A car driver plowed through a bike corral on Saturday in front of Zeitgeist, a bar on the corner of Duboce Avenue and Valencia Street. The driver reportedly stopped and cooperated with police after crashing through 10 of the 11 curbside bike racks, breaking a man's leg, and wrecking at least a dozen parked bikes, according to the Uptown Almanac, which posted photos of the carnage.
According to reports, the driver wasn't intoxicated, and the cause of the crash is unclear. However, Duboce acts as a speedway whisking drivers through the neighborhood off the nearby Central Freeway. According to Uptown Almanac commenter P.D. Bird: "The driver of the car said that she lost control and was even using the emergency brake to try to stop. Also, not sure if she wanted to pull over, or her car could not go any further from the damage...This does nothing but prove that we need ALOT [sic] less cars and much more traffic slowing (calming)."
SFPD couldn't say whether the driver will be cited. The victim's injuries were reportedly non-life-threatening, and he is expected to recover.
According to police data, there were 11 crashes at the intersection in 2011, with 16 people injured. Four of those were driver-bicyclist crashes, and two of them were driver-pedestrian crashes. In one of those cases last July, a driver hit two pedestrians. Another crash was between a driver and motorcyclist, and the rest involved only automobile drivers and passengers.
This isn't the first time Zeitgeist has had a bike corral ruined by a driver. Their previous, smaller corral on the Valencia side of the corner was also wrecked last year. An advantage of the new corral's placement is that it daylights the corner, making it easier for drivers to see pedestrians by removing car parking. Removing the old corral also provided a Zeitgeist a loading zone on Valencia so that trucks don't have to block the bike lane, as they often did before.
No word yet on when the bike corral will be replaced. The SF Bicycle Coalition is encouraging anyone whose bike was wrecked at the scene to file a report with the Mission Police Station and make an insurance claim.
