Cyclists using Valencia's center-running bike lane Tuesday were greeted with construction barricades. The center-running bikeway, installed in 2023, will soon be no more.
From an SFMTA release:
Once the center-running bicycle lane has been removed, we will repave the center of the street. Next, crews will install a side-running lane. It was designed with substantial input from people who live, work, visit, walk, bike, roll and drive on Valencia Street.
This project [construction] is expected to last two to three months, depending on weather conditions. We are committed to working as quickly and safely as possible.
At 15th and 23rd Streets, the transitions to the center-running lane were ground down and removed. For now, cyclists are expected to join the flow of car traffic, although some opted to wiggle in and out of the center-running lane for now.
"We’re incredibly disappointed in the agency’s decision to not provide an alternative bike route on Valencia Street during construction—stakeholders who saw the calamity in 2023 clearly voiced that this needed to be a top priority for construction this time around," wrote the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition's Claire Amable in a post on the organization's website. "We also have major safety concerns about the decision to close the entirety of the center-running bike lane on February 18, and forcing people on bikes to share the lane with drivers, which is a repeat of a major mistake made in 2023."
Once finished, the only part of Valencia that will be without parking-protected bike lanes are the various sections where it drops out between Market and 15th and the stretch from 23rd to Cesar Chavez.
"We’re calling for the curbside bikeways to be extended south on Valencia to Cesar Chavez Street and widened to accommodate the inevitable increase of people biking on Valencia Street," wrote Streets Forward advocate Luke Bornheimer in a statement. "The City must fast-track both of these critical improvements, and we’re looking to Mayor Lurie, the Board of Supervisors, and the SFMTA Board of Directors to ensure these improvements are made as soon as possible, ideally before the end of 2025."
