Streetsblog San Francisco

Warm Planet Bikes has provided more and more Caltrain commuters a secure place to park their bikes at the Fourth and King Street Station in downtown San Francisco in recent years. But the shop could soon shut down without continued support from the public transportation agencies it relies on. Though Caltrain is developing an agreement to support the shop, it may not come until it’s too late.

SF Bike Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum (left) stands with transportation officials at Warm Planet's grand opening in January 2008. Photo: SFBC/Flickr

“Caltrain needs to provide interim funding for uninterrupted service of bike parking at Fourth and King,” said Shirley Johnson, vice chair of the Caltrain Bicycle Advisory Committee and head of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition’s Bikes ONBoard Project. “To expect Warm Planet to stay open without paying for it, that’s just not possible.”

When the bike shop opened in January 2008, it had room to provide attended parking for up to 100 bikes. But over the years, demand has grown, and managers have sacrificed more and more retail space to accommodate parking and avoid “bumping” bike commuters the way Caltrain often does.

Today, Warm Planet parks up to 170 bikes per day, all for free. But the grant the shop had originally relied on ended a year and a half ago, and without a lift from agencies like Caltrain — the transit system whose customers it serves — the shop can’t sustain itself much longer.

“It’s been difficult, but I’ve been making a go of it,” said Warm Planet’s owner and president, who goes by the single name Kash. “This facility doesn’t exist so I can run a bike shop. This facility exists so that people who want to get on Caltrain can park their bikes.”

Kash has sought out other sponsors but says it’s difficult to attract support, since Warm Planet is a for-profit business despite the bike parking services it provides for a public transit agency. Advocates have been pushing Caltrain to find interim funds to keep the shop going, and though staff is negotiating one, a proposal has yet to be put on the table.

“We are very pleased to have a bike parking facility there,” said Caltrain spokesperson Christine Dunn. “We know how important it is, and we have no intention of closing it.”

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The new plan would replace car parking with buffered bike lanes on Cesar Chavez. Image: SFMTA

SFMTA hearing officers today approved a plan to replace car parking on Eastern Cesar Chavez Street with buffered bicycle lanes. A previous iteration of the plan was dropped in June after industrial businesses in the area pressured City Hall because they objected to losing traffic lanes for trucks.

The new redesign would add buffered bike lanes separated by “safe-hit” posts along the stretch between the 101 and 280 highways. On most of the route, the proposal calls for replacing parking lanes instead of traffic lanes.

The project, along with a set of twelve new bicycle parking corrals, next heads to the SFMTA Board of Directors for final approval.

“The project that’s coming back is coming back better,” said San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Policy Director Andy Thornley. “This will be an even more comfortable bike lane than what we had approved in June of 2009.”

SFMTA Engineer James Shahamiri said that some design details on the project still need to be worked out, but they likely won’t require any further legislative approval. Removing travel lanes in the westbound direction along that stretch, he said, is “still on the table.”

Twelve new on-street bicycle corrals also passed the hearing with a unanimous show of support – including 40 emails – at the following locations:

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Photo: sfbike

Groundbreaking legislation introduced by Supervisor and mayoral candidate John Avalos yesterday would allow the thousands of people who pedal to work in San Francisco to bring their bikes into the office.  The “Bicycle Access and Safety Ordinance” [pdf] would require the owners and managers of all commercial buildings to allow bikes in the building if there is no secure bike parking.

“Creating a safe, secure place for cyclists to store their bicycles while at work will help to promote alternative modes of transportation and contribute to the City’s effort to cut emissions, improve air quality, maximize public transportation and ease congestion,” the legislation reads. “Allowing bicycles in office buildings is an effective way to encourage cycling.”

The legislation is an improved version of a 2009 bill passed in New York City, the only U.S. city with a bicycle access law. One big difference is that SF’s version wouldn’t only apply to buildings with freight elevators. Bike commuters would not be forced to enter work through dark, garbage strewn alleys and could roll their bikes into front lobbies along with strollers, wheeled briefcases and all the other belongings workers schlep in on a daily basis. If approved, San Francisco would have the country’s strongest bicycle access ordinance.

“I think this is a great step toward ensuring more secure bike parking for the growing number of people riding to work in San Francisco. It’s sorely needed,” said Leah Shahum, the executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “We’ve heard a lot of unfortunate stories from people who would bike to work if they had secure bike parking at their office, and there’s a lot of buildings that don’t allow it.”

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A bicycle rack stencil marks the spot of a future bike rack. Photo: Bryan Goebel

Earlier this year, I hired one of my favorite bike courier companies to deliver an urgent parcel. When the messenger arrived at my door to pick it up (I work from home), he complained about the lack of bike parking in the neighborhood. He knew who I was and asked, bluntly: “Why doesn’t Streetsblog have bike parking?”

It’s a good question. I told him I’m working on it. What I’ve come to learn since is there is a long-standing informal SFMTA policy against installing bike racks in front of residential buildings for short-term parking. I live in a large apartment building in a dense neighborhood on Sutter Street, so a bike rack outside my building would potentially get used by a lot of short-term visitors.

Here’s how SFMTA spokesperson Paul Rose explained the policy: “Since we can’t put bike parking where everyone wants it, we strive to prioritize locations that’ll be used by as many as possible. And the commercial mixed-use locations will have a lot more visitors, so the bike racks there are going to have a lot more use.”

“When racks are installed in front of residential buildings,” he continued, “there’s no specific way to know if they’ll be used by visitors to the building, or long-term parking for the building’s residents.”

Businesses are a priority, and any merchant can request a bike rack on the sidewalk, or even a bike corral. In a Streetsblog story on San Francisco’s bike rack bonanza last year, the SFMTA was also urged to target major destinations, such as parks, libraries, museums, and major transit stops.

Since the bike injunction was partially lifted in November of 2009, the SFMTA has installed more than 700 bike racks at a cost of $380,000.

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"Bike parking for Alta office. We replaced a parking spot with this wall-mounted rack." Flickr photo: Lauren Buckland

Commercial buildings in downtown San Francisco could be required to provide indoor bicycle parking accommodations under a proposal introduced at last week’s Board of Supervisors meeting.

“One of the ways that we can really assure our bikes are safe from theft is to be able to bring them into our buildings,” said Supervisor John Avalos, who has asked the City Attorney’s Office to draft the legislation.

Providing secure parking would encourage would-be bicycle commuters deterred by the prospect of leaving their bicycle locked to on-street poles and bike racks for hours, where they could be vulnerable to theft. In 2007, police estimated 2,000 to 3,000 bikes are stolen in the city every year, according to the Bay Guardian.

“For many existing commercial buildings, there isn’t bike access,” said Avalos, “and we want to be able to provide that access in the future for cyclists in San Francisco.”

“It’s the last major gap in solving the commuter bike parking problem,” said Dave Snyder, executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition. Many office buildings, he noted, have room for bike parking but don’t allow access.

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Different vehicles shape a different streetscape in Peru.

Our daily urban lives shape our imaginations in so many ways. Few things box us in like our everyday transit options, and the patterns of traffic that shape our sense of public space. These patterns themselves are historical of course. A quick look back at the famous Market Street film shot a few days before the 1906 earthquake shows how chaotic and unpredictable the flow of traffic was when San Francisco’s main artery hadn’t yet been paved and standardized. Similarly, leaving the U.S. and visiting other countries provides a fantastic opportunity to experience other assumptions and possibilities for urban space, and surprisingly perhaps, a different range of vehicles.

In Peru for a couple of weeks I first had to adjust to a major cultural difference–unlike California, pedestrians don’t have any legal rights, let alone cultural preference. When you start to cross the street at a corner in a Peruvian city, you better be ready to run. Because the cars are not going to wait for you, in fact they tend to speed up when they see someone trying to use the road space ahead of them. I noticed the same thing on highways too, a consistent refusal to yield to entering traffic, a universal assumption of individual ownership of the right of way. Here’s a video below the break we shot standing on a traffic island in Peru’s second largest city while waiting for the traffic to clear so we could cross the street.

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A new bike corral in front of Green Apple Books on Clement Street. Photo: SFBC

Bike corrals are a hot commodity in San Francisco. The SFMTA installed three within the last week: one in front of Rooky Ricardo’s Records in the Lower Haight, one in front of Braindrops Boutique in the Upper Haight, and the most recent in front of Green Apple Books on Clement Street in the Richmond.

The three corrals alone have created 30 convenient spots for bikes previously reserved to park three cars.

“San Franciscans are biking in record numbers and on-street corrals are a great way that the City is starting to catch up with widespread demand for more bike parking,” says Leah Shahum, executive director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition. “It’s also a great way that businesses are encouraging the huge numbers of people on bikes to stop and shop.”

Rooky Ricardo’s Records owner Dick Vivian told Haighteration he applied for a corral over a year ago during the bike injunction. If that’s any indication, the SFMTA likely has a backlog of demand to catch up with.

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New bike corral in front of Mike's Bikes on Howard St. Photo: Aaron Bialick

More city businesses and their cycling customers are enjoying new on-street bike parking after the SFMTA installed four recently approved corrals, repurposing four parking spots for motor vehicles with forty-six spots for bicycles. A total of nine have been installed since the bike injunction was lifted last August.

“As you can see, it hasn’t even been a week and each rack has a bike on it,” said Nicole Cooper, manager of Timbuk2 in Hayes Valley, who was very pleased with the results. “I see more bikes, less people asking, ‘Hey, can I just drop my bike off in here?’”

Nate Rotsko of Mike’s Bikes in SoMa sees value in their new corral on Howard Street that goes beyond just tidying up the sidewalks and attracting customers. ”It also helps draw the attention of the drivers to bicycles. The fact that bikes are here helps reinforce the fact that bikes are on the street to people driving,” he said.

In South Park, customers who pedal to the popular French restaurant, the Butler and the Chef, will also find a new bike corral. The restaurant is just a few doors down from Public Bikes, where the company’s Dan Nguyen-Tan was excited about the new on-street bike parking even though Public did not receive a corral of its own.

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Photo: Matthew Roth

An SFMTA hearing officer has approved four new bike corrals that will be installed of front of Mike’s Bikes in SoMa, Timbuk2 in Hayes Valley, the Butler and the Chef restaurant in South Park and Thieves Tavern/Box Dog Bikes on 14th Street. A total of four parking spaces will be converted into on-street parking for 46 bikes.

“We have a lot of bikers,” said Nicole Cooper of Timbuk2 on Hayes Street, adding that many of them come in to take advantage of a discount offered through the I Bike SF program.

Nate Rotsko, the general manager of Mike’s Bikes on Howard Street, said the “disorganized” bike parking outside the store has been an issue for customers.

“By taking out one parking space, we’re going to provide parking space for 12 bicycles in a neat, orderly section and clean up bike parking in that area,” he said. “It will also draw attention to the cyclists in that area by moving bikes onto the street. It will inherently improve safety for commuters and people coming along Howard.”

Since the injunction was lifted August 6, the SFMTA has installed 5 bike corrals along Valencia Street, and hopes to get the new ones in by the end of the year.

“The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition has been talking to business owners all across the city to inform them about this opportunity to attract more customers,” says Renée Rivera, the SFBC’s acting executive director. “Bike parking corrals are already helping the city catch up with the widespread demand for easy ways to shop and visit local places by bike and we look forward to helping even more businesses realize this opportunity.”

The SFBC has been encouraging bicyclists to tell their favorite businesses that they can get a bike corral installed for free. They’ve been handing out these flyers [pdf] to businesses.

The future home of the city's newest on-street bicycle parking. Photos: Matthew Roth.

Preparations began today for the installation of new on-street bicycle parking on Valencia Street in former bus zones, which were vacated when the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency terminated the 26-Valencia line.

The SFMTA's paint crews painted on-street bike parking spaces in the former bus zones and painted additional yellow loading zones in several locations to facilitate commercial deliveries. The bike racks will be added to the on-street facilities in the next day or two.

In exchange for the increased bicycle parking, businesses like The Freewheel Bike Shop have agreed to maintain the new facilities. Freewheel's owner Carlos Corujo said he thought this reflected a larger improvement in San Francisco and the effective advocacy of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition.

"I like the wide sidewalks we see down Valencia Street, I like the bike lanes, I like the improved lanes and this thing is just over the top, it's great," he said.

Asked whether he would miss vehicle parking in front of his store, he said, "Oh hell no, are you kidding me? Let's get rid of all these parking spots and put bikes there."

Bicycle commuters were predictably enthusiastic as well. Maddie Oatman, who regularly commutes by bicycle on Valencia from the Mission to Alamo Square, said San Francisco was a good biking city and said Muni "seems very broken right now."

Though she said she understood that parking a car can be difficult, she noted that increased bike parking could achieve a mode shift. "Maybe it will encourage people to ditch the cars and grab a bike if there's more bike parking."