SFMTA Crews Begin Striping Alemany Boulevard Buffered Bike Lanes

Alemany Boulevard will soon be dramatically safer for cycling as SFMTA crews began striping the city's newest stretch of buffered bike lanes today.

Despite acting as a vital connection between the Glen Park and Bayview neighborhoods, this stretch of Alemany between Rousseau Street and Bayshore Boulevard [pdf] has long been uninviting for people who bike without any protection from drivers traveling at dangerously high speeds.

"Alemany Boulevard is such an important connector in the city, and with these new bikeways we will see even more people riding comfortably to work or school or the farmers market or simply for fun," said San Francisco Bicycle Coalition Executive Director Leah Shahum.

The section has long reinforced the 280 freeway as a gouge through the city's southeastern neighborhoods with a vast, parallel six-lane roadway. The new bike lanes, which will be separated from motor vehicles by safe-hit posts and a striped buffer as wide as nine feet, will provide residents a more accessible route to destinations like the thriving Alemany Farmer's Market and bike routes toward downtown San Francisco.

"The bike lanes have eight-foot lanes here. This is good, cause these cars are flyin' down here," said the project foreman as crews striped the first stretch from Rousseau Street to Justin Drive.

The bike lanes will connect with existing lanes on Alemany to the west and link to the Glen Park BART station. However, to the east of Putnam Street as Alemany passes underneath the 101 freeway, the bike lanes will disappear, and turn into sharrows.

Crew members said they expect to finish the project this week. See more photos after the break.