When I started working as editor of Streetsblog San Francisco, nearly seven years ago, protected bike lanes barely existed; there were some short disjointed segments on Polk and along a truck route on Cargo Way in the Bayview. Certainly, it was impossible to cross the city on a bike without being continually exposed to potential collisions with often inattentive drivers of two- to six-ton vehicles.
Today I biked from the Embarcadero to the JFK Promenade, just to remind myself how much has changed.
A scooterist on the protected bike lane on the Embarcadero
There are now protected bike lanes connecting directly from the ferry terminal to Howard and Folsom. Both of those streets now have parking-protected bike lanes on nearly their entire lengths through SoMa. From there one can jog over to (theoretically) car-free Market Street and quickly connect to the protected bike lanes on Upper Market leading into the Wiggle.
There's still too much of this kind of BS "protection" on Howard. To state the obvious, that is not protection.
But the lesson of all the tangible and real progress is this: bureaucrats and politicians will almost always find reasons why they can't make streets safe. It's always a lie.
It takes leadership, like Matt Haney, Jane Kim before him, and Scott Wiener, to get past the excuses. It takes ferocious, unending, exhausting advocacy--including direct action such as standing in the street. It means never accepting compromises on safety.