SFMTA’s Draft List for the Next Generation of Bikeways

The SFMTA has released a draft list of the 68 street segments it's looking to include in the next wave of improvements to the city's bicycle network [PDF]. The SF Bicycle Coalition mapped out the list and is asking its members to weigh in on a survey about which streets should take top priority.

The SFMTA's list ranks 150 miles of street segments with the highest demand, according to bike counts and focus groups. Tim Papandreou, the agency's director of strategic planning and policy, said planners are also targeting hot spots that see frequent bicycle crashes.

Under the "Strategic Plan Scenario" of the SFMTA's Bicycle Strategy -- the middle ground of the three scenarios -- the agency plans to "enhance" 50 miles of the existing bicycle network and add 12 new miles by 2018. The 150 miles in the current list will be narrowed down to those final 62 miles.

Here are the SFMTA's top ten "highest demand" street segments in the existing bike network. The asterisks denote streets where projects are already being planned or constructed:

• 1. Folsom Street (11th to 4th)*
• 2. 7th Street (Market to Townsend)*
• 3. Masonic Avenue (Fell St to Geary Blvd)*
• 4. Fremont Street (Folsom St to Harrison St)*
• 5. Howard Street (11th St to Embarcadero)*
• 6. Columbus Avenue*
• 7. 2nd Street (King St to Market St)*
• 8. Market Street (Octavia to Embarcadero)*
• 9. 5th Street (Market to Townsend)*
• 10. Greenwich Street (Lyon St to Octavia St)

And here are the seven top segments that aren't already in the bike network:

• 1. Shotwell Street (15th to 26th)
• 2. Washington (Drumm to Columbus)
• 3. Eddy Street (Market to Gough)
• 4. Turk Street (Market to Gough)
• 5. Fell Street (Stanyan to Baker)
• 6. Brannan Street
• 7. 13th Street (11th to Mission)

At an SFMTA Board of Directors meeting last week, Papandreou noted that the agency already has solid evidence of the increases in bicycling induced by improvements along the "Bay to Beach" route. There are now about 3,000 bike trips on the Wiggle every day in both directions, he said, following upgrades along the route from lower Market Street, to Fell and Oak Streets, to John F. Kennedy Drive in Golden Gate Park.

"Imagine all those people switching back to Muni. We couldn't do it," said Papandreou. "If we're serious about affordable transportation, this is how we do it."

Still, as the SFBC wrote in a blog post yesterday, "This list is just a lot of digital ink until the SFMTA gets serious about funding biking in its April budget vote." As we reported last week, the agency is banking on three ballot measures this November to partially fund its Bicycle Strategy, and no other significant boosts are proposed yet in the SFMTA's next two-year budget.

Check out the SFMTA's full list of bikeway candidates in this PDF, and be sure to fill out the SFBC survey here.