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The photos, provided by advocates Dale Munroe and Brad Williford, show a crew working two blocks from where Rothstein was killed. During the work, as Munroe pointed out in his tweet, they provided no safety provisions for cyclists. "Their lane closure also lacked any bike lane signage, likely in violation of their Special Traffic Permit," he tweeted.
Moreover, when they were done, they left the street with a bike lane that was significantly narrowed, as seen in Williford's tweet from last night:
Streetsblog visited the area late this morning and confirmed that the lane has been narrowed. However, the crew added plastic posts to help delineate the bike/gutter space.
The only cyclist (plus one skateboarder) Streetsblog saw go through here didn't use the bike lane, perhaps because the signs and stripes were so confusing. Or perhaps they decided it wasn't safe to ride in such a narrow gutter-pan lane in the first place.
It's still unclear why, even as a temporary measure, the city would want to narrow a bike lane on a street configuration that has already proved itself so lethal. Rose said he would be back with more details and Streetsblog will update accordingly.
"There were blocks that felt very safe and very secure," he said. "But then you're immediately – voom! – disgorged into three lanes of moving traffic with no protection."
What happened in West Portal was entirely predictable and preventable. The city must now close Ulloa to through traffic and make sure it can never happen again