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.”

The original three-year grant included $36,000 from the SFMTA, the SF County Transportation Authority, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, as a well as $300,000 in federal funding. However, there are no plans to renew it.

In September 2009, Caltrain issued a request for proposals (RFP) to give other prospective competitors a shot at the space, but it was canceled in October 2010, because “during the process, the companies that applied all seemed to think that there would need to be a subsidy,” said Dunn. “The RFP didn’t include that, so we are taking that into consideration right now.”

Although Caltrain is developing a new RFP that would include funding support, it could take 12 to 18 months before Warm Planet gets it, assuming it is selected to continue. Kash doesn’t expect the shop to last that long.

Johnson said issuing the RFP in the first place was unnecessary “when they already have a very successful operator,” especially with Caltrain’s ongoing financial problems. “It seems strange to take that expense and the risk of a new operator there. Why not just extend the contract with Warm Planet?”

Since the shop opened, “it has changed people’s commute,” she said. “It’s a win-win-win for everybody. Caltrain gets more customers, we get cars off the road, there’s not as much congestion, there’s not as much pollution, and people are happier on their commute.”

While Caltrain has long subsidized car parking at its stations at below-market rates, Johnson pointed out that bike parking provides a sustainable solution particularly well-suited for a linear transit system like Caltrain. Walking or taking other transit to and from the stations along the Peninsula can be too difficult and time-consuming for many.

“The bicycle solves that problem on both ends,” she said. “There are some people who can walk on the other end, so great — let them park at Warm Planet.”

Rose Garrett, a Peninsula commuter who lives in the lower Haight, started biking to Caltrain and parking at Warm Planet after two frustrating years riding the N-Judah.

“The situation became so out of hand, (crowded trains, unreliable service) that I missed my train to my Redwood City office on many occasions, causing me to miss hours of work,” she wrote in an email to Caltrain, along with dozens of others urging the agency to provide support for the shop [PDF]. “Warm Planet’s service has allowed me to to park my bike every day and continue my commute without aggravation. My good mood lasts me all morning, whereas in my Muni-riding days, my bad mood often persisted all week.”

In addition to meeting the current need, Caltrain will need to plan for a much larger facility if it is to accommodate the growing demand for bike parking in the coming years, said Kash.

“There’s no plausible future in San Francisco that doesn’t include more bicycles, so we should get ahead of the curve.”

The next meeting of the Caltrain Board of Directors is on Thursday, February 2 at 10 a.m., in the Edward J. Bacciocco Auditorium, located on the second floor at SamTrans Administrative Offices, 1250 San Carlos Ave. in San Carlos. Supporters can voice public comment there or send an email to board@caltrain.com.

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:

• 18th and Dolores Street
• 29th Street and Tiffany Avenue
• Powell and Chestnut Streets
• Harrison and 20th Streets
• Haight near Clayton Street
• Valencia near 24th Street
• Judah Street near 45th Avenue
• Polk and Washington Streets
• Fillmore near Sutter Street
• 16th near Mission Street
• 18th and Collingwood Street
• Valencia near 23rd Street

An additional bike corral was proposed at Minnesota and 22nd Streets, but SFMTA staff said it will be re-worked to accommodate plans to add an intersection bulb-out.

Also approved was an initiative from Caltrans to remove travel lanes and add bike lanes on a section of southern San Jose Avenue.

The removal of a Muni bus stop shelter on Turk and Hyde, which residents complained attracts drug activity, was approved, although many spoke in opposition.

See the rest of the items on the agenda here.

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.”

San Francisco law already requires secure bike parking in all new commercial buildings. Shahum said a growing number of employers and building owners are recognizing that more and more employees are biking to the office and that it translates into a healthier, more productive workforce. That’s why many companies are negotiating bike parking into their leases, realizing that attracting the best and brightest means providing a safe, convenient place to park your bike.

Building owners could still opt out under a few exceptions, but only after a city inspection. Saying no triggers a comprehensive Bicycle Access Plan. The exemptions would be granted only if:

(i) the building’s elevators are not available for bicycle access because unique circumstances exist involving substantial safety risks directly related to the use of such elevator; or
(ii) there is secure alternate covered off-street parking or secure alternate indoor no-cost bicycle parking available on the premises or within three blocks or 750 feet, whichever is less, of the subject building sufficient to accommodate all tenants or subtenants of the building requesting bicycle access.

Dave Snyder, the executive director of the California Bicycle Coalition and an occasional Streetsblog contributor, was happy with the proposed ordinance but suggested it be strengthened to add language ensuring that the alternate bike parking requirement listed in the exception (ii) complies with the city’s bike planning code.

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.

Generally speaking, public bike racks aren’t installed on private property. In San Francisco, bike parking is required on all new commercial and residential developments, and major renovations. If you want secure bike parking in your apartment building, you have to take it up with your landlord. Or if you live close to a business, you could get that merchant to request a bike rack.

Oakland’s short-term bike parking policy is similar to the SFMTA’s, and bike racks are also concentrated in commercial districts. In Portland, however, the city does install bike racks for short-term parking in front of residential buildings.

“We only install city bike racks at locations where there is a short-term bike parking need – this can include multi-family dwellings (i.e. apartment buildings rather than single family residential areas) because you will see a visitor bike parking demand,” said Sarah Figliozzi, a bicycle program specialist at the Portland Department of Transportation.

The SFMTA has actually installed a few residential bike racks, but it’s not a wide practice. What do you think? Have you requested a residential bike rack for short-term parking? Should the city change its policy?

"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.

“If you’ve got a car parking garage, it’s easy to convert enough space to provide secure bicycle parking,” he said, “and a lot of people already work in situations where their company doesn’t mind if they bring their bikes in as long as they stash it out of the way.”

The legislation would “either require commercial buildings to provide space, locker rooms for cycles, or to allow workers to bring bicycles into the buildings,” said Avalos, and would be modeled after a New York City law which yielded an estimated 1,764 indoor parking spots just five months after being enacted in 2010.

“It’s good that San Francisco is serving as a best practices city,” said Snyder.

It is not known when the legislation will be officially introduced, but Avalos said he intends “to be working with bike advocates as well as the building owners and managers associations and related unions that do work in the buildings to make sure that we have a plan that can move forward and be successful.”

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.

We entered Peru on a bus from Ecuador, crossing the Macará river.

Crossing the river, that's our bus.

We rode from Cuenca, Ecuador to Chiclayo, Peru, which took about 22 hours.

Bus travel was a big part of our journey in Peru, though we took a plane from Chiclayo on the north coast all the way to Cusco in the southern Andes. The beginning of our time in the country finished our descent from the Ecuadorian Andes to the stark desert of northern Peru. Our international bus arrived in the Peruvian city of Piura, which I hadn’t heard of before, but it’s a good-sized city of a half million or so, sitting amidst a heavily irrigated desert of citrus farms and more. The most surprising discovery as we rode in on the dusty streets was to see countless moto-taxis and freight tricycles. They outnumbered autos, filling the streets with the canopied three-wheelers.

This was our first view of vehicular traffic in Piura, Peru.

Motorcycles dominated, both individually and as motors for rickshaws.

We changed to another four-hour bus ride from Piura to Chiclayo where we grabbed a plane after a few hours of sleep in a hotel, having been on buses for about 22 hours. Once we made it to Cuzco we delighted in the ancient capital of the Incas. The incredible stone-masonry of the Inca culture is incomparable, and what a fun surprise to find one of the original streets of their capital still functioning. It’s called Antisuyo and the massive granite blocks, so perfectly fit to each other, have survived centuries of earthquakes that crumbled lesser structures. The narrow, pedestrian friendly streets on the slopes of Cuzco are a walker’s paradise.

Here I am standing on Cuzco's Antisuyo, an original street from the time of the Inca Empire. The anti-seismic granite construction is visible in the amazing stonework here and in many places throughout former Inca territories.

From Cuzco we went on one of the world’s famous “walks” on the Inca Trail. Four days, three mountain passes (the highest being 14,000 feet!), and a great deal of it on the thousands of original steps that make up the well-trodden Inca Trail. We learned a bit about the Inca Empire along our journey, and knew that their road system equalled the Romans in terms of engineering, management of water and drainage, and perhaps even sheer extent. Inca Trails extended from the capital in Cuzco all the way to Colombia in the north, Chile in the south, and encompassed a population of millions.

Here I am slowly making my way to a 14,000 foot pass.

It's hard to describe the historic resonance of hiking a road built centuries earlier and used heavily during an entirely different culture and time in history.

After an amazing four days that got us to Machu Picchu we caught a bus from Cuzco to Arequipa, but our “bed bus” was a broken down second-tier bus rather than the luxury ride we thought we were buying. The views of snow-capped mountains and endless green valleys in the Altiplano were stunning, and after about 8 hours we arrived in the high plains town of Juliaca. This town depended even more on pedicabs and freight bikes than we’d seen in the north.

The altiplano as seen from our bus out of Cuzco on the way southwest to Juliaca.

The relatively comfortable bus terminal in Juliaca, Peru.

Street scene in Juliaca, Peru.

There's something so charming about pedicabs!

Great to look out the bus window and see more pedicabs and freight trikes than cars and trucks.

We had a dramatic late dusk ride along the sides of a huge lake called Lagunillas, as rain and thunder engulfed us on the way to Arequipa. The city’s night lights sprawled before us as we descended to it from the mountains. When we woke the next morning we realized we were still quite high (over a mile high) and in a surprisingly arid environment. Walking into downtown we found ourselves on Calle Bolivar, a pleasant pedestrian-centered avenue, which was a hint of something a little different in Peru’s second largest city.

Calle Bolivar-Sucre in Arequipa, Peru, a street recently reclaimed for pedestrians.

Here in the historic center of Arequipa (two huge volcanoes are obscured behind the cathedral by dense clouds) the traffic chokes the surrounding streets.

The historic city center’s streets were jammed with taxis and combis, which we soon realized was normal in Peru’s cities. Crossing the street was a continuous challenge but we started to get a handle on moving through the city (that video above captures the drama). We also found another street, Calle Mercaderos, which was closed to traffic and functioned like a long linear mall. In streets like this we see a different use of public space than we get normally in the U.S. Like the best European city centers, Peru too has taken important streets and dedicated them to pedestrians and public sauntering (and shopping of course).

Calle Mercaderes in Arequipa, a classic pedestrian zone mostly dedicated to shopping and people watching.

Finally we made our way to Lima, the country’s capital. Traffic is insane in Lima, but the city won us over for lots of reasons. For one thing we stayed just off Avenida Arequipa, which happens to have a lovely center median that has a bike way or “ciclovia” running down the middle. We were staying with a friend and had fun learning to navigate Lima by way of the ubiquitous “combis,” which come in all shapes and sizes and colors. The sing-song announcements of destination that the combi fare-takers used to help passengers decide which one to take was one of the pleasures of the ride. But the congested traffic, the bizarre competition between different combis to race ahead to get passengers at the next stop, and the generally aggressive driving by all vehicles presented an streetscape that was unmistakeably hostile to pedestrians.

This is the ciclovia on Avenida Arequipa in Lima, Peru, just outside the apartment we stayed in.

This is a pretty average scene of multiple competing combi lines jammed into traffic, each trying to get to the curb to get more passengers into its seats.

We found the combis pretty comfortable, always clean, and easy to navigate once you figured out where you were going. They only cost about 30 cents a ride too!

Lima is modernizing of course. They’ve put in a freeway that is locally known as “the Ditch,” but down the middle of it is one of several Bus Rapid Transit lines called the Metropolitana. Here’s a couple of shots of another Metropolitana line along one of the regular broad avenues in Lima.

The Metropolitana in Lima looks a lot like the Macrobus in Guadalajara, or BRTs in almost any city.

This is a shot back towards the arriving Metropolitana (at far right), while we sit in gridlock.

We were hapy to connect with local cycling activists, who hosted me giving a Talk on cycling and Critical Mass history. Cicloaxion got a boost from the World Naked Bike Ride a few years back, and now there are several different cycling advocacy groups in town.

Octavio, Edu, and Manu took us on a great ride around the historic center, teaching us how to navigate the insanity of Lima's traffic, and treating us to a great meal in Lima's Chinatown.

And ciclovias exist on a number of streets, along with barely used bicycle parking facilities.

Here's an underutilized Ciclovia in downtown Lima, used here as a parking spot for a couple of freight bikers.

Never did see any bikes parked here... Why do bike racks so often get put in places where they aren't used?

There are a lot of freight bikes rolling around Lima too.

There were lots of these guys rolling around downtown Lima.

Less than a month ago, Lima joined the growing world movement towards Sunday Streets with what they have dubbed “Ciclodia.” Thousands of Lima cyclists and joggers get out on Sunday morning to enjoy a six-kilometer stretch closed to all traffic on Avenida Arequipa. It was great to wake up on Sunday morning to the silence, after having been wakened each of our previous days by the roar of combis and their horns jockeying for position on the same street. So Lima, and Peru more generally, present a panoply of street uses, and a veritable menagerie of vehicles! Nothing jogs or imaginations or our fantasies like immersion in other cultures and other possibilities.

The crowds are emerging for Ciclodia in Lima, Peru, Sunday, March 20, 2011.

Street closed for Cycling Day, Lima Peru.

Lima is evolving and it was exciting to see the burgeoning cycling culture there too.

Chris Carlsson will be giving one of his four-hour bicycle history tours on local transit history, this Sunday, April 3, from 12-4 pm. Meet at CounterPULSE, 1310 Mission at 9th at noon, bring water and snacks. (A $15-50 sliding scale donation is requested to benefit Shaping San Francisco.)

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.

Rooky Ricardo's Records in the Lower Haight. Photo: Haighteration

If you know a business that would benefit from an on-street bike parking corral, you can download a flyer and application at sfbike.org/corrals.

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.

The Butler and the Chef restaurant (on a closed day), South Park. Photo: Aaron Bialick

“It makes perfect sense,” said Nguyen-Tan, who expects that the new corral will draw even more people to South Park, which he describes as a European-inspired oasis, especially “as they find out that it’s an amenity, that it’s so easy for them to bike and park right in front of the place they’re going to have brunch at on a weekend.”

“On a beautiful day, hundreds of people use the park for eating, hanging out, bringing their kids to use the playground,” he added. ”Before, all we had was basically street poles and some signs.”

A joint bike corral was also installed in front of Box Dog Bikes and Thieves Tavern on 14th Street between Guerrero and Valencia in the Mission District.

Despite design measures taken for visibility, one of the five original corrals installed on Valencia near 21st was damaged over the New Year’s weekend by what appears to have been the driver of a motor vehicle. An SFMTA spokesperson told Streetsblog a work order has been issued to repair it.

The corrals are in demand in a number of neighborhoods and commercial districts and merchants seem optimistic about their potential not only as a boon for business, but for their neighborhood and for cycling in the city overall.

“A lot of people coming in have been saying how handy it is – not just here, but throughout the whole city,” said Rotsko.

“This was just the first round. As this program continues, I’m sure you’ll see more of these popping up.”

To request a bike corral, check out the SFBC’s bike parking page. H/T to Streetsblog commenter Nick for the tip on the damaged bike corral.

]]> http://sf.streetsblog.org/2011/01/04/eyes-on-the-street-sfmta-installs-four-new-bike-corrals/feed/ 6 http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/11/10/sfmta-approves-four-new-bike-corrals/ http://sf.streetsblog.org/2010/11/10/sfmta-approves-four-new-bike-corrals/#comments Wed, 10 Nov 2010 18:09:50 +0000 Bryan Goebel http://sf.streetsblog.org/?p=258586 [...]]]>

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.

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."

The future on-street bike parking space in front of Freewheel.

The SFMTA has installed three new bike racks on the southeast corner of Church Street at Market to help accommodate the throngs of bicycle riders who often park their bikes illegally on the Muni island rails. I snapped these photos of the new bike racks this afternoon and one thing rang clear: it's not enough.

Damon Curtis, the Bike Plan implementation manager for the SFMTA, said the racks were installed based on requests from businesses. However, the area was a pressing priority for the SFMTA last January, when the agency asked for injunction relief to install bike racks on Church following complaints from disability rights advocates about the transit island bike parking.

"We know the demand continues to grow and as we move forward that could be an area we can look at for corrals and things like that," Curtis told Streetsblog.

Andy Thornley, the SFBC program director, hopes the SFMTA will install more bicycle parking in the area, and be sensitive to the concerns.

"Apart from the intrinsic demand of the businesses, the important thing to be aware is that there has been complaints and concerns voiced by folks in the disabled community about that Muni platform encroachment," said Thornley.

Curtis said the SFMTA has installed nearly 300 new bike racks since the partial lifting of the bicycle injunction, and had a backlog of 900 requests at the time. The agency is working as quickly as it can to meet the demand, he said.

Two new bike racks on Church St. near Market.

On weekend nights, and even during the week, bicycles are a common sight on the Muni island because of the lack of adequate bicycle parking in the area. The area is home to many thriving restaurants and bars.

A new bike rack on Church in front of Chilango, which requested it. 

Photo: Bike and Roll San Francisco

As for the potential one-dollar tax to be imposed at the point of bike rental, that discussion "is still in the infant stage," according to Sausalito City Manager Adam Politzer. There has only been one meeting and "this is a negotiated activity. The council is not talking about imposing a fee."

To put the potential tax on rental bikes in perspective, the typical parking space might generate about $3,500 a year in fees and fines; the tax on rented bikes would generate that amount in two days. The charge would come at the point of rental, not at the parking site.

The proposed tax has pleased city merchants, but locals frustrated by bicycle traffic complain that rental bikes clog sidewalks and add to commute times for ferry riders camped out for hour-long waits as the bikes are off-loaded from the boats.

Last year the rental companies, ferry operators and city staff, along with the Marin County Bicycle Coalition (MCBC), worked to add ferries at non-commute times and racks for 420 bikes donated by the rental companies. But that didn’t appease critics. The council is likely to be split, 3-2, in favor of the added parking, but it’s unclear what will become of the one-dollar fee negotiation.

"Rental bike traffic has increased every year," said David Hoffman, MCBC spokesman. "We’re trying to accommodate all points of view and come up with a solution the city staff, bike rental companies and residents can live with. The problem is some in the city leadership and some local residents are not satisfied with the progress," he said.

Next month’s council discussion may also deal with recently added signs directing cyclists to bike parking, warning them not to park on sidewalks, and directing them to ride single file through town.

"The reality is cyclists will not be going away. This is a paradigm shift and it will be real and a significant portion of the city traffic. The city has to think about how to accommodate the new shift," Hoffman said.

Photo: AgentAkit

Last summer, the bike rental companies donated enough racks to hold 420 bikes and also paid for a cycling coordinator for the city. But that wasn't enough to appease the critics, who helped elect City Councilwoman Carolyn Ford as their voice on the council. Ford, who made "bicycle management" part of her platform, didn't return a call seeking comment.

So far, the council is only pondering a plan to convert four auto parking spaces near the ferry into free bike parking. But the thought of giving up four revenue-generating parking spaces for the rental bikes has prompted talk of an excise fee of $1 or more on each rental bike. To put that in scale, a typical parking space might generate about $3,500 a year in fees and fines; a $1 tax on rental bikes could produce that much in less than two days.



Even if there is a proposal at the meeting, there is no certainly it would succeed. Councilman Mike Kelly told Streetsblog "someone brought up the idea" in the past, but it was dropped. He said he would oppose it if it came up now because of the city's success in resolving conflicts over the past two years.

"I would view that [a tax] as a failure proposal - that we've failed to find a solution to a problem. I don't think we're there yet," he said. Instead, he said he'd like the city to work with the companies "so that they're happy and we're happy." Kelly said Sausalito "welcomes" the cyclists and "just has to ensure they don't interfere with everything else going on" in town.

In the past, there has also been discussion of impounding bikes parked on sidewalks, but cooler heads prevailed. The city has worked closely with cycling advocates to add a new bike lane along Bridgeway and is still looking for an alternate route that could cut down on accidents. In return, MCBC has worked with the city to get high-speed recreational riders to slow down, observe traffic laws and to ride single file through the busiest parts of town.



While there is no formal proposal for a rental bike tax on the council's agenda, MCBC Planning Director David Hoffman expects a discussion about the tax to surface at Tuesday night's city council meeting. 

"I applaud the City of Sausalito's efforts to keep bike parking and bike traffic organized. Last year was a positive experience, and I'm also hoping this year is a positive experience," said Hoffman. "I'm really hoping some of the anti-bike sentiments don't get a foothold."

Kelly said if the idea does come up, he will ask that the matter be put on the agenda for discussion at a future meeting.

UPDATED: 3:00 p.m.

Photos: Matthew Roth

According to the Department of Parking and Traffic Signs and Markings division, as a temporary measure, the agency has scratched out the Bus Stop markings that were on the asphalt and has painted the curb gray at at select bus stops, giving drivers extra parking. The changes effect 62 bus zones, each of which fit approximately two cars. At numerous other old bus stops, the bus zone markings remain in place and the curb is still red.

According to the MTA's City Traffic Engineer Jack Fleck, the agency has not decided what it will do with the spaces, outside of the temporary gray curbs.

"My understanding is that we are keeping our options open," Fleck said. "Right now, people can park there."

Marc Caswell, Program Manager at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, would like to see the city experiment with the newly liberated spaces before the public becomes accustomed to them as car parking. Caswell and the SFBC have proposed to the MTA that it consider adding on-street bicycle parking, commonly referred to as bike corrals.

In reviewing all the stops, the SFBC has identified six priority locations, five of which are on Valencia Street, one of the city's most popular bicycle routes. Caswell explained that the five Valencia Street locations are in front of businesses that are common destinations for customers on bicycle, including the bar Zeitgeist, which routinely fills its ample internal bicycle parking space and sees overflow on poles and meters for blocks in every direction.

Anticipating the reaction to the proposal in light of the long-standing bicycle injunction, Caswell noted that adding bicycle corrals to bus zones would not violate the spirit of injunctive relief, which mandates only that there be no removal of publicly-subsidized private auto storage.

Though the MTA has no definitive timeline for such projects nor any public determination of what will happen with the spaces, Fleck said bike corrals were on the table. "I believe we could establish one or two bike corrals as an 'innovative project' and be in compliance with the current bike injunction," Fleck said. The agency is also considering extending the red curb by an extra ten feet so pedestrians have more of a buffer at crosswalks and drivers have better sight-lines to see pedestrians.

Bus zone on Valencia Street in front of Buggaloos

• 2

Clement Street between 15th Avenue and 32nd Avenue

• 21

• 26

San Jose between Baden and Ocean
Valencia between Duncan and Market
McCoppin @ Gough
Mission @ Mary

• 10

Sansome at Lombard
North Point at Kearny/ Embarcadero

• 12

Broadway between the Embarcadero and Battery
The Embarcadero between Broadway and Mission
Steuart @ Mission (SW corner - terminal)
Harrison between the Embarcadero and 1st St

Bus zone on Valencia Street in front of Dosa and Valencia Whole Foods

Cycling chic in Copenhagen, and this is a cold day in December!

I caught Mikael Colville-Andersen's inspiring talk on urban cycling from the Copenhagen context at San Francisco's SPUR on the last Friday of October. I suggested we could do an interview when I came to Copenhagen in December and he graciously agreed, stepping outside into the drizzling snow at a December 10 awards ceremony he was hosting. (The title of this post is a quote from him when he was on stage at the ceremony, and is a new tag line on his blog too.) They were handing out prizes for the best new designs for the next generation of Copenhagen's bikeshare program. He is well known for his blogging at Copenhagenize and Copenhagen Cycling Chic. The photos throughout were taken by me in Copenhagen during the last couple of weeks there.

Chris Carlsson: What was your experience in San Francisco? Did you have a good time there?

Mikael Colville-Andersen: I had a brilliant time. I just blogged a film with three of my friends, about Critical Mass.

C: Did you get in to the Halloween Critical Mass?

M: Oh yeah, all the way!

C: I saw you wrote some vaguely critical comments about Critical Mass in general.

M: I have done… it’s just that marketing thing. You’re not selling it if you’re pissing people off. Riding around… I didn’t see any bad behavior. There were so many people at that Critical Mass that it was more tame?

Bike parking takes up incredible amounts of space throughout Copenhagen. This is adjacent to the back of the main train station. Note the two cyclists passing on the separate bikeway. Such sidepaths are ubiquitous in Copenhagen.

This great bike counter is on the Norrebro Bridge, and is the most heavily bicycled street in the world, according to Colville-Andersen. The day before I passed it around 9 pm and there had been 12,126 cyclists that day, and as the bottom number shows, over 2.1 million since June 2009!

On her way in to demonstrate on December 12, this mom and her kids were briefly impeded by the motorcycle cops.

Another busy bicycling intersection, the bridge to Christianshavn. More cycling chic too!

C: In terms of the politics of bicycling, I love your presentation, it’s just great... this notion of subcultures and bicycles: you’re kind of on a rampage about that, it seems, to try to mainstream bicycling. What’s the turning point? Because Copenhagen didn’t have a bike culture all along right? There’s a point where, it happened maybe when you were quite young, suddenly a municipal administration decided to put in the infrastructure?

M: It was there before. You see archive footage, archive photos. We’ve always had masses of people, far more in the 1940s and 50s. And then it started dying off, we started killing it off by expanding roads and taking away separated infrastructure, which we used to have back 100 years ago. So we had to reinvent it. That’s when I was young (I’m 41) in the 1970s with the oil crisis. We had a popular uprising, people in the City Hall square, 20,000 cyclists. These were just regular people on bikes, saying we want better security on the streets, we want separate infrastructure again. And that’s where it all sort of started again. We were killing it off and we  resuscitated it. That’s the angle here.

In the city museum there's a nice small exhibit of cycling past and present, with photo sets like this one, showing 1940s and the present.

A bike bloc organized a DIY shop at the Candy Factory in northern Copenhagen, readying themselves for the big Dec. 16 effort to breach the COP15 perimeter.

The yard at the Candy Factory.

Winter Cycling Chic.

M: You’ll buy it, anyone would buy it. Even if you’ll never look like the most elegant fashionista here in Copenhagen on a bike, it’s still an inspiration. I can just wear my clothes. Open my closet, it’s filled with cycling clothes. It’s definitely happening in North America, in the big cities: New York, Washington, I’ve got loads of photos of regular people. Helmetless as well. The sight of helmetless cyclists is a good sign too no?  Forget about the helmet issue, it’s a sign that you’re doing something right. People are feeling safe, safe enough to make their own decision. You see that and you’re on your way. There’s not that many helmets in San Francisco is there?...

C: No, I’m a big anti-helmet guy in San Francisco. People ride up to me and tell me to get a helmet, or yell out of their car “get a helmet!” This whole mentality is born of this basic idea that you as an individual have to be a good consumer and buy a product to solve the social problem of bad engineering. That’s fucked up! Who thought of that? Because no Americans think critically about the commodification of life. I will never wear a helmet so I can always have this argument.

M: I’m also very stubborn about this.

C: You don’t really need one here. There’s such a lot of courtesy. I haven’t seen any bike-on-bike crashes here. In SF now we have the problem of us long-term wreckless riders whizzing through intersections and having near misses with each other! I’ve had about 5 really close near-misses in the recent past.

M: I’ve been staring at this thing we call bike culture for the past 3 years every single day and I’ve seen 3 or 4 accidents total. There was a bike messenger on the busiest bicycling street in the western world. I didn’t’ see it, I had my back turned. He went over the hood, landed on his shoulder and up again, really aggressive, and the lady was on her way out of the car to check if he was ok, but WHOA she stayed in her car because here he was coming at her with all this aggression and adrenaline. Obviously, he’d just been hit by a car! What happens in the meantime is that 3 or 4 cyclists had rolled up to the stoplight, and one of the girls says to the messenger “you ran the red light!” and another girl said “I saw it too!” and they were defending the motorist. The messenger just shrunk, and the lady was so relieved in the car, and they pulled off and exchanged details. She’s at fault since she’s in a car, but there’s no way you’d have that in your country, where cyclists would be defending the motorist… In three years I saw a few people falling off their bikes on to their bums… you never see bike-to-bike crashes, we don’t go fast enough for that shit.

C: How is it that they sent you as a diplomat? Did you pitch them to hire you?

M: No, they pitched me because of my blogs. Because of the global interest in our bicycle culture, and the City of Copenhagen is a cycling capital. This is all spawned because of my blogs. The whole global fashion bicycle movement is because I took a picture one day and put it on the fucking internet! It’s wild. And Copenhagenize advocacy and a lot of opinions on it and well they came to me.

A Christiania bike crosses in the blue cycling lane.

C: I was so happy when I found your voice of reason here in Denmark. The bike culture here benefits from these things that are reasonable within the context of living in a culture that’s fundamentally Social Democratic. There’s this notion of public goods and public space, and taking care of each other, and kind of being knit together in a slightly tighter way. You’ve seen how we are in the U.S.: We’re completely atomized from each other. Everything is dog-eat-dog, I’m in it for myself, get out of my way, it’s my road, I’m not paying taxes for anything. I think the bike culture has embedded in it the possibility of a more convivial, sharing culture at the heart of it. But you can’t even make that argument overtly in the U.S. without running into weird political problems.

And now, thanks to Elizabeth Press and our sister site Streetfilms.org, a lovely video featuring Mikael Colville-Andersen!

SFBC's Leah Shahum, the MTA's Oliver Gajda and SFBC Board Member Dan Nguyen-Tan in the freshly painted green bike box on Scott Street at Oak. Photo by Bryan Goebel.

"The good news is we didn't wait until today to get started. The injunction was [partially] lifted last week and already the folks you see behind us have been hard at work," said Newsom. "They've been out there putting in some new bike lanes and we're going to be putting in bike racks every single day."

Newsom said that San Francisco is going to try a series of innovate treatments, such as the green bike box, taking cues from European cities that have become world-class bicycling cities. And like Valencia Street, he said, the MTA will begin changing the signal timing on some streets to better accommodate bicyclists.

"We're going to be trying some things that candidly we wished we were doing for the last three years that are things that are being done around the world, particularly in Copenhagen and Amsterdam, that are being proffered and exampled in places like Portland and other municipalities," Newsom said, adding that the plan is to add six new miles of bike lanes in six months and increase the city's existing 23 miles of sharrows by 326 percent.

MTA Chief Nat Ford and Mayor Gavin Newsom paint the bike box green. Photo by Matthew Roth.

"We're going to make it exciting, we're going to make it fun and we're going to make it funky," said Maxwell.

Mirkarimi, whose District 5 encompasses the new green bike box, thanked city officials and the SF Bike Coalition "for making this day possible."

"We are all unified in the mission statement of making San Francisco bike friendly," said Mirkarimi, who announced a plan to install on-street bicycle parking in front of Mojo Bike Cafe on Divisadero "that will help commemorate this end to the injunction and to help signify what a major artery like Divisadero means."

Dufty, whose District 8 includes a portion of The Wiggle, said "we still have a long way to go" but that it was exciting to see so many things going up this week as a result of the partial injunction lifting.

The event coincided with new figures released by the SF Bike Coalition from a David Binder poll showing that more than half of San Franciscans "say that would ride if streets had bike lanes and were more inviting for bicycling."

The survey of 400 San Francisco voters asked six questions, including: What would make it more likely for you to ride a bike in San Francisco? The results:

• Feeling less threatened by cars while biking: 57 percent
• More bike lanes along my route: 51 percent
• Smoother surface on the roads and few potholes: 50 percent
• More secure bike parking at my destinations: 49 percent
• Knowing how to avoid hills: 45 percent

Seventy seven percent said they think the number of bicyclists helps ease traffic congestion in the city.

Today's event came on the same day MTA crews installed the city's first physically separated bike lane and were out striping new bike lanes on Beale and Kansas Streets, painting sharrows on 5th Street and racing to complete the remaining projects approved by a judge last week. Tuesday they installed the city's first bike lane in three years -- a left-turn bike lane on Scott Street between Fell and Oak.

The SFMTA is already surveying locations where bike racks have been requested and plans to add 750 racks as soon as the injunction is lifted. Photo: Dave Snyder.

Superior Court Judge Peter Busch could make a ruling on the state of the injunction as early as this Friday, though it is likely he will wait until after the November 2nd hearing. The City Attorney's office filed its response [PDF] yesterday to an opposition brief [PDF] from Rob Anderson's attorney, Mary Miles, which argues that claims the city must prove the adequacy of an exhaustive EIR before dissolving the injunction have no merit.

Most advocates and City Hall insiders who have followed the case closely don't expect a ruling before mid-November, though they are hopeful the judge's recent actions are a positive sign: the litigants had asked for a continuance to a later date, but they were denied.

"We believe the city completed a comprehensive and unprecedented EIR, but there is no certainty what the court will do," said MTA spokesperson Judson True. "Our charge is to be ready when the injunction is lifted and we are. Of the 45 projects we hope to complete, we anticipate more than 20 in the first year after the injunction is lifted."

The cost of the 56 priority projects in the Bike Plan was projected in June of this year to be about $14 million, a trivial sum compared to the agency's annual capital budget of approximately $700 million, but far more than the $1 to $2 million the agency spent on bicycle improvements before the injunction. Subsequent design changes have shaved several million dollars off that total, and only 45 of the 60 projects in the bike plan were approved by the MTA Board of Directors in June. The cost to build all 45 projects, plus bike racks and parking corrals and signage, is estimated at $10 million over two years. 

According to Timothy Papandreou, the MTA's Deputy Director of Transportation Planning, the agency is prepared to spend what is necessary to build the network, even if they have to use funds not specifically dedicated to the bike network. "We don't feel we don't have enough money to fund the majority of the program," he said. In addition to grant sources dedicated to bicycle improvements, the city could spend its flexible surface transportation money on bicycle improvements, but to date, it has not done so.

"I can't guarantee that we're going to get the funds we apply for next year, but we will find the money to build everything that's approved within the next two years," Papandreou said.

For fear of upsetting the court further and adding delay to the injunction, MTA staff repeatedly told Streetsblog any preparation they were planning was contingent on the judge's decision. The injunction was punitive, after all, and any action by the MTA that is perceived as disrespectful of the strict interpretation of environmental law -- the grounds for his earlier decision to impose the injunction -- might be reason to continue it for a longer period of time.

True said he was cautious about sharing any specifics of the more than 20 routes the agency intends to paint in year one, but he said some of the obvious ones would get priority, though they could be subject to change. From his shortlist:

• Townsend Street, project 2.16
  
• Alemany Boulevard, project 5.2
  
• Illinois Street, project 4.3
  
• Clipper Street, project 6.2
  

True also said the agency would paint all 75 miles of sharrows in the first year and planned to increase the total supply of bicycle parking by nearly 50 percent, adding 750 new racks to the 1550 total citywide. Hundreds of those racks are sitting in a warehouse ready for installation and agency staff have already been surveying locations where bike racks have been requested by the public.

According to Bridget Smith, Director of the Livable Streets Program at the MTA, the agency is even studying low-cost ways to build on-street parking corrals, which accommodate 10-15 bicycles in the same parking space holding only one car. She said up to a dozen could be constructed soon after the injunction is lifted.

In the end, True said it would be an understatement to say that bicycle advocates are "chomping at the bit," but he cautioned patience in the lead-up to the court's decision

"We can mobilize paint crews quickly and we have projects identified that are ready to go. We've identified wet-weather projects, for example," said True. "I think the cumulative effect of the work that we plan to do, even in the first few months, will be noticeable to everyone. It's a big deal."

Dave Snyder contributed reporting.

In some cities people are so desperate for bike lanes they'll mark their own. Elizabeth Press of Streetfilms in New York City, on the other hand, had this to say about the work the NYC Department of Transportation has been doing in her city: "It feels like every time I get on my bike there is a new bike lane -- sometimes on the left, sometimes buffered, and sometimes completely separated from automobile traffic."

For those of us who live in cities that haven't caught the bicycle infrastructure fever or have been prevented from such by a bicycle injunction, perhaps the best we can do is tag along with her as she rides the streets with NYC DOT bicycle infrastructure staff as they show off the many classes of bike lanes and inventive facilities they have added in the past few years.

Behold and be bicycle-lane green with envy!

PARK(ing) Day 2008. Flickr photo: plaid iguana

A majority of spots in the city will be set up along the Valencia Street corridor and Civic Center. The SFBC plans a demonstration of on-street bicycle parking in front of Four Barrel Coffee and Bi-Rite Market while in North Beach the Great Streets Project will showcase "the future of what an official 'flexible parking space' will look like" in front of Caffe Roma and Caffe Greco.

Although 34 San Francisco locations are highlighted on the official PARK(ing) map, there are probably a lot of other locations that haven't been reported. Unlike cities such as New York and Santa Monica, San Francisco does not require a permit, which allows it to be "a little looser," said Matthew Passmore of Rebar. "The overall climate is pretty permissive."

So what are your plans tomorrow? Let us know! And please add your photos to our Flickr feed.

Flickr photo: Cheryl and Rich

From the press release:

"Due to a dramatic increase in the use of bicycles on the Capitol Corridor trains, all 14 of the original 1995-era cab cars have been retrofitted to accommodate an additional four bicycles on the lower level," CCJPA Chair Jim Holmes said. "These new bike racks are in addition to the three bicycle racks that already exist on the cab cars. When we combine the retrofit cabs with the five newer, 2002-era cab cars, which utilize wall-mounted storage racks to accommodate 13 bicycles, it provides about 130 more racks each weekday to help accommodate the hundreds of cyclists who bring their bikes on board."

Once funding is secured and a retrofit is complete, Holmes said at least one cab car on each train should be able to accommodate up to 13 bicycles "plus an additional three on all coach cars." All in all, bicycle capacity will increase by 34 percent.

Capitol Corridor spokesperson Luna Salaver said she hasn't heard of bicyclists getting bumped because of overcapacity, which happens all the time on Caltrain, but says agents usually work with them to find space.

"We have to think of our passengers who are mobility-impaired. There has to be room in the first level of the cab car for someone to negotiate in a wheelchair or some other mobile device," she said. "But we try to accommodate [bicyclists] even if it means the [bicycle] has to go in areas typically used for luggage."

Capitol Corridor, on its website, says it is "committed to helping achieve greater environmental sustainability for a healthier planet. We believe in getting more cars off the highways and more people onto the train." The latest passenger survey (PDF), conducted in June, found that 64 percent of riders get to stations by car, but 34 percent would consider riding a bicycle. The majority of riders live in Sacramento, Alameda, Placer, Yolo and Contra Costa counties.