Eyes on the Street: Valencia Curbside Protected Bike Lanes Nearing Completion

"We are looking to early May for substantial completion," wrote SFMTA's , Michael Roccaforte, in an email to Streetsblog, about the construction of Dutch-style, curbside-protected bike lanes from 15th to 23rd Street on Valencia. Indeed, SFMTA seems to be on schedule for perhaps the most-studied 0.9 miles of bike lane in the history of bike lanes.

More from SFMTA:

This week, crews are scheduled to work on: striping, meter installation and painting curbs at the locations listed below.

This week:
Monday through Friday, April 28 – May 2

• Valencia between 19^th and 18^th streets Striping, meter installation, painting curbs
• Valencia between 18^th and 17^th streets Striping, meter installation, painting curbs
• Valencia between 17^th and 16^th streets Striping, sewer repair
• Valencia between 16^th and 15^th streets Striping

Planned for next week, subject to change:
Monday through Friday, May 5 – 9

Valencia between 16^th and 15^th streets Striping, meter installation, painting curbs]

Valencia between 17^th and 16^th streets Striping, meter installation, painting curb

Streetsblog took a tour of the work and SFMTA's schedule seems pretty realistic. The sections from 19th and 23rd Streets are indeed mostly finished.

North of 19th it is freshly paved but most of it currently has no bike lane at all. Obviously, that section does not make for comfortable riding, and Streetsblog managed to get tailgated and close-passed and honked at by a van driver who wanted to be first to the next red light.

On the completed portions though, it was nice to see protected intersections finally, eliminating mixing zones. It remains to be seen if SFMTA will bolster them sufficiently to make sure drivers don't attempt to round the turns too quickly. At least some of the intersections also have signal separation. Although, from Streetsblog's experience with this kind of situation in Alameda, too many drivers either don't know or don't care that they're not supposed to turn right on a red arrow.

It was also very nice not to have to contend with the worst aspect of the center-running lane that preceded this installation—the transitions between side-running and center-running at 15th and 23rd.

One sharp critique: it's kind of wild how cities will leave situations during construction for cyclists that they wouldn't dream of doing for drivers. Take, for example, the ice-cream themed bike racks at Valencia and Liberty, now in the center of the bike lane:

Imagine a DOT leaving something like that in a motor-vehicle lane?

And, of course, there were still plenty of examples as to why plastic posts probably won't be sufficient. Only concrete really seems to stop drivers from going wherever:

Still, at long last, it really is nice to see Valencia finally getting the improvements originally planned back in 2020. “The curbside bikeways installed on Valencia between 19th and 23rd Streets is the type of bike infrastructure that SFMTA should be installing on every street," said Streets Forward's Luke Bornheimer.

Now on to the remaining missing section from 23rd to Cesar Chavez. More pictures below: