Tonight is the SFMTA and Planning Department's final open house on the Polk Street redesign, the last chance to weigh in on the agency's preferred design before it goes to the SFMTA Board of Directors for approval. As you can see from the above flyer, the parking-obsessed "Save Polk Street" group is still fighting against safety measures in order to hang on to the small amount of car storage the SFMTA proposes to remove.
Meanwhile, an anonymous satirist posted a parody flyer countering some of the opposition nonsense. Perplexingly, the Save Polk Street flyer accuses the SFMTA of not approving pedestrian bulb-outs in the plan. As the parody flyer points out, it was none other than Save Polk Street that protested the bulb-outs and any measures that remove parking. ("Why did the bullies say 'no' to the bulbouts MTA supported for their God-given right to parking? ... WHY? WHY? WHY?")
The proposed design calls for a southbound, green-painted bike lane between parked cars and moving cars on the nine-block segment of Polk between California and Union Streets. The northbound direction will only have a bike lane during the morning commute hours -- the rest of the day, riders will still be forced to mix with motor vehicles. While the bike lane is in effect, curbside parking won't be allowed (hence the top of Save Polk Street's flyer reading, "$500 TOW AWAY!"). At other times, the only provision for cycling will be green-backed sharrows in the traffic lane.
The 11-block southbound segment between McAllister and California Streets will include a raised, protected bike lane with bike traffic signals. The northbound side of that segment will include a green, buffered bike lane that, depending on the block, will run either curbside (without parking) or next to the parking lane.
A city survey found that the top priority for people who live, work, and shop on Polk was safer conditions for walking and bicycling -- easily eclipsing the importance people placed on car storage on a street where 85 percent of people arrive without a car. In November, the SFMTA Board required that planners present them with a pilot project option for a full-length bike lane.
The SFMTA planners will be on hand to discuss the proposals at the open house, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m., at the auditorium of Tenderloin Elementary School at 627 Turk Street, between Polk and Van Ness Avenue.
