane and the antlered cyclist after the jump.

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The rider went down -- Boom! -- just as she turned to see if the streetcar was getting close to her. Turning to look was her undoing, because her wheel got caught in the big gap between rail and street, toppling her hard. The big blue streetcar was only ten feet or so behind her, but luckily was slowing down and did not run her over. Scary though.

Shaken but apparently not badly hurt, the rider, a young woman in a light blouse and wearing a helmet, stood up to be greeted by the streetcar conductor, who offered not sympathy but angry hectoring. Didn’t she know that cyclists were not supposed to cycle in the streetcar lane?

Standing by and watching all this while preparing to board the streetcar in Seattle, I could only shake my head in sadness. We have such a hard time doing mass transit right in this country, particularly outside New York City. Seattle's shiny new streetcar “system” was essentially brand new, but its flaws were already readily apparent.

Let’s start with the tracks. Isn’t there some system possible that does not leave what looked like a three or four inch gap between the track and the street it is imbedded in? I’m sure loyal Streetblog readers will supply me with the make and model of something. I remember seeing that old footage from Barcelona that showed all those cyclists swerving this way and that in front of the streetcar, with apparently no fear of getting caught in the track gap. Can’t we do that today? It certainly doesn’t make sense to exclude cyclists from a whole lane of a street, one that could actually double as a bike lane if built correctly.

Then there are the other problems.

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One of several ways I drove down my productivity when I worked at Transportation Alternatives in NYC (think SFBC with a livable streets angle) was to click through the websites of the hand-made bicycle manufacturers who participate in the annual North American Handmade Bicycle Show competition, ogling the master craftmanship displayed there.  No bicycle maker appealed more to my sensibilities and my lust for a unique bike than Vanilla Bicycles, based out of Portland, Oregon (warning: bike porn, NSFW, if you need to do any more work today).

Vanilla, the handiwork of former bicycle courier Sacha White, got a nice plug in Forbes Magazine, as part of the magazine's profile on companies that are fairing well despite the economic downturn.  The magazine gives background on White I'd never read before, including:

White fell into his business after his own bike frame cracked in 1999. The frame builder, Timothy Paterek, offered a weeklong course on building for $1,250. White saved for a year to enroll and later spent five months making his first solo frame for his wife, then friends, then strangers who had seen or heard of his work via the spidery Portland cycling network. Taking off a month from his courier route to make bikes in 2001, White never carried another message.

But then it makes a claim that strikes me as dubious:

Bike couriers in Portland and San Francisco, when describing something as cool, now routinely say, "That's sooo Vanilla."

Can anyone help me out?  Have you ever heard that phrase or used that phrase?  Am I really that out of touch and old already?

Some of the other delectable offerings from NAHBS are local manufacturers, including Broakland Bicycles in Oakland, Inglis and Retrotec in Napa, Sycip in Santa Rosa, Caletti in Santa Cruz, and Hunter and RR Velo in Watsonville.

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