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For a couple of years now, advocates Maureen Persico and Matt Brezina have been organizing "People Protected Bike Lane" protests on some of San Francisco's more dangerous streets. The publicity that these protests have garnered, coupled with steady pressure maintained by the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, have led to tangible results on streets such as Turk and Upper Market.
In 2018 and going into 2019, they can celebrate some more victories: yesterday's official opening of the Howard protected bike lane (seen in the lead image) and the just-opened first bits of a protected bike lane on the upper part of Valencia, with more on the way.
Of course, these projects aren't finished: Howard is still a mess from Sixth to the Embarcadero. And Valencia is only on track to get a protected lane from Market to 15th. Brezina told Streetsblog he is well aware of how much work remains to be done, despite the happy smiles and the ribbon-cutting ceremonies: "I nearly got doored on Howard last night between Fourth and Fifth, where the Howard protected lane ... does not exist," he said in an email.
It goes without saying that the pressure has to stay on to close these gaps and get Embarcadero, site of a fatal crash last summer, fixed. Still, Brezina and Persico are thinking ahead and, as they start strategizing for 2019, they want to hear from you about where they should focus next.
Take their survey. And read what they have to say about 2018:
@PeopleProtected Team
2018 was an incredibly successful year for our bourgeoning movement. Because you stood on the line, together we pressured politicians and city agencies to act urgently on near-term protected lanes. The results can be felt as you bike new protected lanes on Upper Market, Townsend, Howard and Valencia. These protected lanes were all constructed in record time in part because politicians pay attention to hundreds of people putting their bodies on the line for safety.
We are nowhere near the finish line. Even the streets listed above have large stretches of dangerous, unprotected lanes. More people will get hurt and our climate crisis will grow until we transform these streets.
Please take three minutes to answer a few questions in this survey about where you feel we need protected lanes. Your answers will help drive where we perform our next actions
Click here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/PVBMVBC
As a case study, we've also attempted to explain the strategy, tactics and timeline required to get protected lanes installed on Valencia Street. Please read and share this post.
Finally, we need to recruit more supporters, because even on Valencia, we are probably going to have to go stand on that street again this year.
Please encourage friends/coworkers to sign up here: http://peopleprotected.com/sign-up/
Thank you! So proud to stand on the line with you.
matt & maureen
Discuss your answers to the survey in the comments section below.
And if you're still in a mood to answer questions after taking the People Protected bike lane survey, it's not too late to send some feedback Streetsblog's way, too, by taking our own reader survey.
